Ryvita and Roaches

I have decided to get back in touch with my "Bad Girl". It's no fun being stressed and working too hard. Time to put your foot down ladies - especially if it's wearing a nice slinky stiletto! After weeks of prodding people, I got annoyed and sent an email to one of our in house dragons. She's got a ferocious reputation, but my god, does she get the job done! I aspire to put the fear into people the same way she's done. There's a shakeup starting AND my extra hours are being paid - not just excess hours pay (normal rate) but overtime pay (double rate) - so I can't exactly complain!

I have also decided to lose weight. I tried houmous and Ryvita - and it's actually quite tasty as a lunch thing. Nuthin' compared to my kickass curry. Sweet and light highs, fruity melodies, with a Scotch Bonnet synthkick and caramelised onion and pepper bassline.

Kyle's happy because she pigged so hard on roaches she hocked up a live one again. She's got good at it now, she catches and eats it before it gets away from her, thank goodness. Tsam is sulking because I've taken out his ratty old leaves and haven't replaced them. Terry is growing fast, 7.4g at last feeding. I'm attempting to get him to fend for himself, but it's going slowly...

Beetles and Butterworms

Cleaned all the aquatics tanks and noticed to my dismay that the miniature strawberry plants didn't survive the transition from cold outside to warm inside. Never mind.

The beetles have been transferred to their winter habitation as the temperature is dropping rapidly in the shed, and a nice big box of butterworms arrived today. These bizarre insects have a very distinct smell - almost pleasantly sweet, with an odd fruity smell. If anyone's stuck as to what to get me for Christmas, I would love some more! www.butterworms.co.uk The dragons absolutely LOVE these juicy fat worms.

Chicken in pepper sauce with mushrooms, baked mushrooms, veg and spicy wedges for dinner - yummy!

Solved an argument about how to become a great carving craftsperson. "Remove any parts that do not look like the object you are looking for. For instance, if it does not look like a tiger and you want to make a tiger, simply remove all the bits that do not look like the tiger."

I had to laugh at "Most Shocking Fights & Wild Riots 4" - one of their starting features was a "riot" in New Zealand. A man's hat was knocked off.

Appropriate Anagrams

I've been playing with an Anagramater and found some lovely perfect 'grams.

Kuleana Graeme Squishee (Her middle name is a promise to a friend of mine, that one of my animals would have the name!): "As I am keen, huge squealer..."

Tsam Wilhelm Eatdaleaf (Tsam's middle name is a reference to his breeding - he is of course, a German Giant): "Ahem, well-made fatalist!"

Eden Cali Kingsnake - "Dance, like sneaking." Particularly appropriate for such a large snake; she hides very well and moves like water.

Those that know me - check this out for downright creepy. Go to http://www.deanjackson.dj/nameanagram, type my FULL name in and search. His Lordship was most amused.

Dragonflies and Disguises

I stunned His Lordship today; we went for a walk in the lovely sunshine with the dragons and I spotted a red dragonfly flitting around. As he watched, I spoke to the insect and called for it to land on my outstretched palm. It lit gently down, turned a circle and contentedly spread its wings in the sun. "Cor blimey," says he, "well, would you look at that!" You only have to ask them nicely if you want to summon dragonflies.

I would like people to make me a promise - I was thinking about it on the way home from work on my little motorbike. I saw a flatbed truck with some weebly portaloos, green ones this time, I see a lot of blue ones too, and I thought to myself: "If I ever get killed by something embarrassing, like being crushed by a portaloo, then please would someone twist the truth a little? Make it, make it a truck full of money or gold bars, or something cool at the very least." I don't want to be remembered like poor Luther Burbank - his last words were "I don't feel good." (Worldofquotes.com)

I'm also planning this year's Halloween costume - we're looking a bit Final Fantasy, photographed in Black and White... Could be tricky, but I have a gorgeous wig being shipped over from China already. I'm thinking to wraptie the a few inches at the back, about halfway down, loosely with a wide black silk bow. Should go nicely with my black PVC ballgown.

Derren Brown next week - attempting to literally glue you to your seat. Friday 9pm, Channel 4.

AWESOME!

Today has been an awesome day. I had one hundred trillion dollars land on my doorstep. Which is freakin' awesome! Thankfully it's Zimbabwean (pre-decimalisation), so we didn't kill the postman lugging all those sacks down the street; practically worthless but I thought it sounded pretty damn cool. Let's face it - when was the last time any of YOU could say you owned one hundred trillion dollars? I can't even remember how many zeros that's supposed to have.

I have watched a special Derren Brown skit where he attempts to guess LIVE the lottery numbers of today. Awesomely, he got all 6 right! I look forwards to seeing how he did that, Friday at 9pm on 4. (pic: Tvscoop.tv)

More awesomeness today:
I found my dragon shirt.

I found my GameBoy adapter.

I found my MP3 player and good headphones.

AND I found my passport.

Which is AWESOME!

I wanted to find my MP3 player and suddenly had a flash of yellow. I searched high and low, discovering why I couldn't find everything - someone had moved it! My yellow bag with all these things I wanted (including the passport, which I've been looking for, for over a year) turned up tucked behind some chairs, behind someone's storage box, behind a bag in the bottom of the pine shelving.

Lovely Lizards...

Kyle has been in a terrifically good mood all weekend, she's had plenty of basking time and all her favourite dinners. Tsam has submitted to her when she's on the windowsill which has been a huge ego boost for her - not that it makes her boss, but it makes her feel Top Lizard for a while; she's quite happy to submit to him the rest of the time. He might be the Big Cheese but he still can't resist duvet snuggles. Note: however big a lizard is, if you treat him or her like when they were small, they will LOVE it. The fact he submits when she's higher is interesting, he's not really fussed about being Boss, he just does it because it's his job and Kyle can't be bothered to knock him into line. He is big after all.

Terry is growing at a lightning rate now - 5.9g on Thursday, 6.1g on Saturday, 6.6g Wednesday and maintaining those lovely markings and colour patterns. Still not sure of Terry's sex, but I've never been worried by that - I've got it wrong for most of them in the first few months anyway!

Progress with Snek is slow, she's more Sneak than Snake - but we'll get there. I have respect for her and a distinct lack of trust - she knows that and appreciates it thankfully. I upped her mouse size and she's getting used to being stroked with the toughglove again. I've used the glove often in the past when she's gotten a little crazy, it discourages her from biting - not that I think she will, it's just a precaution. She can be snippy when grumpy.

Our new bottle of olive oil exploded too. We're still not sure what happened, but George heard a smash and was puzzled when there wasn't anyone in the kitchen. Until he got hit by a tidal wave of finest virgin oil. It was a brand new, unopened bottle which has mysteriously blown out at a bottom corner, causing the side and top to drop into the middle. Most odd. But it's done a lovely job of waterproofing my cork mats on the side...

Plum Jam and Wine

Going home to the north was deeply pleasant. I'll be exhausted for the rest of the week, but I'm glad I did it sooner than later. Amazing how I took lots of books, with the intention of reducing my stockpile, and ended up coming home with even MORE of the darned things! It's a good job I love reading.

I also have a pot of Grumps Cats best golden scrumpy plum jam (plums stolen from the local park, gives them extra flavour!), two bottles of Echo Falls Rose, a large stack of old Reader's Digest magazines, a box of coffee fudge (I'll give that to Himself, he likes coffee and fudge...) and two tubs of Vitalite. I know, it's an odd thing to receive as a gift, but I love the stuff and it's quite hard to get down south. (Pixdaus: Connie "Cluster of Plums")

Proper spoiling has gone on this weekend; two chicken dinners, cheese toasties with coleslaw, cheesecake and not one, but two portions of strawberries and cream.

Mum's Hua behaved himself this week too - rolling a submission he was spoilt silly with about an hours worth of headscratchies. Dogs do make you very warm though. You don't get that with lizards. I was glad to see everyone, and even more relieved that they were glad to see me too!

The sun is beginning to set - no dramatic skies this evening, just a sulky, dove blue cloud layer, a flash of metallic colour, coppery orange, puncturing a hole in its rubbery side; looking for all the world like a new two pence peice glinting through grey washing up water. Higher up there's a frosted fern tracery of cloud, but in honesty, it's nothing worth writing home about.

"The World I love, the trains I hop, to be part of..." - Chilis. "The birds that blow the meaning into Beebop."