Pre-SHTF Checklist:

1. Pay off Suburban, Home Depot card, & laptop.
Thanks to the theoretical stimulus packages coming our way, this is soooo within the realm of possibility! At least we'll be in the black before we get sent to the work camp.

2. Get my concealed carry permit.
Guess what Santa's bringing ME this year?

Improvements.

Ninja died. He dropped his legs one by one, and then he died. It was very sad.

His replacement, Stephen(that's how sad we were!), is currently buried in the sand directly beneath the heating lamp, presumably molting. I'll get pictures of him as soon as he digs himself out, as he's wearing an aqua turbo, which is very beautiful.
DreadMuffin's giant turbo is in the mail and should be here Monday or Tuesday. I really hope he switches, that blue shell is seriously laaaaaaame.

Guess what we did yesterday?
We went warm shopping!! Then we came home and installed the warm we bought. It's working wonderfully.

Recycled drywall and insulation. The firemarshall may not like it, but it's improved the draft in our bedroom.



More drywall, more improvement.



The best part! Mr. Legs is awesome. A door. A real one. With hinges and Kung-Fu Closing Action.



We bought one for the boy's old room as well, but we're going to have to rip up the carpet and tile in there to make it fit. We're also going to get one for our bedroom. I think this winter's going to be much better.

I must go prepare for church. Stay warm, people.

My little tribe!

This is Rocketship! He is post-molt, wearing a green turbo shell, and likes to huddle in the little flower pot.



This is Mermaid-Princess-Unicorn. Post-molt, she changed into a babylon shell, which are pretty when the light shines through them, but are very thin. I kind of prefer the turbos.



This is Blossom, also post-molt. She's wearing Unicorn's old shell, but I'm not sure what type it is. Fisherman's Nutmeg, maybe?



And this is Nutmeg, the smallest one. She found a smaller babylon to replace her old shell. Isn't she cuuuuuuuuuuuute?



My biggest, as yet unnamed boy. He's wearing a muffin snail shell. Maybe I'll name him Muffin. Or Moppet. Or Dreadnaught. Let me know if you have any ideas.



And there you have it, my substitute social life.
School's going well, we decided to learn about species classification. We learned that Hermit Crabs and pill bugs are both in the Phylum Arthropoda, that they are invertebrates and posess a chitinous exo-skeleton. Also, we learned that 'chitin' is pronounced 'Kie-tan'. I found a paper on latin pronunciation for the unenlightened, so hopefully I can memorize that over the weekend. Yeah, right.

Sugary goodness of apple butter.

I needs it. SRSLY.

Trick or Treat!

It's October again, time to drag the raggedy remnants of past years out of the closet, dust them off, and re-examine them. No, I'm not talking about costumes, but about guilt & convictions. Boy, are there alot of them.
I like the idea of Halloween as a night to get together with family, all lights lit to keep out the cold and darkness. Holding the ones you love tight for one evening because the world outside is a scary, messed up place and the only way we can be safe is to hang together, maybe eat some garlicky olives and a donut on a string. I actually had a good time last year, as The Aunt took the trouble to put together games like bobbing for apples, eating whipped cream pies using nothing but your face, etc.
Plus, I made Mr. Legs take the kids trick-or-treating, which I despise.

But every time I have to wrestle the kids past a talking mummy in Walmart, or a screaming corpse at Home Depot, (of all places!), I recall exactly why I was blessed as a child not to have to participate. I wouldn't take my kids to go see SAW IX.III & 1/2 at the theater, why would I want them exposed to that type of gore in the toy department? You can't get away from it.
While being inundated with witch costumes & images does kind of open up an avenue to talk about the dangers of the occult, it's kind of hard to educate when there's a rotting skull dripping eyeballs making snide remarks from the shelf behind you.
And speaking of costumes, what's the deal with paying thirty dollars for a crappy nylon 'gown' with Sleeping Beauty pasted on the front? Have we gone insane? Going to Goodwill to pick out costume parts is a blast, why would you pay for the priviledge of giving that up? I still remember my two Halloween costumes, a home made spider (with 3-d legs, extremely hardcore for a six year old!) and a fairy princess. Picking out that princess dress at the thrift store was so much fun, and then I had the anticipation of ACTUALLY wearing a grown-up dress...It was awesome.

So what do we do? I don't know. I want these memories for my kids, but I don't want to see them still trick or treating into their twenties (it happens!), or becoming insensible of the excess grossness that so many people indulge in. Desensitizing yourself to images of death isn't gaining maturity, it's a deliberate subversion of your basic survival instincts. I'm thinking maybe we won't go around the neighborhood this year. I mean, it's not like there's no candy at Grandma's house. Then, as they get older, we can kind of outgrow the costumes but still look forward to the family celebration (which I totally dig). I've tried my hand at dressing up the past couple of years, but I suck at it and it makes me feel retarded. So I quit. I'll leave that to the 'children-at-heart'.

You Are a Werewolf

You're unpredictable, moody, and downright freaky. You seem sweet and harmless, until you snap. Then you're a total monster. Very few people can predict if you're going to be Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde. But for you, all your transformations seem perfectly natural. Your greatest power: Your ability to tap into nature Your greatest weakness: Lack of self control You play well with: Vampires

What Kind of Monster Are You?

Well, I have an appt on the 10th to get the doctor's seal of approval, but other than that it looks like our Excellent Christmas Adventure is a GO! I can't wait to see everybody!
Not much happening here. I got another hermit crab, named Ninja. He's pretty big, and super mean. I'm trying to find a new shell for him to move into but they're friggin' expensive. Twelve for the shell, then five or six for shipping...They must be out of their cotton-picking minds.
Here's the new guy:



Unicorn resurfaced the other day and I can now say that I've had one successful molt!A big deal for hermit crabs, as I understand it.
She changed into a spiffy new shell as soon as she was done:



Rocketship and Blossom are still under. They were both disturbed while molting, so I'm hoping they don't up and die on me. Blossom has reburied herself and is in te process of eating her old exo-skeleton, so I think she'll be okay. Rocketship on the other hand was still partially attatched to his when I dug him up (accidentally), so we'll have to wait and see. Ninja spends hours in the saltwater pool sucking in water, so I think he may have to molt as well, but there's a hole in the bottom of his shell which means he's not retaining much of it. Also, he's a pig. I stuck a shell of calabasa soup in there last night and he spent the whole night gorging himself, and wouldn't let Unicorn near until he'd eaten most of it.

Tommy's coming over tomorrow while the inlaws go to vegas for The Aunt's birthday. I think it'll be fun. Swiper will appreciate the company, and so will Pete. We just have to keep him away from our feline colony. The kittens are doing well. We moved them into the laundry room last night so they can start using the litterbox. Swiper enjoys them immensely.



Mr. Legs and I went out for his birthday to really spiffy piano bar with several of his cousins, friends and a brother. That was a lot of fun! I think the best part was hearing an old white guy playing Snoop Dogg's Gin and Juice. It was hilarious, he knew all the lyrics.
I baked the birthday boy a pecan pie today. It was supposed to be for yesterday, but I didn't realize that the crust had to be refridgerated overnight. oops. The kids got him a game called Guess Who, and they've been having a good time with that.
Speaking of kids, the youngest just came inside, covered head to foot in mud, so I better go give her a shower.

The Last Two Weeks in Five Images

Muddy Pigs



Archeological Dig



Squeaky Clean



Peachy Keen



Toothy Gleam.

As per YouTube (thanks John)!