Princess Pricklepants, Blogger, Procrastinator

Posted on February 28, 2014 by princesspricklepants

Princess Pricklepants was sitting around not writing blog posts. She got the internet working on her semi-new laptop, braced herself to write something, then checked Wikipedia to look up something about procrastination, to maybe understand it better. Four hours later she had finished many Wikipedia articles, culminating with methods of weaving with a loom. It was really surprisingly interesting.

She had to write. Write, write, write. Something. Something original. Worth reading. Fun. Engaging. Witty. Clever. The Great American Novel of blog posts. Better punctuated than this. And, ideally, with more verbs and fewer sentence fragments. Maybe a little less self-referential. Maybe not.

She decided to go for a little walk. On her walk, she discovered something truly remarkable. Behind the place where her desk was, at the very spot where she’d once peed on the floor, there was a mysterious doorway. The sign said it led to a secret garden, though you could read that yourself.

She hurried through to the other side. No photos were taken in order to protect the mystery.

The other side was truly mysterious. Amid IKEA furnishings stood whimsical fantasy elements, seemingly put together haphazardly. This was very puzzling. Also why was the radio up where she couldn’t reach it? Why was it playing Enya songs? Why did the door look the same on both sides? Why did it have a sign up saying it led to a secret place? Wouldn’t that very sign mean it wasn’t secret? Curiouser and curiouser.

Then she realized, this would make a great blog post!

A really great one!

But first she had to find the hidden treasure.

Treasure!

She decided she would read a Wikipedia article on narrative structure, perhaps there was a way to give her post a clear beginning, middle, and end.

Hedgehogs and humans don’t always react the same way to things. Reading an article on narrative structure was so incredibly exciting for a hedgehog. When she found tvtropes, it was so exciting to a budding hedgehog blogger that she peed a little on the floor.

And then she woke up in her favorite green blanket. It was all just a dream.

But wait, waking up in the green blanket was all a dream too. She woke up, peeked out of her cuddle bag, and planned for her real blog post, rather than the dream one.

And, dear readers, we’re very sorry that we had that brief hiatus. Princess would like you to know that she loves you this much:

Happy Hedgehog Day!

Posted on February 2, 2014 by princesspricklepants

Happy Hedgehog Day! The ancient Romans would watch hedgehogs on Feb. 2 so see if they spotted their shadow (by moonlight). In America the holiday was reinvented with a hibernating animal native to the continent.

http://www.hedgehogcentral.com/hedgehogday.shtml

When we tested Punxsutawney Pricklepants using her new bucket wheel (a scientifically valid cave substitute) she won in the Christmas contest, she did not react to her shadow. It might be the battle towers and mayhem of battle were a distraction, though.

Poll: Is This Creepy?

Posted on January 26, 2014 by princesspricklepants

First off, look at this shirt.

Okay, now that you’ve seen it, does it make you think of a hedgehog crawling out of the chest like a chestburster from Aliens, like you’ll have a prickly spiky feeling in your chest, look down, and bam! There’s a hedgehog burrowing out of your chest, having just eaten your vital organs like they were crickets or mealworms or something, then burrowed out through your breastbone, your last sight before you pass away a cute hedgehog who has just murdered you. Your last thought, “well that really hurts, but aww, what a cute hedge…” before slipping away.

Or is it harmless and just kind of cute?

We offer this poll to settle the matter:

This is not a product endorsement, or a product disendorsement, rather it’s just a poll, we are in no way affiliated with themoutain other than in that we were briefly disturbed by the imagery in the shirt, though it you want one for some reason to scare children, or because you like it, you can find one here:

http://shop.themountain.me/big-face-hedgehog-t-shirt/

Oh, We Really Have Become Those People

Posted on January 26, 2014 by princesspricklepants

You know those people who get kind of really way into their pet to levels that start to push the envelope of social norms? At one point I was pretty sure I’d never be one of those people, but it just kind of snuck up. It all starts with some Facebook photos of the hedgehog and hanging out on the hedgehog forums to learn more and talk about the funny things they do, and it’s fun, so, hey, more photos, and then a blog, and then you get a stuffed hedgehog. You set your phone’s lock screen to a cute photo of your pet. You start showing pictures of your hedgehog to strangers when you are out and about. Then your friend Alix (Swarley’s mom) gives you an Attack Hedgehog warning sticker, so you decorate your house, then the hedgehog garden ornament is planted by the front door, and you get a properly registered domain in your pets name, and before you know it, you are known as the hedgehog person by people. Slippery slopes are real, people.

To be fair we also have a pair of garden gnomes on either side of the walkway, like Foo Dogs, warning those who approach what they are getting themselves into.

The Battle of Castle Fischer-Price

Posted on January 25, 2014 by princesspricklepants

Princess Pricklepants’ kingdom of Quillonia was a peaceful and prosperous place, ruled by the benevolent Princess along with the kind regent Sir Sandwich.

Sadly, the jealousy of the neighboring kingdoms (and perhaps some indiscrete raids by Princess Pricklepants in her younger days) brought war to the land. The Redvian siege towers, ballistas, catapults, and other well constructed siege equipment rambled up to Castle Fischer-Price, cruel weapons of war brought forth the dread of dark doom. The enemy called forth demanding a tribute of treasure and that nice chalice looking thing on the roof of the castle.

Princess came forth and taunted the enemy cruelly, telling them that their mothers were hamsters.

Anger swelled in the hearts of the cruel warriors, who while knowing very well that their mothers were not actually hamsters, still took that kind of thing very personally. Princess added further insult by showing them her back side.

Sir Cowflinger, leader of the Redvians cried back, “I am not angry, just very disappointed. That was incredibly rude. We now demand both a tribute, and an apology for that hurtful taunt.”

“You want rude? You don’t frighten us you red-sworded cotton headed ninny-mugginses. Now go away, or you just might find your feelings will get hurt again!” (Due to their unique evolution, Hedgehog taunts are a little odd.)

Unfortunately just after she finished her rousing speech, she slipped, which took a lot of the impact away, as the Redvians laughed. This made her feel very embarrassed.

She quickly righted herself, composed herself, and smiled, and pretended that the slip didn’t actually happen. The smile was helped by the fact that she knew about her secret weapon.

Will war tear the kingdom apart? Will cows fly? Will we get a better lighting setup? Will we iron the sky? Some of these questions will probably be answered in Part II.

After The Bath

Posted on January 24, 2014 by princesspricklepants

Penelope drying off after a bath. The cuteness, it is so epic.

It All

Posted on January 24, 2014 by princesspricklepants

Title says it all.

Are You Smart Enough To Guess This One Weird Fact That Will Change The Way You Think About Our Hedgehog Blog Forever?

Posted on January 24, 2014 by princesspricklepants

Sorry, we read on the internet that using hyperbole, including questions, and referring directly to the reader are ways to get read, so we were trying it out. Look, it worked on you.

So, can you guess what amazing things been going on lately? Oh, sorry, doing it again…

Anyway, we now have our own domain – http://princesspricklepants.com

Very exciting.

You might have noticed fewer things going on the blog lately. Princess has been a little grumpy lately. Many pictures look something like:

That’s her “I would like to stab you” look.

She warmed up a little tonight:

Then fell asleep on me:

Princess Sophie took a selfie with me and both princesses in it. Princess Sophie’s selfie is very fragmentary.

Then Princess Pricklepants fell asleep on my shoulder.

Oh, hey, the new domain also means that we have some fancy email addreses:

One for Princess Pricklpants:

theprincess at princesspricklepants.com

One for Haley:

fancy at princesspricklepants.com

One for the old guy:

sirsandwich at princesspricklepants.com

One for Sir Maxwell:

sirmaxwell at princesspricklepants.com

And one for Princess Sophie

princesssophie at princesspricklepants.com

So there’s that.

Penelope Pricklepants Plays at the Park

Posted on January 20, 2014 by princesspricklepants

On Sunday one of our readers, Megan, called to see if we wanted to meet at Zilker Park to visit Barton Creek Trail. Well, when half your readers want to meet up, it’s hard to say no. As it turns out, the other half of our readership was also able to join us too, more about that later! So we took Princess for an outing to the park to see a really nice trail.

Once we arrived, we let Princess take a walk in the park. She loved it. This is what her loving taking a walk in the park looks like head on.

And this is what her loving taking a walk in the park looks like from above.

Since we were playing with a hedgehog in a busy park, people noticed. Mostly little people. We introduced Princess Pricklepants to potential readers. She was pleased to meet them.

“That’s princesspricklepants.com, yes, um, we registered a domain for our pet… No, I mean, no it’s, it’s normal… Really, people do this all the time… No, I’m not from a different country… Well, no, but I just think it’s normal for me.”

Here is Megan’s little one Bridget, also known as BB, but who we will call Fred, saying hi to Princess. Hi Fred!

Here’s Ron below, Megan’s very precocious progeny with Princess Pricklepants. He explained to me that he is a mercenary who would work for good food. We talked about owls a lot.

Also, if you look carefully at the photo below, you’ll see that there are actually two people in the photo. The person in the back is the kind and gentle Swarley, another reader who came along. Swarley is Princess Sophie’s pal and the other half of our readership. She is also awesome. Hi Swarley! Hi Ron!

We packed Princess in a personal Princess pack, and proceeded to port her on our peregrination on the path in the park.

Editor’s note: Actually we put Princess in a ‘baby sling’ fashioned from a long scarf. Perhaps we should purchase a purse in Purple Punch from Vera Bradley, for the potential purpose of private princess portage in a personal pack.

It was very lovely.

Editor again: What was lovely? The purse, the path, the park?

It was all very lovely.

There were coots and gadwalls in the creek. I explained to someone that coots were not ducks, but a kind of rail, with a very interesting foot adaption that I couldn’t go into much detail about since they walked away. And the gadwalls, well those are one of my favorite ducks. From a distance they look rather plain, but up close their plumage is fantastic. Here’s a gadwall dabbling.

I took a lot of pictures of coots and gadwalls, also some cormorants, and a few other birds. But this isn’t a bird watching blog, it’s a hedgehog blog. So we’ll leave it at that.

We wandered and talked about things, and looked at lovely things, and went over a precarious bridge, and sat on a bench and took photos that didn’t come out. We also saw fish and turtles, and I never said I wouldn’t post more pictures of those, so look, isn’t this painted turtle lovely?

That’s really what it looks like – no Photoshopping. The water in the creek has a really lovely hue due to the lighting, the light limestone creek bed, and probably some algae too. We eventually finished our walk, and hung out in the park.

We took out Princess P. P., who had been really patient, and let Fred and everyone visit with Princess. Fred was pleased to pet Princess Pricklepants.

So pleased that she pet Princess repeatedly.

We set up a small circle to let Princess play in the park. She tubed. It’s what a hedgehog does.

We set up a picnic for her.

She preferred tubing.

Princess played with Megan and was pleased to play with one of her fans.

Megan and Fred both seemed to have a warm spot in their hearts for the pygmy hedgehog.

And there was much holding.

Then something really exiting happened that forces me to briefly return to the topic of birds, because it was so cool! We (Editor’s note: he) spotted Monk Parakeets flying in nearby. Monk Parakeets are a species of parrot that can live in much colder climates than most, so there’s a breeding population in Austin. We (Editor’s note: he) could easily spill a few hundred words about may things related to Monk Parakeets, but will spare you.

Here’s one in a tree eating seeds:

Here are a pair grazing. Who knew parrots ate grass?

And here is one doing a precarious looking flyover. Fear not, there was no parrot poop pelting photographers.

After that we got dinner, which was very good. Thanks to Megan and Swarley, it was pure pleasure to have plentiful Princess pals present in one place.

A Florid Adventure

Posted on January 16, 2014 by princesspricklepants

The internet is full of cute photos of hedgehogs with flowers. I found one years ago and thought, “oh, what a cute photo of a hedgehog with a flower.” Here it is:

I made it my AOL Instant Messenger icon. This was many years ago. I cropped it some so it was mostly the little face and flower. You don’t need to know all these details. It was the beginning of me wanting a hedgehog, though. Interestingly Princess Pricklepants does bear a striking resemblance to that mystery flower-bearing hedgehog of yore.

Anyway, we were excited to have the opportunity to take pictures of our hedgehog with a flower. I was, anyway. Ideally we’d get a picture with a little yellow dandelion stuck behind her ear, with her standing in a cute little pose. Perhaps I could use it as my Facebook icon for a while…

She wasn’t feeling cooperative.

Princess Sophie’s help didn’t exactly help.

We tried adding in a toy truck so it would be more fun.

She didn’t find it fun. On the plus side, we got a flower behind her ear.

Soon thereafter she assaulted the truck.

OK, no truck, just heap the flowers, and put her near them? Still not a happy camper.

How can a hedgie be so grumpy about flowers?

Somehow shoving flowers in her face was considered an affront.

She definitely did not like this.

She worked on an escape plan.

Her escape plans got more elaborate.

Then she taunted us by posing with a flower under her face. She stood half off the green cloth to ensure my inner picky photo critic would be extra annoyed.

Posing near a pile, would that do? With bad lighting that’s way too warm and the whites partly blown out by the exposure?

Finally we got this one. It’s not the hedgehog with a flower behind its ear that got us started on this quest, but it was late, and it was close enough. Fine.

Photos of hedgehogs with flowers behind their ears are really kind of overrated.

Princess Pricklepants, Nature Photographer

Posted on January 14, 2014 by princesspricklepants

It was Princess Sophie’s birthday, so we got Princess Pricklepants a nice present, a new camera. Say cheese!

She decided to photograph a lovely flower. She posted it to 500px.com. 431 people said “nice capture, v&f, please take a look at my photos.” How exciting! She did not look at their photos, though.

She went for a hike out in nature to see what might be found on her walk. Amazingly, she found a very rare Mountain Mallard.

She carefully set up her f/stop, thought about the optimal lighting settings, set her metering, fiddled with the ISO, and then switched to ‘auto.’

She took a few shots of the rare Mountain Mallard. It stood remarkably still.

She posted the new photo to 500px.com, got 315 likes, 220 faves, and 933 comments. Whoo!

Unfortunately National Geographic did not respond.

A Few Recent Photos of Note

Posted on January 13, 2014 by princesspricklepants

We were visiting our friend Victoria recently, and so of course I had to wander away from people and lie on my stomach to take photos of the hedgehog walking around. I have the mad social skillz.

Guess what? Princess butt.

A hand full of hedgehog head on.

Low angle, low key.

When she curls up on you and sleeps it hits quantum adorableness and tears into the space-time fabric. We try to keep her awake.

A Look Inside the Tube

Posted on January 12, 2014 by princesspricklepants

One thing I’ve wondered about is whether hedgehogs keep their eyes open or closed when tubing. Thanks to some photographic investigation, we now know. This seems to explain why they bump around so much when tubing.

Groovy Hedgie

Posted on January 12, 2014 by princesspricklepants

Lava lamp, your green grooveadelic globs are so far out, can you dig it? Visiting our fried Victoria with her groovy lamp was a gas.

I propose that Jan. 30 should be Talk Like David Bowie Day. We could all say things like, “crazy, man,” end sentences with “you know,” use “far out” a lot. Let me know if you are in, man, it could be such a crazy scene, you know? Dig that poll below the photos.

Princess Pricklepants digs that green grooviness.

ISO 1600, f/4, 1/50 – kit lens so f4 was as open as it got.

Low key grooviness, man.

ISO 1600, f/4, 1/50

Some Bowie inspiration, man.

Hedgehog of War

Posted on January 10, 2014 by princesspricklepants

The battle lines were drawn once more, another day, another war. The Redvians set out to conquer their hated foe, the Blutopians. Today was a day of battle.

The secret weapon was unleashed! Cry havoc and let slip the hedgehog of war!

The secret weapon was rather uncooperative, since it was more interested in the back of the battle tower.

She was very comfortable there, so she took a nap.

“Um, hello, um, excuse me, so would you mind, you know, unleashing your wrath on the enemy?”

Those who wake a sleeping hedgehog quickly feel the sharp quills of pain and death.

She seemed quite pleased with the results of her rampage.

Sir Yorick remained hiding in the castle, peering out the window in terror.

She worked her way in.

Few men know the terror of an adorably pygmy hedgehog terrifyingly working its way towards you, a huge prickly-bear forcing her way through the castle door, getting ready to snuffle away viciously.

Alas, poor Yorick.

A Princess, a Battle Tower, and IKEA Furniture

Posted on January 9, 2014 by princesspricklepants

In the grim future of Princess Pricklepants there is only war.

If ever in the future you were looking for some depiction of the madness of war, we have one for you here.

The IKEA doll furniture set’s scaled really well for Princess. We have been thinking about adding it to her cage since she seems to actually like the couch. The slip cover is washable, and after this shoot it needs a wash. I often hide a small plastic red squirrel in these because I like taking photos of squirrels too. It’s on the IKEA shelf.

Photographer’s note: The flash managed to fill things in pretty well. I took a few shots using various settings with and without flash. It was late at night, so ambient lighting was poor, and I didn’t want to spend time setting up lights since we needed to get to bed. This was a quickie as Max and I had just built the tower (thanks Mom), so I didn’t get a tripod or the new monopod. The shadows on the wall are a bit harsh, though they’re the only place it stands out. We have a second tower in the works. It was a very easy build.

Whether you had any idea that I thought that much about taking pictures of the hedgehog, or were you were more shocked at how quick and dirty I was with the setup? If it was the latter you’re a photographer, and you’ll be thinking about how I could have better composed the photo, and that the colors are kind of muddy, and on and on.

f/5.6 1/30 ISO 800 – I used the kit lens, had to go with a bit more closed aperture to get the DoF to include the tower and hedgie.

A Question For All Two Of Our Readers

Posted on January 8, 2014 by princesspricklepants

Please participate regardless of your opinion. Or interest. Or whatever, just vote. It’s your patriotic duty.

We are going all 2003. Vote for as many as you like, and as many times as you like, we’ll keep printing ballots.

Also, here’s Princess Pricklepants squirming for a photo.

Phbbbt!

Posted on January 7, 2014 by princesspricklepants

f/5, 1/60, ISO 2800

Homeward Bound: The Incredibly Long Journey With a Hedgehog, a Puppet Giraffe, and a Famous Frog – Part III – Texas Touring Turns to a Tiresome Trip

Posted on January 6, 2014 by princesspricklepants

Previously: Part II – The Long Louisiana Slog

Texas Touring Turns to a Troubling and Tiresome Travail

We left the behind the sad disappointment of the Louisiana Visitor’s Center and decided to try something we’d never done before – to visit the Texas Visitor’s Center. So we did.

On arriving they had this helpful warning:

In case you are wondering, that is Kermit in a “holding arm up to shade eyes while scanning for snakes” pose, rather than Kermit in a “holding arm up in alarm upon learning that the Visitor’s Center actually just prominently warned us about snake risk” pose, though if you’d like to imaging it’s the latter, then feel free. We try to be accomodating.

On arriving we also found the (now expected) disappointment of institutionalized pet prejudice. Sorrow welled up in the hearts of us all, but Princess Sophie borrowed a page from the book of Fancy.

Disclaimer: Please note that Princess Sophie did not smoke. Please also not that Princess Pricklepants didn’t smoke, nor did Fancy or anyone else in our entourage.

While we don’t have photographic evidence to prove it, this Visitor’s Center was also closed, so we weren’t able to learn about Texas and the interesting and varied things within its gigantic borders. There was a really neat looking boardwalk over a swampy area that we (for limited versions of “we” that do not include Ryan) were interested in checking out. I think maybe it was only a couple people who were interested in the swamp. Perhaps just me. Still, it looked like a great learning opportunity for the hedgehog. Yet it was not to be.

Suffering that bitter disappointment, I looked around hopefully for snakes. None were found. But there was a separate pet rest area.

Separate but equal being unequal, Fancy staged a sit-in as a protest, but wasn’t able to sit.

Princess joined in.

Kermit joined as well.

They got tired and decided to have a rest on the sign along with a small rock.

Fancy joined in.

The center also had a very large star that everyone stood near. The hugeness reflecting that the state is remarkably large. Here is the star from afar.

Here is the star quite near with Max expressing fear.

There also was a Texas shape cut out, in case your location was in doubt.

Disclaimer: Kermit was not in any way attempting to infringe on the intellectual property of the “Hang In There” kitten poster.

With some free time, Fancy spent more time in rehearsal for Annoying Private Ryan:

This was a really good rehearsal.

We arrived at the Visitor’s Center around 3:00 and left about fifteen minutes later.

Then we drove, and drove, and drove.

Reaching the border of Texas can give you a brief illusory sense of being close to being home. This sense of hope will gently fade over the many, many hours of driving from the border to Austin.

Around 7 we went for dinner at Chuy’s. Kermit and the Art Models were excited to find the Elvis shrine.

The Art Models were happy to finally get a photo in. They felt neglected this trip.

On the other hand, the kids were a little tired of the camera.

Th Annoying Private Ryan rehearsal went over poorly, even with the amazing setting.

Sadly Private Ryan was very tired of helping in rehearsing, and confiscated the camera. This was the final image captured.

Fancy was still pleased. Around 9:30 we finally made it to the outskirts of Austin a bit annoyed at how big Texas is. And so our incredibly long journey with a hedgehog, a puppet giraffe, and a famous frog drew to a close.

Homeward Bound: The Incredibly Long Journey With a Hedgehog, a Puppet Giraffe, and a Famous Frog

Posted on January 4, 2014 by princesspricklepants

Part I – New Years IHOP

Disclaimer: dear readers, we fully understand that as this is a hedgehog blog, and as such, content should feature and focus on hedgehogs, and in particular our favorite hedgehog. Please note that the following post is only minimally hedgehog related, but serves as critical bridge into further posts that will highlight hedgehog related antics, hijinks, adventures, perils, peregrinations, and other words for the kinds of things these blog posts tend to include. It primarily features a close personal friend to our hedgehog.

Disclaimer disclaimer: Please note that the previous disclaimer was very wordy for a disclaimer leading into a blog post. If you aren’t interested in reading long disclaimers, feel free to skip the previous section.

Disclaimer disclaimer disclaimer: Its come to the editor’s attention that it’s unlikely a reader would encounter the disclaimer disclaimer until after encountering the disclaimer which would make it unlikely that the reader would actually be able to skip the passage in question. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Post disclaimer: There are numerous disclaimers that could be posted about previous disclaimers but in the interest of proceeding to content rather than discussions about content we will pause in our disclaiming for the time being. If critical disclaiming is required, please rest assured that we will make sure to disclaim critical issues.

Post disclaimer disclaimer: Sorry, this really was just gratuitous.

So anyway, we drove back. It was rainy. We past the Mississippi visitor center but it really seemed very cold, unwelcoming, and a generally bad scene for a hedgehog, a giraffe puppet, a stuffed frog, or humans. We didn’t take a picture to allow the active imaginations of our readers the opportunity of building a more dramatic scene in the imagination.

So we drove non-stop to Pearl City Louisiana, which interestingly was before the Louisiana Visitor’s Center, as if the Visitor Center was trying to tell you something about just how interesting that place was.

Disclaimer: The Louisiana Visitor Center isn’t very honest, it’s actually a lovely gem of a town.

We pulled in, set up Princess’s home in our motel and then realized that it was New Years Eve and we needed to eat. We went to find a place to eat working around the picky Princess Sophie’s demands we eventually went to IHOP. We could not bring Princess P. P. due to the institutional pet prejudice that prevent pets participation in potlucks, restaurants, and most eating establishments.

Man, that’s a lot of words before a single photo. We are violating a basic rule of our blog – “show, don’t tell.”

We have an IHOP tradition, started by the current author of this piece, that when we get to the table, we take spoons and pour spoons full of syrup as a kind of IHOP aperitif.

Disclaimer: We’d seen Saving Mr. Banks recently and since then I’ve constantly had Mary Poppins songs lilting through my head, so please mentally accompany the following images with “a spoon full of syrup” to get a full sense of the experience.

Mmmm, Fancy likes syrup.