Guess what I did this morning???

See if you can guess what I did this morning? Here are some clues.

This is our adorable veiled female chameleon. I just love this dopey look she gets. In reality, she's the opposite of dopey. She's a very smart quick-learner. Brilliant, actually, on a reptile scale!

Here's a close-up. Note the telltale bulge by her hind leg.


No doubt you've figured it out by now. Our female veiled laid another clutch last night! That telltale bulge was the outline of an egg or few.

My chameleon midwifery tools consist of Exhibit A: the 5-gallon "birthing bucket" filled with damp sand and, at the time of this photo, eggs; Exhibit B: plastic gloves, which I'm pretty much addicted to for all sorts of chores; Exhibit C: a long-handled spoon for carefully excavating sand from the "birthing bucket" and a big bowl for said sand; Exhibit D: a chameleon crib (a plastic deli dish with damp vermiculite); Exhibit E: my coffee


I uncovered a cluster of eggs. You can get a sense of size from the penny I placed next to them. No, she didn't lay the penny! Ha!


Here she is, post partum. I sprayed the cage, giving her lots of water to drink and I shook in a bunch of juicy, calcium-coated crickets. I'm thinking of ordering a hissing cockroach as a treat for all her hardwork. Yes, she does look a little dehydrated. But wouldn't we all after a night of digging in a bucket of sand? She'll be fine in no time flat.

Oh, you're wondering how many eggs she laid? FORTY-FOUR!

More fun SoCal times with my sister et al!

Sorry for the absenteeism, but, as most of you know, my sister and her 3 daughters are down from Canada for a visit. So, I'm spending my days having buckets and buckets of Southern California touristy fun. DH and I don't have any family in SoCal, so I'm really enjoying watching my kids hang out with their cousins. And, of course, I'm getting to know my nieces better too.

Here's a taste of what we've been up to....

Our guests gave us bread-and-butter gifts. Yay! Gifts are great!


I introduced my sister to the hands-down, best Diet Coke in San Diego County. The cousins (her kids and mine) aren't averse to the slushies there either!


We drove up to Julian where we meandered through various shops; bought an apple pie; ate a grossly overpriced lunch; visited the wonderfully quaint used bookstore, The Julian Book House (2230 Main St., Julian, 92036. 760-765-1989) where I picked up a Perry Mason, a Nero Wolf and an Elmore Leonard. We also visited the gold mine. The above way over-exposed photo is our tour guide, Greg, holding up a cow's horn. Because this is what miners originally used for panning.

My camera was still acting wonky and letting in too much light even when squeezed till it squealed. But I found an eye glasses repair store. The guy working there tried several teeny tiny screws (of thousands!) and found two that held the metal plates firmly in place on the side of my camera. Fingers crossed, this will do the trick!

Back to Julian for a sec: I've posted a couple of My Town Mondays about Julian. Here's the link to the My Town Monday gold mine post.

My sister and I traipsed back to the beach in the dark to rummage through the trash cans. Why? She thought she'd accidentally thrown out her new video camera! We're smiling for the camera. But, uh, very gross! My disposable plastic gloves fetish came in handy.

Oh, did we find the video camera? Yes. THE NEXT MORNING BY THE BAR-B-QUE IN MY BACKYARD!!

Of course, I will never ever let her forget this incident. I will recount it every Christmas. In fact, I will remind her of it every time someone mentions the word "trash" or "garbage."

Hope you're all having a marvelous summer!

I leave you with one last photo taken inside the gold mine. This is the communication system for the miners lowered deep into the bowels. The pegboard was to keep track of the number of men down there at work. The bell was for a system involving up to four rings for instructions like "stop," "go slowly," etc. I tried to memorize the system, but it's all a muddle now. One of many reasons why I would've made a lousy gold miner!

Writing and Linkage

Guess what I'm doing? You got it! Writing my little heart out. I'm working hard on the third Sherry (short for Sherlock) Holmes Baldwin tween mystery, I So Don't Do Makeup. While it's pretty much plotted out, there are always surprises. Plot stuff that looks like it makes sense in the outline, but doesn't on the page. Characters who decide to take matters into their own hands. Children who forget their swim gear, thus forcing their busy, focused mother to make an additional trip across town. Yes, Child, #2, I'm referring to you.

But, but, but...I didn't want you all to feel forgotten. AND I've been given a couple of very adorable awards and must link and thank and even list some obsessions. Say what?? Me? Obsessions?

Thank you Barbara Martin for this, well, fabulous award! HOWEVER, what makes you think I have ANY obsessions, let alone FIVE?!

I am so very tempted to say I have ZERO obsessions, but I sense a sharpened bolt of lightning winging its way toward me. So, I will admit that Obsession is my middle name and that I'll have a tough time limiting my list to five. But here goes....

1. The first obvious one is licorice. If you've been reading this blog for even a little while, you'll know I adore adore adore licorice. Red. Black. I adore you equally. Way, way more than chocolate. Which I don't really adore at all.

2. Disposable plastic gloves. I always have around 500 of these in a kitchen drawer because there are many things I don't like to touch. Such as, raw meat, laundry, certain cleaning supplies (Comet), onions, turkey guts, wet sponges, people. Ha! Kidding about the people. Just checking to see if you're keeping up!

3. Christmas tree ornaments. I buy a new one every year and date it. I try to find an ornament that represents something significant about the year. Some years have more than one new dated ornament because I couldn't narrow down the field.

4. Packing up the night before. I just don't sleep well if I'm not ready for the morning. I haven't managed to pass this particular obsession on to my children. Pity. It would make our mornings much smoother.

5. List making. I don't know how people navigate life without lists.

And here's an obsession I've successfully given up: letting the gas gauge dip below half. My gas light actually came on this morning!

Thank you, Barbara Martin for this very fun exercise. Although I'm little worried at how quickly I was able to type out this list! Seriously, folks, I'm reasonably normal, lots of fun and not nearly as odd as this post would suggest!

I'll take care of thank-yous for the other adorable awards in another post.

Please, please don't feel obligated, but I am curious about others' obsessions. That said, I completely understand if you don't join in (busy life, privacy issues, eating lunch). But if you do want to play, I'm nominating the following bloggers (in alpha order--oops! another obsession!) for the Your Blog is Fabulous Award:

Brian Kell of The Eyeball Afterlife
From the Desk of Bee Drunken
Gabe of Gabe's Meanderings
Maggie May of Flux Capacitor
Sara of Putting the Sara in Sarakastic