HOWEVARRRR! Due to excessive amounts of people completely ignoring my messages asking politely if they could stop, I am changing my tactics. I am now making the Flash Bunnies available for you to have on your sites! Instead of searching through my source code to find them, I’ve uploaded the bunnies to PhotoBucket. Copy the code below and paste it where you want it on your site. If you want the image smaller, just edit the height and width.

<object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,0,0" width="700" height="300" id="bunnies" align="middle"> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="sameDomain" /> <param name="movie" value="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v604/icklebug/icklebug_bunnies.swf" /> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#ffffff" /> <embed src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v604/icklebug/icklebug_bunnies.swf" quality="high" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="700" height="300" name="bunnies" align="middle" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" /> </object>

You can can also find the code for the bunnies here and the link to the page is also in the sidebar.

I hope this makes everyone happy

I’ve not been very well this week and before that. In fact, I’d be hard pushed to remember when I haven’t been ill. It’s why I haven’t updated in so long. I just haven’t had the energy to do anything. I’ve managed to drag myself in to work as usual, but on Friday I had to give in and stay home. I felt horrible for not going in, but I would have been useless. Some of the Agency Keyers cheered me up earlier in the week though – they bought both me and the Manager a box of Thorntons chocolate each to say ‘thank you’ for helping them

I’m going to try and catch up with everything that I’ve fallen behind with online now

Me and Dave have been having a laugh these last few days. We had a money fight before I left for work a few days ago, which was great fun. He’d drawn the money out for bills and shopping and was about to start sorting it out. I was looking for my taxi money when all of a sudden he put on this really cheesy angry face, grabbed a tenner, threw it at me and shouted ‘THERE’S YOUR STINKING MONEY!’. I even tried my hand at acting by throwing a handful of the notes in his face and storming off. It was lots of fun!

He’s also getting on a bit now and his mind is not what it used to be. As I’ve been typing this he’s been playing an FPS on the Xbox (Black Rainbow or something), and to brag about his shooting prowess and ultimate stealth he loudly proclaimed that he “floated like a bee”. I’ve got tears in my eyes from laughing so much at that! Earlier on, he also asked me if I wanted the ‘tortilla’ that was left in the kitchen (it was burrito)…

Dave: “Tortillas? As in the ships?”
Bex: “That’s flotillas

There’s so many more things that he keeps getting mixed up with/mis-hears. It’s so cute.

I’ve had my dreads put back in again. I’ve gone for the bruise look again with black, blue and purple dreads. For some reason though, I can’t seem to transfer the pic I took with my phone. Ah well, it can only be a good thing!

My ReviewMe post got approved and I’ll be getting paid for that at the beginning of next month. Yay!

Lydia’s had a cold for the last couple of days. She’s had sniffles before, but not really a full-blown cold. This time she had a fever, was really pale and she wasn’t interested in anything. Previously we’d been able to distract her somewhat by putting on her favourite DVDs, playing ‘Round and round the garden’ on her tummy, etc. This time however, she’d just sort of look at us as if to say ‘what the hell are you doing?’ and then turn over on the settee.

She seems to be a lot better now, but after being waited on hand and foot, and snuggled up on the settee with a quilt and lots of pillows, she seems to have developed a taste for it. She doesn’t like going to bed at all. She’d much rather snuggle up downstairs with Daddy looking after her. While I was at work last night, Dave tried to put her to bed at her normal time. He said that she was screaming the place down. He left her to it for 15 minutes to let her calm down, but she’d worked herself up into a right state. By the time he went up to her, she had gone past screaming and into retching and made herself sick So last night was full of fun and games and trotting up and down the stairs to check on her/bring her downstairs for a bit. Two year olds

Speak of the devil. Almost 12pm and she’s just woken up!

Oh yeah, that reminds me. I’ve added a new smilie to the bunny smilies collection, so feel free to download the set!

I’ll be back to typing as normal at work next week. I’ve been coaching for the last 2 weeks, which has been cool, but at the same time I’m looking forward to being able to just plonk on my headphones, block everything out and just get on with my work. Hopefully I’ll be able to do a couple of days on the morning shift this week. I find that I’m in more pain at night, so it’d be good if I could get my shift ‘over with’ in the morning instead of getting worse throughout the day while waiting to go to work in the evening.

Anyone got any cool plans for Halloween/Samhain? I wont be throwing a party this year as my food was a little too … er … spooky for people to eat. Me and Dave ended up eating most of it which didn’t really help my ever expanding waistline. Despite no one eating it (or looking directly at it, in fact), I’m still proud of my jelly potty. I bought a potty from the shop, filled it with lemon jelly and before I put it in the fridge to set, I added some chocolate covered toffee balls. It looked a bit too much like a real used potty for people to try I’m still planning on making nibbley stuff for the trick-or-treaters and maybe some stuff for my team at work.

I was going to dress up, but that’s all fallen through. I was going to go to work as a Chav, complete with Burberry cap and tracksuit trousers tucked into my socks, but I’m too tight-fisted to spend money on Chav shit. I’ve got a sort of tracksuit thing for going to the gym, but it’s black, so I’d be a Goth-Chav. It doesn’t really work does it? If I manage to wangle something together I’ll post pictures

I may make some more if I’m in too much pain to sleep again, which is more than likely the way things have been going recently. Strangely, paracetemol isn’t really doing much for my arthritis. Who’d have thought it? I’ve been trying not to be really snappy to people, but as I’m not really quick-witted enough to be snappy, everyone’s been safe. Apart from seeing my grumpy face

We’ve started to try and potty train Lydia and, well, there’s a lot of wee everywhere. She gets very startled when she wees and the one time that she sits on the potty to go (purely coinidental that she was sitting on it, might I add) and hears the noises, she gets scared and is straight off there while still weeing! She’s also learned to say a new word! We were about to go and visit my Mum and we were by the door, so I said “Ready…….steady……” and she said “sted-eh”! It’s just so weird how she’ll just pick up a word the first time she hears it, but really struggles with words we want her to say, and say to her every day, like “please” or “thank you”, heh.

Right, I’m going to curl up in a ball and die now. Bye!

[22:15] drew: ok, you can have my dad
[22:15] drew: but be careful with him
[22:15] Bex: no
[22:15] drew: ok sorry
[22:15] drew: no
[22:15] drew: I understand
[22:16] Bex: well I’m glad that you have finally laid your cockles to rest
[22:16] drew: :’(
[22:16] drew: who told you about my cockless?
[22:16] Bex: the cockles. I speak cocklese
[22:17] drew: oh right
[22:17] Bex: they told me how you fling them
[22:17] drew: oh ok
[22:17] drew: forget that cockless thing then
[22:17] drew: I DO FLING THEM?
[22:17] drew: WHAT OF IT?
[22:17] drew: they don’t complain
[22:17] drew: if they minded it so much, they’d evolve mouths and tell me
[22:17] Bex: it makes them feel uncockley
[22:17] drew: I’m doing them a favour
[22:17] drew: have you seen how the media depicts cockles?
[22:18] drew: I’m trying to show them that they, too, can fly like birds
[22:18] drew: birds always geta good press
[22:18] drew: look at Snoopy
[22:19] Bex: I understand your anger, but we must think of the cockles. they should be in a nice pot in a seafood stall at the seaside
[22:19] drew: hmmmm
[22:19] drew: i suppose that would be warm for them
[22:19] drew: and full of others of their kind
[22:19] drew: you are so kind, rebecca
[22:19] drew: you teach me the error of my ways
[22:19] Bex: they do not pollenate by flinging, anyway
[22:19] Bex: you needle cockle bees for that

Which of course leads us to what exactly Cockle Bees would look like. This is perfectly reasonable. THEREFORE! I have decided to hold a competition with a SUPER ELITE PRIZE for the person who draws the best Cockle Bee with the least amount of effort. We don’t want any fancy-schmanchy Photoshop Cockle Bees, nosiree. We want imagination, not quality. If it takes you over 5 minutes to make, it’s too much effort! Take a look at my effort and Drew’s effort. Think you can beat that artistry? Are you sure? They’re pretty good.

The competition will last for 2 weeks from RIGHT NOW to Monday 7th August. Entries should be sent to beckybug25 at hotmail dot com with the title ‘OMG COCKLE BEES!’ or something equally relevant so that I don’t accidentally delete it.

Here’s the most important bit – Prizes! All participants will get a button congratulating them for painting weird creatures for the good of the internet. The Runner-Up and Winners prizes are SUPER SECRET to make you think they’re really expensive and good. All entries will be posted in my specially made photo gallery for posterity and the enjoyment of all.

GO DRAW COCKLE BEES!

I can’t headbang anymore though. It hurts! I had my hair up while we were there, but then Foxz started playing ‘More Human Than Human’ by White Zombie, so my hair was unleashed! Rar! Unfortunately my neck kept cracking, and I felt like a bit of a knob being the only person headbanging. I never used to care, but I seem to have gone all self-conscious. Boo! Laura (ickle sis) was in her element though. She kept doing all these silly dance moves that would have made anyone else look totally stupid, but she looked so cool. I think it’s totally true that if you just smile and look like you’re having a laugh, you look great whatever you do.

I think I finally got home at about 3am on Saturday morning. Dave’s parents came to see us at 11.30am! I was awake, but I could hardly move. We were all going to go up town, but I had to stay home lest I be seen out in public walking like I have casts on my arms and legs

I made 2 new mood bunnies for you all to snag if you want. That’s about the only creative thing for Icklebug I’ve done this weekend. The rest of my time is spent trying to catch up on my emails. Oh the emails!

Lydia has been poking me for the last couple of minutes while I’ve been typing this. I’m about finished now, so it’s war! She has no idea what kind of prodding power I have! TO WAR!

I don’t want to give too much away, but go clicking/moving the mouse around on the header image and see what happens

There’s a few bits to work out in the theme, but it’s just aesthetic as far as I can see so far. Let me know if you spot any more problems though The content is all there, it’s just the sidebar that may look a bit funny if there’s not much content on a certain page. I don’t have the energy to sort that out at the moment though as I’m feeling really ill. It’s only a cold, but it’s made my arthritisy type thing flare up badly. I couldn’t even move my fingers when I woke up this morning (after a whole 4hrs sleep!).

I’m going to retreat to bed for a couple of hours. It’s my Mum’s birthday today and she’s having a BBQ (weather permitting), so I need to build up the energy to be sociable instead of hiding in a corner somewhere, heheh.

Hope you all enjoy the theme!

I had a brilliant birthday last week and had a great time out at Edwards nightclub in Birmingham too. The music there wasn’t really that good on the night (but apparently they have different DJs each week), but the company was great and we had a good laugh. I’m hoping we can go again in a few months or something.

I got some hilarious cards from my friends and family. I’ll post my 3 favourites (the hangover one had me in hysterics!); just click on them for a bigger version:

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For my presents I got the entire series of Buffy and Angel on DVD from Dave, flowers (lillies), money, bubbles (eee!), a Living Dead Doll from Sandra, chocolates from my team at work and a sparkly new tunnel for my ear. Plus going to Birmingham and only spending £2

While I was out in Birmingham, Dave stayed home with Lydia….and cut her hair! When he first suggested cutting it ourselves I was dead against it. My Mum cut a fringe for my sister when she was a toddler, but it was a bit lop-sided, so she cut it a little shorter. It was still wobbly, so she cut it a bit more. My sister ended up with a tiny fringe and a lot of forehead Obviously I didn’t want that to happen to Lydia, but I was quite surprised to find that he did a really good job! She looks so cute with a little fringe. I’d take a picture but I can’t find the camera and she’s slobbered so much on my phone that the camera on it has broken! Boo.

I was worried for nothing about my Hospital appointment last week. I was that scared at the thought of having another lumbar puncture that I got really ill. Even the day after the appointment, I had worked myself up into such a state that I kept being sick and had to come home from work. I’m safe from probing needle for at least another 6mnths anyway. Hooray!

I’m working on some pre-made templates for Blogger and WordPress to add to my webdesign site, Icklebug Designs. I’ve been doing various bits but not actually properly working on one for some reason. It’s probably because I haven’t got a deadline to work to, but it’s an annoying habit that I can’t seem to get out of at the moment.

The Quilting Bee is back! Jem is the new Queen Bee and Charlotte is Co-Queening with her. It’s got a brand new layout courtesy of the previous Queen Bee, Kimberly, so if you love pixels and making new friends take a look and join up!