In less than 8 hours after they were added to the tank, one of the shrimps keeled over. So we have 2 shrimps now and one missing conch. He was around somewhere last night but today, he’s gone into hiding. It’s been interesting for us to watch them explore their new surroundings. We even had dinner in front of the tank last night to watch as they poked around. They are doing very well getting along with the clown fish and the hermit crabs and they seem to like hanging out together too.

We went to a sorta nearby saltwater fish store today to get these guys!

Skunk cleaner shrimps.

And this dude.

Fighting conch.

Everything saltwater is so pretty. Many of the anemone look fluorescent under the lights. I’m looking forward to seeing these four walking about. For the longest time, it’s been just the percula clown fish, hermit crabs, and snails.

Our neighbor got a new 3-month old French bulldog pupster. Her name is Lafayette and she is as cute as you can imagine. She arrived three days ago to a warm family and a very tolerant cat. This puppy as you might imagine has already started her reign of puppydom on the household. I can’t wait for them to go on vacation so I can babysit the cat and puppy. Heck, I might be knocking on their door before they go on vacation just to play with her some more. She’s such a handful, teething with sharp puppy teeth, but very friendly.

What good timing, we were just considering fostering a dog, with their help (she’s home during the day, most days). But now that they have a dog, even better. I can play with her without being responsible for caring for the ball of energy!

She toddles when she walks, and isn’t too steady on her feet, it’s so cute. It’s 11pm right now, or I’d go knock on their door to play with her again. I’m going to be the annoying kid next door who keeps asking to play with the dog. Maybe I’ll come in handy for walks in the wintertime. I should learn how to knit puppy booties. Ack!

I’m hanging out today with the two little munchkins, Lunch and Dinner. Just kidding. They’re not meaty enough.

That, and Sims 2. A lot of it. Dawn til dusk. Hey, at least it’s a step or 10 above Farmville but still another mouse clicking exercise.

So Left Glove, tell me, what were you up to all day?
Chewed some wood.
Left poops all over the floor.
Chewed on some wires when no one was looking. I’m badass like that.

Wut?

RAAYYY-ZIN!!

I overpacked. It wasn’t too bad though. Just 2 dresses I never got to wear and a little sweater that went with one of the dresses. Turns out we never really dined anywhere too fancy and the few times it was dressier, it was too chilly for a summery dress (Paris). For a 12 day trip, that wasn’t too bad and they were just-in-case we found a fancy place we wanted to try anyway.

What I packed in reality:
5 pants (2 jeans, 1 casual non-denim pants, 1 yoga pants, 1 black cutoff pants (the last 2 are sleepwear and I wore the yoga pants during the travel back)
6 t-shirts/sleeveless tops
2 night shirts
2 button down shirts
2 long sleeve shirts
1 skirt
2 dresses (unworn)
1 light sweater to match a dress (unworn)
1 fleece jacket
1 light jacket
Benadryl (came in handy with allergies and bug bites)
Contacts and all the gear that comes with it
Jewelry (earrings and necklaces)
Sunglasses
Hat
2 Umbrellas
moneybelt
sunscreen
face products
dental hygiene necessities
makeup & remover
1 pair of flipflops
1 pair of sandals
Cameras & chargers with the European power outlet converter
3 4GB memory cards
Gorillapod
1 backpack and 1 camerabag purse
Travelbook

I wore:
A pair of jeans
A long sleeve top and a sleeveless top
A pair of very comfortable sneakers “my potatoes”

On a side note, last night one of our chinchillas, Gina I believe, started barking, kind of loudly and rhythmically. I’d never heard it before. They’re nocturnal so I’m used to them making noises, chewing, scratching, throwing cardboard about, but I’ve never heard them bark at night or during the day. The most they do is squeak. It was 2:30AM and I thought she was hurt or maybe Marco was crushed by his foodbowl. He thinks he’s a toughguy flipping over his heavy marble mortar bowl to the floor. They were quiet when we turned on the lights to check on them and both were just fine. Then when we left, the barking started again. It was rather cute. I’m bugging them right now. I like to pet Marco as he sits there with that flat expression on his face. Boinky boinky to his head.

I know I’ve talked about this to a few people, the idea of breeding either Marco or Gina. The idea’s been rolling around in my head for at least a couple of months. I’ve been looking for a suitable mate and I think I may have finally found her. A chinchilla posted for adoption on craigslist. She’s about 3 years old and the owner is moving and doesn’t want to take her along. This weekend, she’s going to come home and meet Marco. Hopefully, they get along. Baby chinchillas are so cute and I wouldn’t mind having a few more because they’re so easy to keep. I’ll probably only keep one kit though so let me know if you’d like the other. They usually come in pairs.

Today is the vernal equinox! This weekend is much much warmer (close to 80 degrees!!) and today is particularly sunny. I think working in cubicles gives me a false sense that the days are dim and dreary. Now I know it’s just our working conditions that are dim and dreary. Today, with windows to enjoy the full on sunshine, I figured out why the orchid’s leaves look like they’ve been fried crispy.

It’s always the fine print that gets ya.

The windowsill is full on baking sunlight in the mornings. I moved it away and applied soothing aloe and sunblock on those poor crispy leaves.

Look, here’s another sign of spring. The chinchillas are hot and molting.

Speaking of seeing birdies… No, really. It’s a bird. Flew in through the hole that leads to the hood vent of our kitchen. I freaked out telling my parents to nab it in a trash bag with a full on biohazard suit. They scoffed and asked what was wrong with me. I’m a city girl! I didn’t grow up playing with wild animals like they did. And they really did! I think bird-catching was a normal childhood activity for them. The bird was stubborn though, it wouldn’t come out even after we took off the screens to the hood. It hid on a ledge. We turned off all the lights so it couldn’t see, then my dad rooted around for it. After a while we gave up and turned on the lights and a few seconds after that, it flew out. First to the living room, then upstairs! I ducked and covered leaving my parents to fend for themselves. My dad went after it upstairs and I followed while telling him to shut all the doors. Backseat bird catcher.
It landed on the top of a doorframe and my mom handed my dad a fishing net to try to scoop it up. It flew away then somehow made it outside the door. The end.

I haven’t stepped outside today yet but I’ve noticed that it’s kinda’ dark indoors even with the shades open. What a glum day. Though it does feel Spring-like to be getting these rains. Actually it makes me want to start my garden soon! All this free watering happening and I’m missing out. So with the rain, today’s get-to-do activities consisted of cleaning the shower, toilet, floors, and tables. I broke another item. A statue. Dearie me, at this point, I don’t know what to say anymore. I had no idea I was so good at breaking things. It’s like a newly found talent. Who knows how long those six bowls will last. I’m putzing around doing laundry, cleaning the kitchen and eating snacks to further slow down my tax filing. I’m torturing myself with it. It’s not hard but so tedious. And I just don’t feel like typing in numbers anymore after doing that all week.

Let me go see what the animals are up to.

Putzing around, like me!

“Quit blogging and gimme more food woman!”

Update:
I was hoping to submit my taxes this afternoon but after doing it twice and getting two different results, I need to do it a third time! Dangit!

Update 2:
Ahmigawd!! No charm doing it a third time. Now I have three different results!! GAAAAh!!!
That’s it. I can’t do this anymore. I will have to finish it another time.

Update 3:
I got a repeat result! 2nd and 4th try were a match. Whew! Though based on this bad track record, I think I might do it again. Just to mess with myself. Later, with a fresh brain.

As sad as I was to leave warm Florida, I was glad to get to see my babies again. The shipment of toys and water bottle arrived too so they’ve been chewing on their wooden log cabin and timothy hay since yesterday. The log cabin wound up being too small for them even though I’d ordered the bigger one. They’ve grown too big! So they’re wooden chew toys now. I’m hoping it’ll spare the wooden furniture but my guess is, I’ll still have to keep an eye on them.

And my other babies. At work. Yes. Alas, it’s back to my babysitting job once again. My life wouldn’t be the same without these kids.