RAK for Me!

Boy…was I pleasantly surprised this morning at the office. One of the secretaries came to my cell cubical and asked me to follow her over to hers. She told me that she had an early birthday present for me (My birthday isn’t for four more months). Look what was waiting there!

It’s filled with all kinds of crafty stuff. Chris told me she saw it in a store, thought of me, and just had to buy it. How nice was that?!?

My Iguana…her name is Cosmo

I know…Cosmo is a masculine name…but we named her long before we knew she was a female. She’s been a good pet…she’s never bitten me, nor whipped me with her tail. She likes me

If you’re thinking about getting an iguana, give it some serious thought…they really are high maintenance. They require a special diet, which consists of a 2:1 ratio of calcium to phospherous fruits and vegetables….they require ultraviolet rays and Vitamin D for proper metabolic bone growth. They also need to be very warm…all the time. This requires heat lamps,,,and special tube lights which are expensive. Improper care results in a painful existence for the poor creature.

We’ve had our girl for a little over eleven years now. My son brought her home…told me he was going to take care of her for a friend while this friend was on vacation. After about a week, I googled ig’s on the internet, and came across a site run by a woman of the name of Melissa Kaplan. I’ve been following her advice…and things have gone swell. Oh…the girl my son was watching the ig for? She gave up all parental rights when I discovered that green iguanas require more than just romaine lettuce to survive!

You may have noticed that Cosmo doesn’t have a tail. Poor baby fell in her cage…broke her tail…it got infected…and the reptile vet had no choice but to amputate. It never grew back.

In my prior post, I mentioned that I had to make her vegetables.

The bowl on the left consists of chopped up collards with a large tablespoon of vegetable mix from the bowl on the right. It is also Cosmo’s dinner. The bowl on the right is chopped up green beans, acorn squash, alfalfa pellets, a few orca pods, some mustard greens, and several California mission figs…all chopped up in the food processor. I prepare the vege mix, put it in freezer bags…freeze it…and thaw one at a time…as needed. I mix greens with the vege mix…and that’s what she eats every day. Spinach is a no no….Collards, and Dandelion greens is what she likes best. No crickets…ewwwww.

As soon as the weather gets warm, I take Cosmo outside so she can get some rays…like I said, it’s good for her. She needs it to stay healthy. We usually put some warm water in a kiddie pool…where she sometimes poops. During the winter, she poops in our bathtub. Because Igs can carry salmonellae…we use bleach and water when cleaning up after her. Like I said, high maintenance.

This past October…we experienced an exceptionally warm day. I decided to take her out front for a walk. I always put her on a leash (it’s actually a rabbit or a ferret leash…I guess it doesn’t pay to advertise them as iguana leashes)…haha…don’t laugh. Anyway,,, whenever I take her outside to our front lawn,,, I get some strange looks from people passing by in their cars. One man stopped on this particular day…rolled down his window, and asked me what the heck I had on the leash. My reply, “It’s my dog…dressed up as a lizard for Halloween”. He drove away laughing and shaking his head. By the way, lizard poop makes great fertilizer

Of course I’ve done a scrapbook page on our Cosmo…and here it is

She’s such a good girl.

Ahhh…it’s the weekend

I always look forward to the weekend….I suppose it makes sense…seeing that I work full time during the week. I’m so tired of having to wake up every Monday through Friday and going into the office….After 30 years…it gets lame. This week though, I’ve also been looking forward to getting home to check what the mailman left. I ordered some crafty goodies from Oriental Trading

I can’t wait to get my purchases…all gnome related. Those little guys are so cute. Maybe scrapping a page or two about my garden (if that’s what you want to call it) will help ease the cabin fever I seem to be experiencing. I’m sure that tease of a trip to Florida at the beginning of the month didn’t help.

Here’s my latest creation…a page about my little niece….she’s so darn cute….and she had the cutest little pink sparkly shoes. Gwen lives 900 miles away, and we don’t get to see each other often at all. The last time we saw her, she was maybe one year old.

Little Gwen was in Florida at the same time we were…and apparently Uncle Garry (my hubby) made quite an impression. When she came over to visit us, she was very generous with her hugs and kisses..and not shy at all when invited to sit on his lap. After we got home, I sent her mom copies of several pictures that I had taken. Gwen was sitting with her mom when my e-mail came…and when she saw the picture of herself sitting on my husband’s lap, she smiled…pointed at the picture and said, “Uncle Garry!”. Her mom sent me a message the other day telling me that a few of her husband’s co-workers came over to their house to hang out. When little Gwen was introduced to one of the guys….she said “UNCLE GARRY!”…haha…apparently any strange man taller than she is..is Uncle Garry! LOL

Here’s a quick card I did for my daughter’s friend…the girl I made the Daddy’s Diaper Tool Belt for…she had a little girl *smile*

As I sit here looking out the window, I see snowflakes falling to the ground….ugh. Well, I better get up off my butt and wash the sink full of dishes that have been sitting there since last night. I’m going grocery shopping later. I need to pick up the ingredients for the iguana’s vegetable mix…I’m down to one bag of it. Iguana’s don’t live on greens alone, ya know! That’s another story….have a good weekend.