And Then There Were Five

I lost my sweet Scarlett last night.

I'm not surprised she was the first to go, as she was such a sickly hatchling.  

I thought I was going to lose her then, but thanks to some expert advice from one of the top corn snake breeders in the U.S. -- Kathy Love -- she pulled through. 

I feel lucky to have had her for 12 years. 

I laid her little body to rest beneath a thicket of brambles, and let her return to the nature from whence she came. 

OK, it was a sticker bush, but thicket of brambles sounds so much more poetic. 

If any snake deserved poetry, it was my beautiful bloodred baby. 


Goodbye, my sweet girl.  A part of you will always live in my heart.  

Today

Today has been a much better day. I knew it would be when I made it to work with both my coffee and my glasses.  

I knew it was going to be a really good day when...well, you see, Group Leader Fernando has gotten into this thing where he gives me the Stink Eye.  He's just being silly, but it is pretty funny.  Today, he was walking down the aisle when he started giving me the Stink Eye.  He kept on walking, giving me the Stink Eye over his shoulder as he continued down the aisle.

Where he ran smack into a buggy full of sheet metal parts.

I laughed so hard I nearly choked on the Nutri-Grain apple cinnamon cereal bar I was eating.  To add insult to injury, Supervisor Calvin saw it too, and he had to come over and rub it in a little.  That'll teach him. 

The rest of the day went off without a hitch, unlike yesterday.  Oh, yesterday was exciting.  Demarius' gas miser broke and flames went shooting all the way up to the ceiling.  OK, OK, not quite up to the ceiling, but they were big enough.  Jeff hit the emergency shut off button, then hit the flames with the fire extinguisher, and that was the excitement for yesterday. 

I mean, besides me being blind and cranky all day. 

One day this week, I'm going to be able to come straight home from work and not do anything.  Today was not that day. 

You see, I have these crazy dogs, and they seem to think I am supposed to feed them every single day. After work, I had to run into town -- again -- and get some more dog food.  Them dogs better appreciate me. 

Finally, so this post isn't a total waste of space, I got a surprise Saturday when I was cleaning out Scarlett's tank.

She'd laid eggs!  Of course, they weren't fertile, since she's never been with a male.  This is the second time she's done that.  Sometimes I wish I had the setup and time and all to breed her, but I don't. 

It would be cool, though.  Baby snakes are so cute. 

Bits and Pieces

It was HOT today.

How hot was it?  Well, I was waiting for the temperature to cool off enough to take Rylea for a walk, and by 7:00 PM it was still 95' out.  Needless to say, the dog didn't get walked. 

The heat doesn't seem to bother the tomatoes, though.

Or the blueberries.

This is not my garden, by the way. After working, and sweating, for 10 hours a day, the last thing I want to do is work in the yard. J planted this one.

This is, however, my bloodred morph corn snake Scarlett:

She will be 5 years old this August.  Can you believe it?  I was looking back through old blog posts trying to find a baby photo to compare with this one, and I got caught up in all those old posts from when she was regurgitating all her meals.  She couldn't keep anything down and I was considering euthanizing her.  Finally, I got some good advice from Kathy Love, and she pulled through.  I'm so glad I hung in there with her, because she has grown into a real beauty. 

The other day at work, one of my coworkers asked if these are my real eyes.  After staring at him blankly for a moment, I asked, "Why?  Do you think I have fake eyes?"

Where is the eye rolling icon?