I've been busy

I have been a stitching fiend lately. 5 new finishes in a week and 1 more frog stitched.


I added the 5th frog to Frog Pile, the little green on. I have 7 more frogs to stitch still; I have been working on it for about a year now.



I stitched a little bookmark for myself. Little Green Tree Snake, I got the pattern out of my Omni Book of Exotic pets.



I stitched up Ball Python, also from Omni Book of Exotic Pets. I left the words the pattern had on it out, it was designed with the words Sorry its one of those days. I stitched Dratini on it instead, the name of my Ball Python. Dratini is stitched on a piece of San Man Swatch, Opalescent 28 CT Jubilee color called Quiet Time.

I love my little ball python, it is just the sweetest snake. I can see why they are so popular.



Finished off 3 of the 5 Mill Hill Bead Kits I recently ordered.

Patriotic Bug



Owl



Canyon Santa



I have the other 2 Southwest Santas. I like the unique Santas, but I am very picky about my Santas so it surprised me that I liked all 3 of the Southwest Santas.

Right now I am working on Cora Colbert’s Letters from Nora – S. I expected it to be a little challenging. I had never done a Nora Colbert before, but this one is stitching up really fast I spent 2 hours on it yesterday and did more than half the piece.

I will post s picture of it when it is finished.

My young red tail boa Impulse recently got a new cage she needed a larger one and still could use a bigger cage, I am working on that for her, but for now she can stretch out again and move about. She got a new bigger hide that she seems to enjoy. She can conceal herself completely again. I have noticed she is more active since I moved her last weekend.

My big red tail Jupiter was showing off his size the other day. His cage is 4 feet long, 2 feet high and 2 feet wide. As you can see, I have a 6 foot plus male red tail in my collection. He is an awesome snake.

It's Snake and Break......

Salazar Slytherin passed away. He was alive on Saturday, today he was dead. I took Slyther into the vet August 4th and picked him back up on August 7th. When I took him in, he was feisty and alive and his colors where beautiful, his red was a bright Christmas red, his black was shiny, it had a sheen to it like motor oil in water, and his white was snow white. When I picked him up on Tuesday his color was the color of wet red brick, his black was matte and his white was a Country Crock (butter) yellow.


While at the vet she gave him an enema, and an injection of calcium, and some appetite starter for cats and dogs, a product called AD. I thought the color might be from staying at the vet for 4 days, and would return when he was back home in his home, under proper conditions. It was a shock to find him gone.

Slyther was 5 years old, maybe 6 now. I got him for myself for my Birthday last October. I hope his last few days where not painful, he looked awful today. He went from being full and robust; even if he was being a stinker about eating he still had a good body mass to a week later look as thin as a pencil. His spine was sticking up on his back this morning from head to tail. He did not look like this on Saturday.

I think I will find another vet for the next time I need to take a snake to the vet, I don’t want to find out the hard way they are a repeat offender to killing snakes. Poor Slyther.



And if it Ain’t broke….

My son took a dive at school yesterday, the cafeteria floor broke his fall, and almost broke his arm. The DR at the Urgent Care wasn’t sure but thought he had a fracture in his arm near his elbow, she could see a mark on the X-Ray that she didn’t think should be there. So she sent us to an orthopedic surgeon. He manipulated my son’s elbow, twisting it and turning it and bending it in all sort of directions. He thinks a nice deep bruise maybe the culprit. So his orders are to keep it in a sling for a week, no recess and no PE for a week and come back and if it is still bothering him he will do new X-Rays.

He has only been back to school a week today and already he has gotten broken at school. This could be an interesting year. I told him he couldn’t break anything more until after the 1st of the year. Mommy is out of sick and vacation time.

I did get to spend the day with my boy, the Urgent Care, then my work while I talked to my supervisor and called to find a DR to take him to, then we went to get Emissions on the car, might as well, we had 5 hours to kill before his next appointment, we went to lunch and then I took him to the Ortho DR. His Dad met us there and will take him to the follow up next week.

So thankfully no cast for the boy. Probably better this way, means it isn’t as bad as it could be, and he won’t have to deal with the smelly foot smell when the cast comes off, or the peeling skin like a snake and the zombie white boney arm from lack of sun and use. I think he was disappointed, I think he wanted the girls to pay attention to him with his broken arm.

I choose You

I finished up a couple of more Pokémon. Thanks to my son, the crazy little Pokémon Monsters that the kids I baby sat for in the 90s are back in my life. Below are the ones I stitched the last couple of weeks. I can’t decide if my favorite is Flareon or Charmander.



Flareon





Pikachu





Bulbasaur





Squirtle





My boy re-introduced me to Pokémon this year in January. He was playing a Pokémon game, Pokémon Heart Gold, and he also had Soul Silver. He gave me his Soul Silver to play. We next moved on the Diamond, Pearl and Platinum editions. I have Platinum. Then it was Black and White. I have White. I am really enjoying these games. I don’t normally like video games, but I am really enjoying my DS. I got a new game Pokémon Conquest. So he and I are actively waiting for the newest Pokémon Games to come out Black and White 2. They are due out sometime this fall.



I also finished up this cute little bull dog for my co-worker. He was a quick little finish. So cute.





I finished up a Kitty Moon for my Mom, Easter Kitty Moon.





I have a project I am going to start and I was getting the little pieces done before I started. I will post pictures of the project as soon as I can. But it will be a little while.



I hurt my back again this weekend. Monday I was in absolute agony. I went to Urgent Care. The DR gave me some pain killers and script to go and get my back X-Rayed, only issue I can’t afford to pay for the X-Ray. So I didn’t do it done. I will be seeing my PCP soon and I will pick his brain for what I should do next. I am seriously considering a Chiropractor. But they kind of frighten me so I will see if I will proceed with that.



I soaked my baby Sulcata today. I put him in the bathtub for the first time. Usually I soak him in a plastic show box container. Tucker got the hiccups while in the tub. So I kept hearing this little squeak out of him, with a head bob that scooted him backwards, followed by bubbles from the other end that seemed to startle him, cause he would immediately scoot himself forward again. Then it would repeat. After a couple of minutes I took him out of the tub and let him wander around the house. He left a water trail across my bathroom floor, least I know where he was until he hit the carpet. LOL. He is tucked safely back in his little box for the night.



Tucker with a couple of lady friends.





Tucker checking out a fruit snack package.

There’s a Monopoly card for that

I predicted wrong, we only hit 108 by the end of May, but that is still pretty hot, until June first rolled around 111, so I was off by a day.


I finished a Pokémon cross stitch I was working on. Little Charmander. I think he is adorable. There are 4 in the Christmas series I am doing. I am working on the 2nd now These will all get turned into ornaments and I will put them on my tree.



I am working on making a piece of all my favorite Pokémon. First one on the page of coarse was Dratini. Going to do one for Aaron’s favorite Pokémon too.

I found some great water dishes at the thrift store for the animals and they all have flat bottoms, meaning the animals can’t flip them over. Woo Hoo, I am so tired of Grumpy flipping the water dishes.

I took my Mom to Bookman’s traded in some books and my dancing Stitch toy. I left with $31 worth of credit. I got 3 movies, Rango, X-Men Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and a DS game that I don’t really care for. So I am going to trade it and get credit towards my game that comes out at the ned of the month that I am waiting for. I love Bookman’s trade in some junk I don’t want anymore, 3 boxes of junk and down size my clutter to 3 small DVD cases. Perfect and it didn’t cost me and new $$. Pretty nice deal.

Today I took Neo to the groomers. He got a really bad report card. Bites!!!! Petsmart won’t take him again.  so I have to find a new groomer or learn to do it myself. Which may not be a bad idea after all, save me $70 bucks every 8 weeks. Wonder where I can learn to groom him, I have clippers and scissors for dogs already, I shave Pit regularly.

So after I picked up Neo from the groomer we went over to Petco to get cat litter. I had a $7 off coupon if I spent more than $30, yeah I bought that much cat litter. 120 lbs, that will last about a week. Neo got 2 new toys too, a frog and some lamb called Lampchop.



Neo likes the frog



Well over at Petco I was just in time for the Reptile Rally, there was a scavenger hunt and beauty contest.

Scavenger hunt was fun, answer the questions on the sheet, get a participation sticker. I had to run Neo home and grab Toothless for the beauty contest. Should have brought Dratini or Candy.

So the prizes

1st place, a Zoo Med Frog Kit, tall tank, with the eco earth and moss

2nd place $10 to Petco


3rd place $5 to Petco

It was 1 Sulcata tortoise named Snooky and 4 Bearded Dragons, The Rock, Tinkerbell, Toothless and Bo.

1st place was Snooky, 2nd place was Tinkerbell and 3rd place… Toothless.



If I had won the tank I probably would have come home with a new White’s Tree Frog. The tank would have been perfect for a Dumpy Frog. Oh well like I needed another animal.

This is the first week with by boy gone for the summer. I hate the summer, my baby is gone for half of it. Today is only Sunday, I have to get through to Friday before I see him again.

Thats it nothing super exciting, but the 3rd prize in the beauty contest for Toothless was fun. I can use the card with my next coupon and maybe get out of the store with nothing additional out of my pocket. I am always shopping there.

Heat Advisory

A PERSISTENT AREA OF HIGH PRESSURE WILL RESULT IN EXCESSIVE HEAT

ACROSS THE DESERT SOUTHWEST THE NEXT SEVERAL DAYS.

...EXCESSIVE HEAT WATCH IN EFFECT FROM TUESDAY MORNING THROUGH

TUESDAY EVENING

5 Day forecast for Phoenix

Monday 102

Tuesday 104

Wednesday 105 <-- this is not hot nor is it excessive, you watch we will get hotter.

Thursday 103

Friday 99 <-- Look we are going to cool off again. LOL

I laugh that my weather forecast email calls this hot, excessive, and uses a little red thermometer instead of the normal sunshine. 105 is nothing, we are just getting warmed up. 115 is normal summer time high if not higher, come one we survived 121 here in the summer. Every couple of years we seem to get just a little bit hotter here in desert.

I predict by months end we will have already reached 110 if not hotter. Really come one, we are already in summer mode here in Phoenix when Valentine’s Day rolled in, Our seasons are hot and hotter. That about sums it up just right. And yes it is a dry heat, 99% of the time. So the stickiness is all you baby! LOL

So who wants to come out to sunny Phoenix AZ, forget the sunscreen back the fire suit?

At Long Last I am back online

It has been a little while since I posted. I lost my internet and well I am back up and running now. Just took a couple of months.

I finally paid off a huge monthly payment I was making. So I now own my bedroom set free and clear. Yeah! Playing catch up on other things.

I have had 3 new additions to my house. 2 new snakes another Red Tail Boa, I named him Jupiter. He is a nice snake, he is just really big. I think he will still get bigger.



I got a Ball Python, next to Hiss he is my favorite. I named him Dratini, means tiny dragon. It is from Pokémon. Dratini are said to be gentle shy creatures. That is a good way to describe my Dratini. He is a pussy cat of a snake. Actually pussy cat is the wrong choice of words, my pussy cats are anything but gentle. The word monster comes to mind when describing my cats.

Dratini has so made me fall in love with the ball python, that I for sure want more of them. I would like to attempt to breed them now. The idea frightens me, Ball Pythons are egg layers. There is a whole other level of care needed for eggs. I took Dratini in to be sexed and he is truly a boy. The kid that was checking for me liked his markings called them “unusual” and like his belly, it is pure white. Icould mean nothing, but it could mean he carried the gene for Piebald. So I want to find a female that is 100% Het for Piebald or just get a pie bald. See if I can get some piebald babies. The link below is to a photo of a nice looking piebald.

http://snakesnmoresnakes.blogspot.com/2008/01/photo-of-piebald-ball-python_03.html

These two came from a co-worker’s friend. He travel’s a lot for work and couldn’t invest the time these guys needed for feeding and handling. There was also issues with the wife not being comfortable with having to feed them so they came to live with me.

This is my Dratini


This is Pokémon’s Dratini.


Third creature I got was Tucker, an 8 month old baby Sulcata tortoise. He is about the size of a plumb right now but will grow into the size of a tire. Could weigh up to 150-200 lbs or more. To learn more about Sulcata’s check out this web site.

http://www.sulcata-station.org/



I had done my research and had decided I wasn’t going to invest in getting a Sulcata, but I knew I wouldn’t turn one away if one was offered. One was offered, so I have a Sulcata Tortoise now. He was receiving excellent care from the people I got him from they just traveled a lot and she didn’t like to leave him home alone.

This little cutie is Tucker


My babies finally turned 1 years old. Yeah that means I no longer have kittens in my home. The last 3 years I have had at the very least 2 kittens in my home. I was tired of the little monsters.

Here is Emmy (blue) and Grumpy (tabby) when they where their cute little monster selves. 2 weeks





My Girls at 1 years old.





I just had to include this one, Grumpy giving me the look.



This is why Grumpy doesn’t like me…..



And how I know she loves my son no one is forcing here to sit there, she just is.


I have gotten some stitching done while I have been off line. I did some more work on my frog pile piece. I also stitched the logo for the New England Patriots for a friend. First I had to design the pattern. Thankfully this was an easy pattern to work on.



I took the snakes and Toothless to my son’s school for the kids to meet them. The kids loved it. They all got to pet Toothless and hold Hiss. Next year I will probably allow Dratini to be held as well. I just him he is a nice and calm snake just like Hiss. I will find those pictures and post them as another entry.

My boy has gotten me addicted to Pokémon games, I have my DS so he and I don’t fight over who gets to play it now. I play 3 different games, Silver, Platinum and White. This obsession is also part of the reason Dratini was named Dratini.

I will have to post again when I get my other pictures back; I took my son 2 weeks ago to the Grand Canyon deer park with my step mom and got some fun shots of the animals. I also got to know my step Mom a little better over the weekend.

So that is my update, still animals, animals, animals in my world. And to end this shot here is a picture of 3 of my cats actually getting along.


 

Happy Mother’s Day to all my Mommy friends. Hope your day is great.

One of my pet peeves

I hate it with a passion to see a car parked over two parking spaces. Really, is your car that important to you that you have to park it in two spaces. What makes it worst is these people like to park at the very front of the stores or at the office.

I decided today that I am going to start park in the half of the parking space you left open in order to protect your car, and will deliberately open my car door as hard and as far as I can in order to hit your precious car.

If you feel that strongly about protecting your precious car, park in the back of the lot where there are fewer to no cars parked. No one will care if you take two parking spaces where no one else is parking. I am tired of tipping toeing around your car to not hit it. If you are going to take two spaces, I am going to park right next to you anyways and hit your car on purpose with my car door.

Ok I am off my soap box for now, I just needed to vent anyways.

Oh by the way this post was brought to you by no less then four cars in the office parking lot this morning parked over two spaces. What makes things worst, me included, are trying to park full sized cars and big ol’ sport cars – Mustangs and Chargers – in tiny little compact car parking spots. We know we are compact, but we park here anyways. We took the risk by parking here.