#(sinistar a little bit as well. as a treat)

[jaypgartifacts]

made up a guy

[cgbraincell]

this is such a long post

Although the SD card in my phone continues to fill with a great deal of pictures of geckos, the past couple weeks have been wholly exhausting and I have not had much in the way of shareable thought. My Visiting Friend gave me some pointers and encouragement about fixing up my space, and I started making some progress there. It is relieving in a way to not see my past life’s work staring me down, a continuous reminder of what I still owe. The freedom may allow me to move forward sooner rather than later and take care of my debts from another source of income, which is what I suppose I need at this point. My Oft Mentioned Friend has proclaimed the September Garage Sale, Yard Sard if you will, is on, so in addition to cleaning, reorganizing, tossing stuff, etc, I have had a renewed energy to continue to find things to put into that. Am making some good progress there.

Much of my focus had a clear starting point as well, as I have purchased a new metal wire shelving unit to replace my bookshelf with and get some better enclosures set up for my overstock of cresties (although Saturn has a pending home for October - he is now Chaos as his pending owner will be receiving him and a leo named Charisma...ironically “Chaos” is the less chaotic of the two). In a sort of bittersweet event, my knocking over and breaking of my tv has given me a little extra space to work with for the time being. I still feel very bad about that as it ended up being a birthday present from Dad. I’d be mad at myself if I wasted my own money but...just feel bad since it was his. I have not been using it much during the summer since I would primarily use it for gaming and the room gets too warm to justify turning on a console, but still. Some critter updates: Alduin is indeed approaching all others with the “Make Love, Not War” approach. So I have my gay gecko and pansexual gecko-who-thinks-he-is-a-dragon. He also decided earlier that “Pillow Mountain” was inadequate, and climbed up the blanket hung on the wall up to the ceiling, where he could observe what he believes to be his land. The fool. This is Eddie’s domain, her Queendom. He is merely a knight in her land.

“Buddy” is female. I am very quickly running out of time in naming her before “Buddy” becomes her actual name. Not that it’s bad, just doesn’t fit in with “I named these animals after something game-related or celestial.” But then with her spine does she fit in anywhere? She came in extremely shaky though, and that has alleviated with some supplementation (both included in her food and exposure to UVB). Buddy also thinks Pangea is the bees knees and acts as though it is a treat. She is completely disinterested in bugs. I enjoy her enthusiasm for healthier foods and nutrition! but I must save up to get a scan of her organs as I fear her absurd degree of spinal deformation - and resulting ribcage deformation - may be squeezing organs weirdly. Granted I also have pectus excavatum and I’m fine so maybe she is also. Would just be good to know.

Ripley has exceeded all growth expectations and is the clear standout in the babies. I weighed her the other night and she was 8.7 grams, when only 24 days prior she was 5.2g. I think I can see her grow if I stare at her long enough. Her clutchmate, Art, weighed in at a mere 6.1g in comparison. Both of these numbers exceed Pele, my first foray into a slow grower, and every gram increase feels like a milestone after having lost Ox, Vo, and Nah. Mars does not have a pending home unlike Saturn/Chaos, which is fine because we absolutely need to find a more experienced keeper for him. He is extremely uncomfortable with handling or even being seen, with the exception of wanting to be seen because I DARE not to feed him continuously. He hangs around where his food cup goes and just...stares. Stares so much. Reminds me of Sinistar’s “I hunger!” And what a fitting name that would be!

Kamata’s character is coming out a bit more, he has gotten more comfortable with hands and his inherent need to smell all the things and all the others reminds me a bit of Alduin...who he cannot be around, because there is aggression from Kamata and desire to mate from Alduin. Realistically I need to stop putting my animals near each other to see how they react, although neutral space usually keeps things clean. Even Io and Thel were fine, and for a while Io was pretty aggressive even just seeing another crestie. But there was some “hunting” from Kamata and he lunged at Alduin (who seemed blind to the fact that Kamata was there), only for my hand to Inexplicably be in the way (I always put up the barrier of me, Alduin bites me a lot when he’s trying to woo literally everyone else).

Grahm, whom I have not talked much of, has been more comfortable with life generally and is eating and putting weight on again. For a while he had gotten thinner as he grew longer and didn’t eat to keep up with it.

Shin is incredibly impatient with me as we wait on this presumed gal/dollar sale for Labor Day. I give him some good exercise but I know that isn’t adequate. He needs dirt, he needs a lot of roaming space.

Otherwise I have been fighting the Fruit Fly and Gnat Infestation of 2021. Eradication of the fruit flies ended up being just as quick as they made this area their home, but my goal was to do so swiftly after they flew up my nose. Gnats have been a bit more persistent, but are easier to catch in apple cider vinegar traps, and fly ribbon, and just smoosh by hand. Also their larvae do not pop the way the fruit fly ones do, which is...a blessing. Seriously gross.

My shelving was updated to potentially arrive to the store on the 3rd, so I am doing my best to make sure integration of that is as swift and effective as possible. Then I have enclosures to clean and set up. Labor Day. My SO’s birthday. The yale sale. Halloween preparation, Halloween... Then the cold. Bring the cold. I wish to be so cold.