A New Arrival

But first, the finished KAL dishcloth. When I was growing up, my grandparents had some Christmas tree ornaments that looked just like this. Only they were wood. Some were natural colored and some were painted. But they were this exact same shape. I think this is supposed to be considered a snowflake. Not having seen much snow, I don't know.


And now, on to the sky:

It didn't look like this for long. About 30 minutes later, the entire sky was overcast. Cody and I had planned on going somewhere this afternoon, but J called and wanted him to come house sit today. He's been doing that, and I'm slowly getting the Christmas decorations taken down. I got a small plastic storage box from Wal-mart to put my ornaments in, and I'm throwing all the original boxes away. That ought to save a ton of room. The clever thing is, I'm using the garland for packing material, so no space is wasted. You have to think of these kinds of things when you have no storage space.

Now, on to the big news. My new nephew made his appearance last night at 7:58 PM. He weighed in at 7 lb 6 oz, and was 21" long. His name is Paul Curtis. The Curtis came from the uncle pictured here. You remember, the one wearing the Princess Tiara... This is appropriate since my sister was also named after this uncle. Him and my mother's grandmother. I don't have pictures of the baby, but I'll post them as soon as I get some.

Finally, a departure of sorts: Scarlett ate her last pinky today.

A pinky is the smallest size of mouse sold for food. They are called pinkies because they are the little newborn mice, and don't have any hair yet. Thus they are pink. The next size up is fuzzies. They are just starting to get their first little fuzz. I know some of you out there may think it's cruel to feed snakes baby mice, but that's what baby snakes eat. It's nature's way. The mice I buy are put to sleep, then killed in a CO2 chamber before I ever get them. That's not nature's way, but it is more humane.

Scarlett, if you'll remember, is the one who was throwing up all her meals a while back. I actually thought she was going to die there for a while. But thanks to some excellent and timely advice from Kathy Love, she has recovered and is flourishing. I have been feeding her very carefully, to avoid further regurges, and so she is still on smaller mice than her age mates would be. Blaze, who is the same age as Scarlett, is nearly 10" longer, and they were the same size when I got them. That shows how serious a snake throwing up is. Scarlett hasn't thrown up since September, and I think we may be beyond this. I hope so. The next test will come next Friday, when I feed her a fuzzy for the first time.

Wish us luck.

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