DON IS HOME!!!!

YIPPEE!!! It's so nice to have him back home : )

Our new friend Benjamin

Sigh.... I really tried to hate him, i did... But he looked up at me from only 2 feet away and the expression on his face was saying "Oh good evening, my name is Benjamin. I'm having sushi for dinner, would you like to join me?" Unfortunately the sushi he was interested in was the fish and frogs in the pond. Linus spotted him & woke me up, he has taken it upon himself to go on guard duty at night. Since Linus was freaking out, I shined the flashlight on him and told him to go away (But then I decided I needed a photo of little Benjamin, so it was kind of good he didn't listen). After getting a photo of Lil' B the peer pressure just got too great, Linus was loosing his mind & I caught a glimpse of a frog looking up at me (in my mind he was asking for help) so I grabbed some pennies and threw them at Benjamin to make him go away. I feel bad now, I know it would be a terrible idea to put some food out for him but he is so adorable!


Here he is hiding under the gnomes, the flash on the camera from the first shot startled him, that shot didn't turn out though. I hope the gnomes didn't mind me taking a photo. You know how gnomes can be...they start doing devious things when angered.

I'm faced with a dilemma, do I let nature take its course & stay out of it? After all the fish in the pond were feeders to begin with. Oh, what to do, what to do.....

Asprin...$5.00, Green Tea...$3.00, Tight hat...priceless

This has been the 3rd day in a row that I’ve woke up with a splitting headache. I don’t know if I’m sleeping strange or what but it has put me in a very bad mood. Luckily I haven’t had to go into work so at least I can be pissy at home. I’ve tried various aspirins, pain killers, etc. I tried to feed it away. That just made me feel sick from eating to much. I was ready to give up and spend however long it took on the couch watching tv, drinking tea & whining. But then I thought back on one of the many very strange things my mom has told me. She gets headaches a lot too. She said that if she wears a really tight hat that it seems to help make the headache go away. What the hell, I’ve tried everything else. WELL I’LL BE!!! It worked! So now I’m sitting here with a very large silly looking straw hat on my head that happens to have a super tight band. I’m actually afraid to take it off, what if the headache comes back? It looks like I’ll be eating in tonight because ain’t nobody gonna see me like this! : )
Well... that is unless the Indian take away cravings become too severe. They already think i'm nuts anyway.

Pond Pillaging

We had an exciting pre-dawn morning today. Something went on a rampage through the pond. A skunk or opossum, maybe a raccoon. Whatever it was managed to dig up the filter, which usually has a lot of pond snails in it (ummm….yummy?). The lily pads where flipped over but luckily all fish are still in there. I only saw one frog today but I bet the other was just hiding. Those guys are way to quick to get taken out like that.

I spent the afternoon at the Wild Animal Park. It was really nice out there. The Wgasa Tram was great. We just sat back and got to see lots of beautiful animals. We even saw the newest baby Giraffe, very cute! I was accosted by gang Lorikeets. It was actually fun but I wasn’t expecting to get jumped on quite that quick. They were on my head, shoulders & arms. I managed to take a photo of the ones on my arm.



They are drinking Lorikeet nectar out of a little cup I bought. If you ever make it to the Wild Animal Park you must go see the Lorikeets!

This is what our pond needs – a Meerkat. This little guy keeps watch while his buddies sleep away the afternoon.

The Shock & Horror

Overly dramatic...I think not! I have an addiction you see. Please note the number of pocket coffees left in the box. Also note the number of days until Don gets back from Italy with more pocket coffee (11 days). I haven't been rationing. Due to their luscious liquid espresso insides, I cannot split one up over 2 days. I am doomed to suffer... I anxiously await Don's arrival because I miss him, the pocket coffee addicted monkey on my back now misses him too : (

Super Lucky Fish

I’m completely frustrated with my knitting right now & have some extra time so I thought I would explain why the fish in the pond are so damn lucky. Each week the turtles get a bag of 50 small goldfish to eat. It’s somewhat gross to watch but that’s what they eat so who am I to turn them into vegetarians.

SO…the fish get poured out of the bag into the turtle tank. The battle begins. The turtles are biting & snapping, eating as many as they can. Meanwhile the fish we find attractive or seem to have some sort of personality or “jene se qua” we try to catch with a net. Even though it’s not part of the game I have occasionally grabbed them prior to putting the bag in the tank. Don frowns on this but the fish were especially cute & clearly pond-worthy. So now the “chosen ones” live a long life in an outdoor pond & grow to many times their original size. Well…that is unless they get curious about the raccoon or cat that has come to say hello. Then they become dinner.

Suspicious bubbles in the pond

Could it be Mint Jelly? or just a very gassy frog? Will be watching again tomorrow morning.

4 days...still no Mint Jelly

I'm still on the lookout for my turtle on the run. Not a single footprint...nothing. I've been watering the yarn a lot to keep him wet just in case he is under the deck. We've felt 2 minor earthquakes in the past few days so maybe he knew something was up & wanted to make a run for it. I still have hope he will show up sooner or later.

Lost: One Adventurous Turtle

I have two theories as far as where one of the turtles went. He has been renamed “Mint Jelly” since he is now “On the lamb!” har har har …(erm, sorry bad joke). I feel really bad about it; he has been gone for two days now. When I have spare moments I will sit in the backyard silently so that I can listen for little turtle scratches. Linus hasn’t been any help. I’m sure he will let me know if he sees the turtle but so far no luck.

Theory 1 (most likely what happened)
I went back to fully clean out the turtles tank after only partially doing so early this week, see previous Red Cabbage…post. I put all the turtles in a laundry basket and set them outside so they could get some sun & fresh air. When I wasn’t watching I think Mint Jelly managed to climb out of the basket, which was many times his height. I wouldn’t have believed it except that I watched another one get about 1/3 of the way up. He climbed it like a ladder! TURTLES CLIMB LADDERS? I just may start a turtle circus! So now he’s somewhere in the backyard. Most likely under the deck. I’m sure he will be fine out there as long as he can avoid the occasional neighborhood cat or skunk that comes along. If he finds the pond he will be better than fine because the goldfish are huge & he really likes eating goldfish. Sigh….stupid turtle…no one is going to feed him daily pellets & weekly fish out there.

Theory 2 (unlikely but who knows)Earlier this week when I partially cleaned out there tank I filled it up a bit higher than normal. I was tired & ready to puke from the smell. I didn’t feel like draining it again. It is possible that he climbed up onto their floating rock then on top of another turtle then climbed out and is now somewhere in the house. When I was in college I only had two turtles. One of them did this then jumped off a 5 foot dresser and managed to elude my roommate & I for two days. They are faster & smarted than you might expect.

The Shy One

I finally got a photo of the second frog in the pond. He's very shy and doesn't let me get to close. He seems to have a green chin & is larger than the other one. Which is strange because when we got them as tad poles they looked exactly the same. I assumed they were related.

House Guests

I'm dog sitting for a few days. Meet Calvin & Hobbes.



Hobbes is the larger one who is whispering in the smaller ones ear. What is he saying you ask? He's saying "It doesn't matter that she's blocked off the living room we will still find wonderful places to leave our poopy presents while she isn't looking....Muhahahaahah!" The big one is the one to worry about. Calvin (the smaller one) just gets upset and sulky when "Momma" is away. But Hobbes...he doesn't get outwardly mad he gets evil & sneaky. The last time they were allowed in the living room Hobbes climbed into Linus's beanbag left a poop then scooted the fabric around so I wouldn't see it. They can be little angels too though. They are really sweet when they want to be.

14 days

Don has been gone for 2 full weeks now. Most likely, it will be another 3 weeks before he's back. I'm cranky & I miss him.

My new shirt

I friggin hate Uggs, apparently I'm not the only one.

Like Red Cabbage Simmering in a Dirty Diaper

I just got back from a trip to San Francisco, I love that city. The weather was great, it was sunny one day then rainy the next. I really miss the rain, it's always the same here. The hotel was beautiful (Hotel Vitale - I highly recommend it). I spent most of my time there working on my primitive gathering skills (a.k.a. shopping) up and down Haight Street & in the shops downtown. I had to make a stop at Britex, it's a four story fabric store filled with gorgeous imported wools & silks. Now I'm chock full of inspiration!

So I get home, spend a few minutes digging my keys out of my bag then finally open the door. LEAPING LIZARDS!! I get smacked in the face with the most disgusting smell. I could immediately taste it, it was horrible! It reminded me of simmering red cabbage and a dirty baby diaper. After getting over the shock, I think maybe a turtle died and his poor little carcass is rotting in the tank. I run into the living room, the tank is murky & green (I'm now squinting because it smells so bad). Luckily all the turtles poke there heads out of the water & seem to be just fine. I think we had a couple extra warm days here & the tank had an algae bloom. I cleaned out the filters & got some fresh water in there. The turtles didn't seem to mind but man o man that was disgusting! Oh well, it's good to be home : )

Who is that?...or what is that

I guess I'll start off with some introductions in the Tiny Universe. I'm Angie, Don is my fiancé. He has briefly left the Tiny Universe to work on a project in Italy but will be back in a few weeks. Linus is a fur baby, he's half Parson Jack Russell-half Dachshund.

He is always doing something strange so I'm sure he will be a common subject for this blog. In that photo he was getting some afternoon sun on his belly after finishing off the stranger who tried to enter the yard. He usually keeps one bone as a trophy. (erm...thats a joke). He is currently giving himself a manicure.

Next down the list are the turtles.

There are 8 of them total - one mud turtle, 6 red eared sliders, & one 3 legged cannibal red eared slider (he lives alone).

Outside we have a small pond with many very lucky fish, i'll explain why later. Along with the fish are two newly transformed frogs. The one in the photo is temporarily named Eeeep, as that is the sound he makes when he jumps off the lilly pads into the water.