Oregon | From the Desktop of Sid and Nata

Well folks, I have been a very bad blogger. So far, no pictures, and no LS report for the newly molted. Things have been pretty crazy around the desktop, but rest assured, the goodies are coming.

MOLT UPDATE:

Annabel Lee Molted last Sunday, and is getting bigger by the minute! According to my note card records, she was a stunning 1/2″ after her last molt, which leads me to believe that she is around 3/4″ now!

Raven, Alee’s litter mate, should also be molting soon. According to the same records, she molted 6 days after Alee last time. I am curious to see if they will remain on schedule.

Additions Update:

Through the magick of Facebook, I have had the opportunity to meet and greet some of you, and many other enthusiasts from around the globe. One of whom has just successfully bred a Poecilotheria Subfuscia!! (Well…more like bred, egg sat, hatched, egged with legged, and over-saw molts into 2nd instar…) He has offered to send me one of these adorable little critters, and even managed to wrangle me an Ephebopus cyanathogos! (Blue Fang!!!!!!!) I am flattered by the gesture, and thank *you* for the idea!!

I hope to one day be in a position that allows me to also send out 8-legged packages to random people across the US.

Speaking of positions, an opportunity to move locations has come our way, and I must say that I am excited to jump on it! Currently, the desktop and I reside (with my husband) in a small apartment in Grants Pass, Oregon that is no longer meeting our needs.

Within the next month or 2 I expect us all to be starting fresh with a new apartment, and new jobs in our closest big city. This will not only grant me the opportunity to possibly meet other hobbyists, but it will also allow me more freedom to begin breeding projects as room and time expand!

One of the many perks of moving will also place me by SOU, where I hope to study biology, and pass (knowledge) along to 5th and 6th graders as a teacher. It took a high school teacher to inspire my love of reptiles and crawley things, and I want to bring the same joys to a kid like me…

(Thank you Ms. Bodily, you are one of my select heros.)

In addition to this, I am getting out of the retail game while I prepare to go back to school, so hours will once again change, but opportunities will grow for all of us on and around the desktop of Sid and Nata.

Let’s all not forget the upcoming NaNoWriMo event that starts in exactly 32 days! I will be taking on the task of 50,000 words by the end of November that may actually look loosely like a story that some may call a novel….. I am in research mode for this, and have a few ideas that may prove fruitful with a bit of TLC and lots of coffee! If you are in the mood to race with thousands of people from around the world,come join in at NaNoWriMo.org!! Look for me under the user name “Sidnata” and we can be writing buddies 🙂

Keep baring with me, and as soon as I get it together, the website and FB pages will be published for the world to see! Wish us luck!!

Frank Zappa was a loud, charismatic and over the top musician who put the song “Catholic Girls” in my head for years. Frank Zappa is also a flea bitten clump of fur that is currently licking unmentionable parts of his anatomy at my feet. It should be obvious to you that the lyrical genius behind the breath taking lyrics “Why does it Hurt When I pee?” is NOT the subject of this blog, and the brown and black striped Fancy Feast machine is.

Frank

Frank Zappa, aka Frankie aka Frank (pronounced “Fronk”) is a pain in my ass, and while he is currently plotting my undoing, I am sitting here wondering how high the “Kitty Copter” could launch him. We have come to an understanding over the past 2 years that I am the human around here, and he is to obey my every command-once he releases my ankle in his bear hug.

This handsome boy, destined to become a thorn in my sock, started out in a less that desirable way. He came to me in a box, and from the looks of it, from a person who wanted to just get rid of the kitten. (But used the story of “finding this kitten on the side of the road.” to tug at my heart strings a bit.)

I was living alone in the western side of Los Angeles, and as the manager of a pet supply store, I knew that having a little kitty around was exactly what I had wanted. Long story short, this was my first apartment without any traces of man or beast living along side of me. I was a free woman with just a job, and internet connection, and not a TV or social life in sight. Then came this kitty in a box, and my world suddenly became about it.

Funny thing about working at an animal supply store, is that one tends to not question when people tell you the sex of their pets. The thought was no different as I blindly took the man’s word that this little kitten was a she. My staff at the time put in suggestions for names immediately (as kitty spent my shift in the office) and the name Stella came about. (after the raw diet we promoted for animals.)

Stella went home that night with a purple collar, heart shaped tag, and all the kitty necessities.

Over the next few weeks, she seemed sweet until one day she discovered how to knock over a coffee cup, thus ending my cream colored carpet for good.

After the first triumph, it was over for any cup after that, until Stella graduated to change, plants, and anything else sitting on a surface.

Baaad Kitty Stella!!

OOPS!- Remember the guy who gave me this girl kitty? I guess he (and I) were too stupid to check under the skirt of this little kitty. Stella, the vet announced, is a boy!

Damn!

I again had to choose a name for this heathen in fur, and my boyfriend came up with the name Frank, after the legend, and after the moments we had shared listening to the pee song (long ago) in his car at the park. Frank Zappa it is.

About a year later, I flew Frank to Oregon where he has since become an outdoor kitty (and indoor, and in my bed, and on my chair, and on my ankle…) He has bonded well with my guy, and I am under the distinct impression that Frank has finally decided to get rid of me. Right before moving day, the sweet little kitty took a massive chunk out of my arm, actually causing nerve damage. I guess he wanted to play…or kill me. $100.00 later for the doctor, and another $100 to the airline (plus the cost of my ticket) and we boarded the plane to Oregon. I got Coach, Frank got cargo. PFFFFFTTTHHHHHHHH!!!!

Frank fights with me over the lap of my guy, and even tries to steal my food (buttered noodles, cheese, ANYTHING.) I would steal his, but Fancy Feast is just NOT my cup of tea- which too gets knocked over by the cat once named Stella.

Heeere kitty kitty…I got a present for youuuuu!!

It seems that Mr. “Fronk” is not a fan of the spray bottle I use to add humidity to the spider tanks. Mr “Fronk” is also not a fan of the spiders, as he sits and plots away at how to knock them off the surface once used as just a desktop. Like the change that went flying off my tables in LA, 1..2…3..plop plop plop, I could see the mini deli cups hitting the floor, rattling the tarantulas that will soon become bigger than the flea bag himself.

Oh, how I can’t wait to see the day 😀

Frank and I simply manage, and as the war progresses, I will keep you up to date.