Brought to you today by the number 10.....

Two tens actually. For those of you not in the know (like you missed the FB post) after 1.5 yrs we have finally managed to begin the procreation process for the second time. Apparently I'm not that easy a breeder, go figure. We are presently at 10 weeks and yes, I know, most people in my precarious position (Advanced maternal age, such a great title to be tagged with) don't tell the world until 12 weeks but back in the real world it just wasn't practical. Which leads me to the second 10, that's about how long I'll have had (in years) between my 2 children. Hiding it from the 9 yr old was going to become difficult right quick.

You see my mother in law flew out Christmas day to spend a week and a half with us. She'll be here for my first real prenatal appointment (I've already been once but apparently it doesn't count) (?) and she has 2 sons so the pregnancy/grandchild thing is a super big deal for her. Super big deal. FYI I'm not telling my own mother until I have to. Preferable never but I'm a realist. So maybe she'll figure it out in the 3rd trimester. Anyway the mother in law likes to buy all of the maternity clothes (fucking awesome). She did it for my sister in law for her one pregnancy (they tried to have another but she was in her 50's by then, no go) and she did it for me when I was pregnant with my daughter. Now since she lives in San Diego I knew that there would be some shopping involved in this visit. Shopping of the preggers nature. This basically made it so we kinda needed come clean with the kid because she's no dummy. She figured out the secret of Santa last year all by herself. Trust me, she'd have noticed something was up a lot sooner than my idiot mother will. And I'm ok with that. So we decided we'd tell her on Christmas day as an extra bonus gift. She's dying for a girl. Mother Nature being what it is she has a better than 50% chance of it being a girl. I always wanted a boy but really, I think it'll be a girl. Murphy's Law right?

I did have an appointment as soon as I tested positive. My doctor is paranoid because of that whole brain explosion thing 3 (was it 3?) years ago. I thought I was only about 5 weeks along so we didn't know if we'd see anything on the ultrasound. Turned out at the time I was 7 weeks along (wow, impressive math skills Michelle) and we got to see it on the ultrasound (doesn't look like much at that point) and most exciting, I got to hear the heartbeat. This is big for me. At my age (37) my eggs are old and there are a multitude of different things that can go wrong. The heartbeat tells me, at the very least, it's alive. I had a co-worker whose wife got pregnant at the same time I did with my daughter and she ended up getting a D&C because they never found a heartbeat. That's gotta suck. There's also a high risk of miscarriage, most of the women I know around my age had at least 1 before getting a viable pregnancy.

I have high hopes for this pregnancy. The last one was at a kinda precarious point in my life, was only really dating my present hubby, and we had no idea how the relationship was going to work out. And there were a variety of other health issues in the beginning so I was pretty much miserable on top of being hormonal. I don't have any happy memories of that pregnancy. Or for a good 2 years after either. It's been almost a decade since then though and I'm determined to have a pleasant, if not happy, pregnancy. I'm not worried about labor and delivery. I know all the horror stories and I have some of my own. And just so ya know, an aneurysm hurts WAY WORSE than giving birth. May you never find out the hard way. I know what I do and do not want. I have people (no, not the hubby) who will be there for me and will either kick out or beat the crap out of anyone who goes against my wishes. It's good to have some serious beotches at your back in the L&D room. Everyone needs at least one. I also don't have family telling me what I'm doing wrong. I'm a mom, my kid, my word is law, they can piss off.

I'm so glad I'm not a first time mother anymore, that was HELL. I have high hopes for this one. I may have to kill a few people who piss me off but I have no problems with that. I'm a chemist, no one can hide bodies as good as me.

Did I mention that (as an added bonus) my kid saw me in the shower yesterday morning and told me I didn't look like I was pregnant. She also said that her friend (a boy whose mom recently had a baby) said I didn't look pregnant either. I didn't want to pop her bubble and tell her it's because mommy already has too much of a belly on her and if mommy was skinny you'd be able to tell. No, I thanked her and told her it was a sweet thing to say. The child is built like the hubby, stick thin forever, so she doesn't need to know that there are those of us who will always be a bit round. May this next one have the same luck and get the skinny gene. Wish us luck!

Food for thought

Every once in awhile I flit across an interesting human behavior article on CNN (or maybe Time even, I like them both) and it gets me thinking. I know, I know, dangerous thing me thinking and all. This particular article was very short and to the point
Babies go to school to teach
And what it basically said is that they bring a baby in to class to see if the kids can understand what the baby is feeling through body language. The original point was to help build a more peaceful and civil society through children. What they found was that it reduced bullying because they could empathize better. And all they did was expose them to a baby and her momma and asked them about body language.

Seems simple doesn't it? But the fact the third graders learned important social behaviors from it tells me there are some bigger social issues going on here. Apparently empathy isn't something you're born with, it's something you learn. Where do you learn it? Your parents (I'm assuming here)? TV (more likely)? And don't you think many of these children would be able to see this momma baby relationship at home or with friends that have baby siblings?

And there's the rub huh? With the whole 60's sexual revolution women earned the right to be equal (yeah right) in the work force so now we all get to go to work for 10+ hours a day. And come home, cook, clean, do homework with the kids, get them ready for bed, and sure we've got plenty of money for multiple children. Now that both adults are working and we spend all that money on child care. Because we earned the right to be in the work force and pawn our children off to child care businesses. I have a problem seeing how we're so much better off this way. Now that we can mass produce offspring and pay a business to raise them for us.

So these children are learning about relationships and empathy by having someone other than their mom (who can't possibly have the time or money for another kid) and somewhere other than in their own home. Because, you know, the public schooling system, in theory, is not responsible for building the basis with our children's morals but in the end somebody has to do it. It's not like parents have the time for it any more right?

See, it was a short article but I think they left out a whole bunch. Talk about not seeing the forest through the trees. Or maybe I'm just hormonal today. Lord knows it's always a high possibility.....

Dennis the Menace

I wish I had a photo for this post, I really do. I'm going to try and make a point of taking my camera in the mornings specifically for y'all and the visual that you really need for this.

I live in a 'brick home, in a school zone, with the doors locked and alarms on' neighborhood (name that song). It's a gated community, and yeah the gates are constantly broken so I'm still not sure why they bother. Regardless, it's a somewhat hoity toity hood and there are different levels of stupid expensive homes in it in different sections. We don't really belong there but I fell in love with the house so there we are. Their are rules pertaining to all kinds of things in my hood, as to be expected with a gated HOA hood. People break the rules all the time but rarely to an extent where they'd get popped. One of the rules is no free roaming animals. Even cats. I like this rule personally because walking my big psycho dog is a beotch if there's a wandering animal about. Impossible really. Mostly it's the super rich homes that let their animals wander. They either don't want to spend the money on a fence that matches, don't really care, or both. They just open their doors and let their pets out. I'm sure they crap everywhere else but their own lawns so it's a double bonus for their lazy ass owners. I don't live in the richy part of the hood though so I only see this while either driving through their end or on the rare occasion I take a 2+ mile walk over there with my big psycho dog.

Recently I've seen a stray in the hood. You can tell it's a stray not because it doesn't have a collar (most of the richy dogs don't) but because of the breed. Best I can tell is that it's a big black pit bull boarder collie mix. Black with a bit of white around it's neck and chest. I was a vet tech for over 5 years, I can often call the mix of breeds. He is neutered and seems nice. I'd like to catch him but it's hard to get him close enough. I know that many of the neighbors have tried because we all want him caught. One neighbor came around to let people know not to call animal control because she wanted him. Too bad she didn't leave any contact info. Idjit. It's been at least 2 months since he was (I'm thinking) dumped in our hood. Lets face it, we're way the Hell out in suburbia and no one owns a pit mix in our hood. Not pretty or purebred enough for our hood. It's gotten below freezing at least 3 times in that time span and he's still doing ok. I'm hoping someone is feeding him or something. I see him just about every morning and occasionally in the afternoon.

Here's the sight that just killed me though. Last night I see 2 women walking their golden retrievers at a decent clip. Goldens are real laid back go with the flow kind of dogs and they don't mind much as long as you take them out for exercise. Along side them is the stray (I've nick named him Dennis the Menace) as if he's totally park of they pack. If you didn't know that he was a stray you wouldn't know it watching him walk with them. It was so sweet, you know that poor dog wants to have home. It was just heart breaking to watch because I knew those women weren't going to take him home. If I didn't have psycho dog I could try to get him but alas, my psycho would flip the hell out.

My mission for today is to get a hold of a slip lead and see if I can't wrangle his butt up. I see him just about every morning at the same time when I drop the kid off at school. I can't get him with the kid in the car but after I drop her off I'm hoping I can con him into jumping in the car. Dogs are such suckers for rides. I don't know what I'll do with him if I do catch him. Maybe wait until everyone gets home in the evening and then take him door to door to see if anyone will either a) take him in or b) donate money for his care. People don't like taking in a responsibility but they'll assuage their guilt with money. Hey, it's just that kind of hood. Then if I can get someone who will take him I can give them the money to get him shots and whatnot. I'd rather not give him to animal care, they're the only ones with room right now and they have a high kill rate. Wish me luck!

Uninspired

Every year I make my own Christmas cards. Not because I like Christmas, I don't, but because I like making cards. If you get a card from me it's 100% made by me. I have a scrapbooking room, it's filled to the brim with an ungawdly amount of crafting things and an ungawdly expensive sewing machine because I quilt too. On rare occasion. The hubby makes fun of me because I have all these hobbies I've put time, energy, and a stupid amount of money into but they lay idle for a year or two at a time. No, really just a year mostly. Every year, at the very least, I unbury my scrapping table (I tend to pile stuff on it throughout the year) and get to the Making of the Christmas cards. I don't have to make many. I don't like a lot of people so my card list is limited to those I like. And those who ask for one. I post up on FB for people to send me their address if they want a card from me. I always get a few takers. Must be an 'in the holiday season mood' thing. The process of making the cards is what I love. Each year is different but that year only has 1 variation. That way I can assembly line the process. One year I had a card that was no less than 12 different steps. It was a nice card. One has to keep in mind though that if it goes past a certain thickness or weight you have to pay extra for postage so I avoid ribbons or fat embellishments.

Every year I go to a card/scrapbooking forum (Split Coast Stampers) to mooch ideas from others. I call it 'gaining inspiration'. Sometimes I totally copy the idea, other times I modify it for the particular stamps I own. There are pages and pages of card examples in their gallery. Some of these things wouldn't even fit into an envelope and were obviously made for the sake of making, not mailing. Others are so detailed and involved I'd need an art degree to re-create it. Lovely, just not practical. This year I was at Michael's getting some figurines for the kid's yearly project and I found a stamp set on sale that I just could not pass up. I went to look at the gallery on Split Coast Stampers to get 'inspired' with the intention of starting, if not finishing (whoa), my cards for this year. For the first time ever I did not see a single one that caught my eye. Not one. I mean there were dozens of beautiful cards, just none I wanted to re-create. Normally there's at least a few that I will want to re-create bad enough to even buy the stamp set/embossing panel/shape cutter that I'd need to make it. This time, not so much. Odd too since most of the stamp manufacturers have a new holiday stamps set out that is to die for. At least one! Not this time. At least nothing that caught my eye. So sad...

Regardless the stamp set I had found inspired me enough so that I'm pretty sure I can come up with something all on my lonesome. Not my ideal but you know, I can be creative too! I think. We'll see huh?

On that note if you'd like to get one of my super special handmade Christmas cards then email me/pm me your address and I'll put you on the list.

The basics

If you haven't figured it out by now the holiday season is my least favorite time of year. It shouldn't be, I have a school aged kid (they always love Christmas) and the vicious grip of summer has been released by this time of year. Well kinda, this week (Thanksgiving week) it'll be in the 80's all week long. For us that isn't bad though and we consider that the beginning of winter (no real fall). It's a Texas thing, move here and you'll understand. Still, I hate this season. Oddly it's not even really dealing with family or making the food. We don't live near family except for my mom and we avoid each other for the most part. What bothers me the most is other people's behavior. The holiday season brings out the asshole in everyone. Driving in this state is scary enough as it is. Texas is by far the most horrid state for drivers in the nation. I've driven on both coasts, in the middle and even New York city, which wasn't bad at all. Texas drivers suck balls. It's astounding to see the kinds of moronic mistakes they make. Add the holidays in the mix and that's it, nightmares-r-us.

Shopping at something as basic as the grocery store during the season? REDUNCULOUS. I tried to get everything I needed for Thursday's dinner purchased by this past Saturday. I was almost successful. I forgot the gravy. No I do not make my own gravy, it's too easy to buy it in a jar and I can't tell the difference in taste. Yes, I do the whole turkey dinner thing all by myself for just me, the hubby, and the kid. Yes, it's a lot of food but when I got the turkey I called the hubby to let him know that some how (miraculously) the thing fit in our freezer. He then asked, just to make sure, if I bought one big enough that we'd have left overs. Let's think about this for a moment. The average small turkey is at least 10lbs right? Maybe? Close? There's 3 of us and one of us is 9 years old. How much of that bird do you think we're going to eat? Yeah, not all of it at once.

We have a thing for turkey leftovers in our household. A week out, when everyone else is sick and tired of them we're getting sad because we don't have anymore. I make a turkey noodle soup with matzoh balls (basically the same as my chicken noodle soup with matzoh balls) which is always a hit with the homestead. Yes, it's made from scratch, no it's not hard at all. I can even whip it together after coming home from work for dinner that night. Seriously easy as long as the chicken or turkey is already cooked. That's what I use those roasted chickens at the grocery store for. I also make left over mini turkey pot pies using a muffin pan, pie crust (pre-made, I don't have the patience to make pie crust), green bean bake (the Campbell's soup version), and turkey. There's a more fancy version here : Second day turkey and string bean pot pies
But you can change it up of course, I don't bother with the milk or chicken broth. We also have a thing for the basic turkey sandwich with just mayo salt pepper bread and turkey. You know, the old standby right?

For the dinner I do the most basic turkey day dinner. Turkey, mashed potatoes (yes, I leave lumps in and I don't mash them into some semblance of soup), gravy (from a jar), green bean bake (Campbells soup version), stuffing (no cranberries or walnuts, I use olives, celery and water chesnuts), and a dessert. The turkey is not brined. I tried that one year and we all hated it, too salty. I do mine in a bag and I've always had awesome success with it. I grow my own rosemary and do a rosemary butter rub with it and it's divine. Ahh turkey...
The dessert we've tried different things with. The hubby doesn't like cakes or pies for the most part so I've got to get creative. I tried a pumpkin cheesecake one year but the damn crust wouldn't come out of the pan. Rock freaking solid. I personally love pumpkin pie from Costco but it's HUGE and the hubby doesn't like pumpkin pies. Last year he finally tried pecan pie (yes, homemade, soo easy!) and he fell in love with it. I'm sooo glad too since I love it. I decided my adventure this year will be a small twist the Pioneer Woman did on her throwdown with Bobby Flay, I'm making the whiskey maple cream sauce to go over the pie. Whiskey on pie...just can't go wrong with that huh?

This prompted an alcohol purchase and of course I didn't have my hubby with me so I had to wing it. Lucky me they had a taste testing at the Costco alcohol section I was shopping at last Saturday. FYI I don't drink alcohol. Never learned to like the taste so I am not a good judge of alcohol. I went with the one that didn't make me cough. Sound about right? Yeah well it's going into a sauce anyway.

So yeah, with the exception of the whiskey cream sauce going over the pie my turkey day dinner is super basic. Might I also add I don't know why people spend so much time on these dinners. Turkeys are just big ass chickens and as long as you follow the instructions normally on the package somewhere (lbs and minutes to be cooked) you're golden. Everything else is just as easy. So not a big deal and it doesn't take all day! Well peeling potatoes can take awhile but really that's it. Even if you make your own cranberry sauce, it's easy peasy! I don't. The kid LOVES the kind that comes in a can. Works for me...

So how about you guys, do you make your own dinner so you can get left overs? I swear even if it was just me and the hubby I'd still make my own dinner. I hated going to see family and listen to their bs just so we could eat. Yes, the holidays are so not my fav time of year.

Since it's been awhile for pictures...

I have a camera, a really lovely one at that. I posted about getting it way back when but sadly y'all don't get to see pictures from me all that often. That's because I suck about actually using said camera. So pathetic. But I have used it a few times these past few months. Only a few times though. And for those of you not into reptiles this will hold no entertainment value.

You see I had a few new happenings in the vivariums in my house. The monster big ass Vietnamese mossy frogs (T.corticale) that were the size of a man's thumb finally popped all 4 legs, sucked up their tails, and came out of the water. Finally, real frogs!
The first one to come out of the water, notice the small tail remanent


You see there are 2 mossy frogs here if you look close. They're the 2 blobs that look just like...moss...



But wait, there's more! First weekend of November NARBC came to Houston for the first time. They didn't advertise it worth a damn though so while there were a lot of vendors there weren't a lot of people buying. Sad because this means they probably won't come back again. BTW, NARBC is one of the biggest reptile shows going. It's awesome. So I was getting into the whole gargoyle gecko thing already. I bought 3 6 month old clutch mates the week before going to the show so when I saw they had some there I ended up buying one. Shocking? No I didn't think so. The new one is 13 months old and no, I can't tell the sex of any of these guys yet. They have to get bigger. I've taken to naming them after orange sodas since they are all considered to be of the orange variety (they come in red, orange, and black and white but the colors are not always all over them, mostly just hints). Their colors change depending on levels of aggitation or day and night. "Fired up" is when they are darkest, normally at night. "Fired down" is when they sleep during the day, yes they are nocturnal. So now we have the orange sodas...

Nehi
Fired up


and fired down sleeping all funky like they are aught to do


Then my smallest Orange Crush semi fired up while sleeping



Then there's Fanta, totally unfired and looking like whitey



And lastly Sunkist, my scardy cat who is getting more and more used to me. He's semi fired up.



For reference that water dish Sunkist is next to is one of those 2oz containers you get dipping sauces in. The 3 youngest ones (not Nehi) are 3-4 grams each. Nehi is a whopping 8 grams. They'll get much bigger 40-60 grams, at about 2 years of age. I got these guys because they are VERY easy keepers (unlike the dart frogs) and the kid wanted something she could hold. She asked for a bearded dragon and I don't like their toes. The geckos have cute toes. And there you have it, obviously Michelle has some strange reptilian toe fetish. Again, surprised? No? I thought not.

Winter, love it or hate it?

Well I'm bored at work with a brief amount of time on the internet. This always results in some random brain blop of thoughts for you. My deepest apologies.
Texas has almost been released from the tenacious grip of summer. It's only going to have a high of 82 today, woot! Please note that the opinions that follow are from a woman stuck with her husband's Jeep. The one that has broken a/c. Again. We've had it 'fixed' 5 times in the last 1.5 yrs of ownership. Fucking Jeeps.

I know people who absolutely dread the coming of winter months. I find that if you live in the sunbelt the dread is not so intense. My minion at work is really into tropical so he loathes winter. Which down here in hot land is not so bad. Really. It's not like San Diego but hey, I can own a house here so there's a trade off right? My minion would be happiest in Florida. Or maybe Hawaii. I could pass on Florida but Hawaii I'm sure I'd be game for.

My hubby and daughter love it when it ices, they think it's cool. As long as I don't have to drive in it I like it. I think those 2 wouldn't mind living in the snow though (freaks) so I don't count their opinions. Well, that and neither of them have actually lived in a snow city before. They just don't know....
I was living in the Washington DC area for 6 years. No thanks, not my thing. Mainly because people don't know how to drive in the snow worth a dick. And those snow plough drivers are psychotic. Scary as shit.

So hows about y'all? Winter, love it or hate it?

Peppermint ice cream

After Halloween I believe the year goes down hill. Fast. I'm a Scrooge, I think I've told you guys this before, yes? Thanksgiving is ok because it has that food thing going for it. The kid doesn't like it so much though because I had that aneurysm that one Thanksgiving. I can understand her misgivings. Christmas just bites. It's only redeeming quality is Christmas music. That I can do. The commercialism disgusts me as do all the frantic people who suddenly lose the ability to function during the months of November and December.

The big thing I love about the holiday season, and might I add that I share this delight with my mother in law (let it never be said that we don't share some commonalities), is the seasonal peppermint ice cream. It rocks. I'm not a huge ice cream fan, I can go long stretches of time without it, but this stuff. Oh yeah, it's the stuff.

Please tell me why....

I have this running dialog in my head some times. There are random questions that come up. These are the ones that seem to repeat:

If you can't park your freaking car DON'T BUY IT.

Why do people think it's ok to roll out of bed, get dressed, and go out with just brushing their hair and teeth? If we're lucky? I don't like the smell of unbathed people, it's just gross. Bathe people BATHE! You stink no matter how used to the smell of yourself you are.


At what point of grossly obese does one look at ones self and say, Huh, maybe I should slow the gluttony? Seriously, 15-25 lbs of excess weight I can let slide. And even then it's pushing it but man, these people carrying so much extra weight they're losing the ability to walk? How do you let yourself get that way? Freaking terrifying.

It's October. Not even the end of October. Why do the stores no longer have Halloween stuff in them? Why is there only Christmas stuff up now? CHRISTMAS BLOWS. If you want my money you'd best celebrate Halloween until OCTOBER 31st. You know, Halloween day? Fucking morons.

If you have any other reoccurring random observations feel free to comment. I may even add to this list later...

Have I mentioned lately?

Well now I couldn't have since I haven't posted lately huh? Yeah I know, whatever. I've been busy!

So it's October yes? It's the greatest month of the whole year. You know why? It's my kid's birthday month. It's also the month summer seems to loosen it's strangle hold on Texas (thank gawd). And the month that baking finally can be done because who wants to turn on the oven when it's over 90 degrees at midnight? Yeah not so much.

The month so far has been insanely busy. I feel like every weekend I do a thousand and one things and I still haven't finished what needs to get done. The hubby is gone this week for work training so that doesn't help any. If he's lucky when he comes home all the inhabitants of the house will still be alive (and probably fed too) and the house will not have burned down. The dishes, laundry, and poo picking up in the back yard will be waiting for him though. I get the kid to school on time every morning though (and fed!) and her homework gets done everyday. The trash went out on trash day and the recycling on recycling day and I need to get me another housewife because doing all this shit by myself is total and utter crap. The floors did not get done this week. But the kid was bathed every night (and fed).

I'm very neurotic about feeding things right now. I've got all these vivariums with different inhabitants, only 2 of which are on the same feeding schedule. The snakes (thank goodness) only eat once a week and that's now the hubby's job because his 2 new gray banded king snakes are 'nippy'. I watched them eat last week and those psychos strike at their food. My hand is not going in those cages oh HELL NO.
The dogs normally get fed in the am by the hubby and pm by the kid. I have to make a concerted effort to feed them in the am because it's not part of my regularly scheduled program. Hubby gone for the week jacks everything up, I don't do schedule changes well. Don't like it when the system gets messed with! All creatures of habit please raise your hands now...

This Saturday the kid turns 9. FREAKING NINE. WTF? I still remember putting her in pink footed sleepers. Jeez we're old. And we're trying to make another one? At this rate she'll be old enough to have kids before we can make another. Nothing like trying to defy mother nature...

This kid is awesome though. I know all parents say that but I have teachers and other parents go out of their way to tell me how great she is. Actually they say great and unique. Apparently our geek is genetic and she got a double dose. She's also very scientific which seems to impress grown ups. She loves it. Plus it's just damn cute.

We had her first parent teacher conference for this year Monday night, I'm always curious to see if her teachers find her interesting. I'm not worried about them liking her, they always adore her. She's one of those that stays friends with all of her past teachers through the years. It's wonderful to watch. The year her teacher went on about how she's one of the kids that a teacher remembers through the years.

Our kid is awesome, we rock.

Another one....

The San Antonio Reptile show was this weekend. Oddly enough I have never been tempted to purchase a reptile or amphibian from this show. 1st cardinal sin of reptile shows, buying an animal that looks cool but you have no idea what it is or how to take care of it. Happens constantly! I'm scared of doing this, to the point of OCD. I have never gone both weekend days of this show so I've never had the chance to go, see something I like, come home, research it sufficiently, and then go back and buy it. This weekend was an adventure. Since the hubby is gone for 12 days (he was promoted to sergeant and they have to leave for training) I had a super free weekend (minus the chores that still aren't done) the kid and I went to the show Saturday and then again with my neighbor friend on Sunday (he worked Saturday). I found a teensie tiny frog that I fell in love with. The seller called it a Peacock Reed Tree Frog, aka Big Eye tree frog. They start out a vibrant green peacock like color but normally turn brown as adults, which get to about 2-3" big. I'm ok with that and so I went home to study up on it with the intent on buying Sunday if I deemed it a frog I could handle.

The only reservations I had were the seller was a regular at the show and my minion has purchased from him before. With less than stellar results(many died in less than a week). Apparently the seller often sells wild caught animals. Wild caught animals are usually smuggled out of their country of origin (yes, illegally), shipped under poor conditions in crates to other countries. Then sold in bulk to middle men (like this one). A business practice I don't really want to support. These frogs though, they didn't look wild caught. Wild caught normally look emaciated due to stress, they won't eat, and they also get skin lesions. Also these are so small they can only eat basically what dart frogs eat, fruit flies and spring tails. You have to culture these feeders yourself and not everyone is willing to do this. Well ok most people aren't willing to do this. These frogs are very young and about 1/2 inch long. I'm thinking a month ago they may have been tadpoles. It makes it less likely that these were wild caught, they may very well be captive bred. I asked the seller (not expecting the truth but you never know) and he said wild caught. Then he said well, he didn't really know because they came from a new supplier so they could be captive bred.

I decided to get 2 because they were cheap and pretty and I knew that if anyone could keep them alive it would be me. Vain? Yes. Meticulous? Dude, I'm an analytical chemist. So we'll see how long I can get them to survive. I'm super excited about raising fogs that are not commonly found and I can't find anyone who breeds them yet. Maybe I got a pair with these two...

This image is from Google images, since my shot was so terrible (I need a macro!) I figured I'd give you all a better idea of what they look like in real life. Really, lovely frogs.

Down for a day

A whole day. My Internet. DOWN. This was a tragedy, seriously I'd like to see how you weather through it. I'm not talking about you traveling and hanging out on the beach all day no Internet. I'm talking regular at work then come home to no Internet. The kid had homework due that instructions were to be downloaded and printed out. I had to email her teacher (from my phone) admit my plight, and have her print it out for the kid and send it home. I mean GEEZ!

There is a method to the madness though. We had Time Warner Cable. The bundle of home phone (useless much?), cable, and Internet. They pissed us off. First off it was cheaper to get the bundle rather than just the 2 services we need (cable and Internet). Then it was insanely expensive regardless unless you got some sort of special. That ran out after 12 months. On month 13 you'd get a super sized bill and have a coronary, call TW cable, and beg them for some new deal. And swallow that one big ass month 13 bill. Every 13 months it reoccurs like some evil birthday. I don't want a special freaking deal, I want service that isn't astronomically priced! Apparently that's too much to ask. And I did ask. Every 13 months.

Then there's the service. There's nothing special about the phone, we only use it to receive telemarketing calls. The Internet was fine but nothing spectacular no matter how many times Manu went on about speed. The cable is what really pissed us off though. We only watch a few channels (like 5) and we have a DVR to record mommy and daddy's shows. For whatever reason (and I really don't give a shit what the reason was) the few channels we watched (including the kid's channels) were coming through pixelated. Completely unwatchable.

So let's do the math. We were paying close to $150 a month for a phone we don't use, Internet, and tv shows we can't watch. Seriously I can't believe we stayed with them for as long as we have. It's embarrassing to admit. Now mind you I didn't bother giving TW cable a chance to fix our issues with the cable. After evaluating what we were paying and what we needed I really could care less if they could fix the cable box since I payed so much for the 'special' and it only lasted 12 months.

One day last month AT&T Uverse called and asked if I wanted to switch. I half listened to the spiel and went with the cheaper one. Hey it couldn't be much worse than what I already had and it cost less. It took a little while, the phone was switched right quick though. The tv came in, we somehow ended up with Direct TV, whatever. It's totally watchable, clear, survives during storms, and easy to use. We're good.

The Internet. Yeah it was a bit more convoluted, took a few phone calls for us to figure out what we needed vs what we had. Finally got the box in though and my turn on time was scheduled for the next day. Now by this time I had cancelled only the phone and cable with TWC, my TW Internet was still going. Of course when AT&T took over my lines the day before activating me they kicked out TWC service. Hence my day without the nets. Once my go time passed I got on the phone with tech support though and was great. Hooked fast with no issues. The day between though, wow. My iphone had the battery almost sucked dry with doing Internet stuff on it.

Embarrassing, really....

Pet #95,456, yet another mammal....

I am on a 'no more mammals unless I give birth to it' kick. I'm done with the dogs. Love them, just not ever going to get anymore, I'm done with them. I was over chinchillas before moving back to San Diego in 2000, Smidgen is well over 10 years old and can't possibly be long for this world. In the meantime his cage is being used as a stand for 2 new vivariums. My new motto is 'pets only in vivarium form'. If I can't seal them up in a glass box I'm not interested.

Of course there was that whole 'grandmother in San Diego bought the child a rat' thing. Remember me blathering on about that? Well since grandmother did not want to pony up the $75 to ship said rat home with the child we, thankfully, dodged that bullet. Not completely though. The bargain was when the child got home we'd get her a critter of her choice. As long as it wasn't a rat or a hamster. I hate hamsters, they bite. She had her heart set in a guinea pig. I'm oddly ok with that. Then again, even though I don't like rats or hamsters, I've always had a thing for rodents.

So this past Friday (yesterday) I took the child to the pet store and let her pick out a rodent. We already had a guinea pig cage from when we first moved to Texas 4 years ago. I got rid of the chinchilla cage in San Diego with the hopes of deciding on a new bigger one out here. I bought the guinea pig cage as a temp while I ordered Smidge his massive condo. The temp cage has since been stored in the garage. When the kid found out we already owned a cage for a guinea pig she just about had a fit of delight. It basically set the deal in stone. She was waffling between the pig, a bunny (I've raised dwarf holland lops before, I don't want to again), or a turtle (I would have talked her into a tortoise). The guinea pig was by far the lesser of many evils. Many evils. Did you know hermit crabs stink? Yeah we got off easy.

So even though we need another pet like we need another hole in the head (did I mention a friend of mine is giving my hubby 2 of the gray banded king snakes he's always wanted? No? Yeah...) we now have a guinea pig. Named Topf. She's a girl, black with gray and white. I'll get a picture of her when I get off my lazy duff. BTW Topf is the name of an Earth Bender from Avatar, the last Air Bender, the kid's new fav cartoon.

Haunted...by a drink...

A non-alcoholic one at that. Of course if you knew me you would know that since I don't drink alcohol. Never really learned how to acquire the taste for it so I don't bother. In high school I got to drive everybodys car since I was always the designated driver. It was fun. Anyway last week I was visiting San Diego and I got to out a lot to dine with friends. Oddly this was almost never for dinner, mostly lunch and 1 breakfast. Even more strange, I went mostly to places I had never been before.

One lunch I had with my friend Anna and her co-worker and they took me to Eclipse Chocolat. Yes darlings that's a foodie chocolatier place and it is divine. We ordered a fruit and nut platter with melted chocolate fondue to munch on and some divine 'cupcakes' for lack of better descriptions I suppose the title cupcake is close but really, does them no justice. They have a variety of different chocolate, chocolate/coffee, and teas, both hot and cold, drinks to choose from. I also noticed that they had their version of Thai iced tea. I have a weak spot for Thai iced tea, especially with boba (not what they had here) so I actually ordered a non-chocolate drink from a chocolatier. I was feeling a bit guilty until I tasted it. OMG it was the most amazing Thai iced tea I have ever tasted. Ever. It was very unique, I could recognize the Thai iced tea taste for the base of the drink but they took it someplace else too. There were coconut and chai undertones that made it something above and beyond your average Thai iced tea. Hats off to the creative streak of those chocolatiers. They rock....

Yes, I just wrote a post on a glass of tea I drank in San Diego. If you ever are near there you must go and try some.....

Ranitomeya orange lamasi

AKA thumbnail sized poison dart frogs of the orange variety. I smuggled these home from San Diego. You see the alternative was to ship them overnight which is insanely expensive and the frogs are very temperature extreme intolerant. And no, poison dart frogs are not allowed as carry ons on Southwest Airlines. Or any airlines for that matter. I printed labels with their name (the one in the title, not poison dart frogs) and tropical frogs written on it and put each in an individual 16oz clear deli containers. Then handed them to security and told them they needed to be hand inspected. They took them to the hand inspection area and gave them back once I made it though x-ray. I put them back in my big purse and proceeded to fly to San Antonio without ever mentioning them to the stewardesses. Yeah, I'm sure I broke a few laws but really, how dangerous are these little things? They aren't poisonous unless they are eating their native prey in south america. With their domesticated diets of fruit flies they aren't poisonous anymore. And they're smaller than your pinky nail, not exactly 9-11 material. They are so damn teeny and adorable even the hubby admitted that he thinks they're cute. Because they are.

Once I got them home I put all 3 in their quarantine container (a 190oz clear deli container) where they will stay until they get a clean bill of health. What does that mean for a frog? They can get internal parasites just like dogs and cats so they have to have fecals run. And just like in dogs and cats they have to have one run every 2 weeks until 3 in a row come up clean. Alternately you can just own frogs and not care if they have diseases. All frogs can have these parasites, most people just don't know it and for the most part don't care. Your average pet store frogs is cheap and if it dies because it has hook worms it's no big. Dart frogs are expensive, some go for over $200 each. I don't own any of those. Yet. But you know I was a vet tech for 5 years. Those fecals run on dogs and cats? You know who ran those? That would be us, the vet techs. The kid has a microscope, I have the know how, I can check them myself no problem. So it's not as financially silly for me to keep them in quarantine and run the tests. There is 1 other test that is more expensive that I will be running but even then, since I work in a lab I can reduce the costs greatly. There's a disease wiping out entire species of frogs in their native habitat called Batrachochytrium dendrobaditis, or more commonly known as chytrid. They do PCR testing (really insane) to figure out whether or not captive bred frogs have it. It's nasty, aggressive, and will wipe out an entire collection of frogs so yeah, I'm testing for it. I'm a scientist and PCR was something I watched neighboring biologists do at my old research lab. Yes, I am a nerd. Plus it's the responsible thing to do. Gawd I'm so old....

Belly shot!