Squiggywinkle's House O' Fun

Sadness

2009-04-30T09:43:00.000-07:00

Well, it was a rough winter. I had a malfunctioning heater, and didn't realize it until it was too late. All my crabbies crossed the Rainbow Bridge. Once we move and get settled into my new place, I'll start over. I miss them sooo much though. :(

Bored as heck

2006-11-17T05:26:00.000-08:00

Nothing "New and Exciting" to say.
Still have Hattie in that stupid painted shell, now most of the paint is gone tho.
I boiled the water dish gravel and shells last night. I bought some shells at the dollar stoer (they had a pack with just turbos in it --- i was happy! Yay!
Hattie has such nice pointy legs. I don't recall ever seeing such long "post-molt" toenails on a hermie before! I need to borrow my dad's digital cam and take pics.

PHEW!!

2006-11-06T19:46:00.000-08:00

Hattie came up from her molt. I got a little scared because I had discovered her "mid-molt" under the salt water dish. Legolas, my other PP that i had gotten when I got Hattie, had died because he molted under the salt water dish, and when i changed the water out it had crushed him. I was worried I had done the same thing to Hattie, but no! She's up and about in a shiney new deep brown exo.
I am soooo relieved!

Poopie!

2006-10-14T21:27:00.000-07:00

Roscoe appears to have succumbed to PPS (post purchase stress). He came up a few days ago, and the next day he was dead :(
Oh well, at least it looks like he had a chance to molt in comfort before he passed....

SON OF A...(Take two!)

2006-09-25T20:38:00.000-07:00

More escapees!! Ugh. This time it was Zoidberg and Kiki (GASP!! What if they were ELOPING!). So I got a hold of my dad's glue gun and combined it with duct tape to seal everything up. My b-day's coming up, so I'm hoping for a little birthday bread to get a new lid.

SON OF A....

2006-09-24T20:36:00.000-07:00

In the middle of a super rush at work yesterday, my husband calls me with the wonderful news that stupid Zoidberg got out of the stupid crabitat through a stupid hole in the stupid lid. Luckily, his journey did no apparent damage, and everyone's accounted for (except Roscoe, who I pray is just down molting/destressing), so yeah, that was okay.
Well, today I came downstairs to change into my workout clothes to see Hawthorne, my male rug, ontop of a jade turbo. Okay, i thought, he's just changing shells, then i realized that it was an occupied jade turbo -- the favorite home of my female rug (and my absolute favorite crabbie)! He had a death grip on her leg trying to yank her out. I lifted them out, trying to think of a way to seprate them with out hurting either one. Poor Kiki was bubbling and "chirping" (which sounded more like a creaking). In desperation, i was about to drop them in a cup of dechlorinated water when i noticed Hawthorne released KIki's leg and had a grip on her shell, at which point I tugged on him lightly and he came away from her.
Kiki's leg is damaged but functional. On the bright side, now she's up from molting (a beautiful dark charcol color with a hint of blue, BTW). I'm just hoping Hawthorne didn't traumatize her too much *crosses fingers*.

My ghost town

2006-09-21T10:22:00.000-07:00

SO everyone is down molting. The only crabby i've seen in the last week is hawthorne. I hope he's not lonely....
I still need to get in there and boil the gravel in the water dishes, the food dish and their spare shells so they have nice clean things when they all come up.

New Crabby!

2006-09-13T23:28:00.000-07:00

Meet.....
ROSCOE

I wish i had a digital camera....

2006-08-22T00:06:00.000-07:00

Hawthorne as most recently molted and came up a beautiful lavender color! I didn't even realize it was possible for ruggies to get this color!
Oh well...I'm sure i'll get a camera someday....

On vacation

2006-08-09T12:01:00.000-07:00

So I'm down in Oregon for my best friend's wedding, and what should happen before I loeave? My digital hydrometer/thermometer's batteries go kaput.
So instead of telling my husband that the humidity should be such and such percentage, my only choice was to tell him to mist the 'tat once aday (which was what i had to do before the gage's batteries crapped out on me) and keep an eye on the water level in the water bowls.
I went ahead and left a pile of freeze dried baby shrimp, organic cheerios, organic dried fruit and a tiny bit of bananna which should last the 4 days i'm going to be gone (the bannana's prolly already gone now anyways....they're my little hermit piggies when fresh fruit is involved). I also left him the url for the hermit crab association and my username and password if there's any questions.
Hattie still won't change out of her STUIPD PAINTED SHELL. It's soo irritating! The paint's almost all gone now, but grrrr.

Nothing much to up date

2006-04-21T18:13:00.000-07:00

On Valentine's day i got a new crab. His name is Gus Gus. I thought he had benn destressing for the three weeks he was buried. Boy was I shocked when he came up with a shiny new exo! It was the soonest any crabs have ever molted! I was so happy.
My PP's seems to like to be lazy and buried and my ruggies are all happy and active.
I had a bit of a scare th other day. The bedroom reeked of dead crab. I got every one out...they were all ok! I was relieved. It turns out ot was just the brine shrimp in their food dish.
Well, it looks like Zoidberg molted, so yay for Zoidby!

Legolas (II)

2006-03-09T21:37:00.001-08:00

Legolas II, has passed on.
He had chosen to molt wedged between the salt water dish and the wall of the tank. I think I collapsed his "bubble" when I changed out the water.
I buried him in a pot and planted some forget-me-nots. I will post a pic of the pot when the flowers have grown.

I got Legolas 2 years ago after a horrible experience with two other crabs (Legolas I and Hawthorne I).
After researching, I got Legolas II and Hurricane Hattie.
Legolas was my first to molt; he decided the day we were moving from one side of Washington state to the other would be the perfect day to molt!! The goof ball survived and was working on his fourth molt with me when he passed.
He will be missed....

*updates

2006-02-22T21:53:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately, I lost Henry VIII to a bad fall. His abdomen had be punctured, and he went to the beach in the sky. I was very sadened by this. He was ver aggressive, but lovable at the same time. He will be missed.
The good news is I recieved my purchase from Napels SeaShell Company. It was AWESOME!! I got some tapestry turbos, pearl banded turbos and jade turbos. All of them were polished a prettyfulls. I would definatly go through them again.
Grunt changed out of her shell that was waaaaaaay too small on her, and Hawthorne found a shell he liked, FINALLY. Hopefully when hattie comes up from her molt, she'll get out of that blasted painted shell and i can be rid of it once and for all!!
Lastly, I got a new crab! Yay! He's a small crab. A purple Pincher (of course...i wanted another ruggie, but OH WELL :( ). His name is Gus Gus.
I'm saving up for a bigger tank. I want to do a couple of built-in pools, so i'll keep my fingers crossed....

Intresting article about hermit crabs

2005-12-06T18:46:00.000-08:00

It's about how hermit crabs can help humans design robots. Click here.

The Curse Of The Painted Shell

2005-11-30T22:44:00.000-08:00

When I got Legolas, ignorant me had a painted shell in the crabitat. He immediately changed into it, and has been in it for well over a year and a half. I was ecstatic to find he was in a beautiful silver turbo (that has been available to him for over three months). I frantically looked for the shell to get rid of it. I found it all right -- with Hattie inside. The little brat...

On another note, I found bits of PP and Ruggie exo while sifting through the substrate. Henry and KiKi were my only molters, so they got a thorough talking to. (For not fully eating their exoskeletons, of course...)

Successful Molts

2005-11-28T11:41:00.000-08:00

Henry molted and came out a nice, deep purple color.
KiKi molted and is pretty much the same color (gray with a hint of blue).
I saw KiKi sitting up in the food dish munchin on a raisin. She was down for about 3 weeks. Henry came up after 2 weeks.

Mei Mei whent to hermie heaven,,,

2005-11-22T19:09:00.000-08:00

Mei Mei died. I have a sneaking suspicion he fell off the bottom side of the lid and hit the edge of the water dish...his abdomen had been punctured....

I forgot about Henry!!

2005-10-30T17:52:00.000-08:00

A bout a month a go, I got a new PP. I named him Henry VIII. He was a "rescue" from a mall kisok. As you can see, hs shell was badly damaged.
I brought him home, and with in a couple hours, he changed shells.
He's a very grumpy crab, b ut he's thriving, so that's all that matters :)

I was right!

2005-09-09T10:18:00.001-07:00

Mei Mei was up and walking around, so I did my deep clean. Aside from the UTH, I also added a nice little vine for them to climb.
So yeah, I'm satisfied...

YARGH!!!! (again)

2005-09-07T14:53:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I'm getting ready to do a deep clean so i can put the UTH on the tank. I can't find Mei Mei, and I look on the bottom, and the stinker molted! But, that was yester day...His exo had been almost completely eaten, and he was moving around so I'm hoping to get him out today.
Grunt is FINALLY back to her old, mama's girl self (alothough now she has to compete with KiKi).

Now That's Over With...

2005-09-03T14:52:00.000-07:00

Grunt is out of ISO. If only I could get her to change shells...

Why must my crabs do this to me....

2005-08-31T21:36:00.000-07:00

Grunt molted...AGAIN.
I had to move her because I accidentally uncovered her because she "decided" to molt under the water dish. This is the only place I can put the water bowls, so leaving her there was not an option. I couldn't find most of her exo, so I ground up the bits I could find and mixed them with some ground cuttle bone.

Zoidby is a new crab!

2005-08-26T11:17:00.000-07:00

Zoidberg molted about a week and a half ago

I looked under the tank last night and saw Zoidberg in is new exo, with no sign of the old one! He emerged this morning so I took the bottle out of the tat. He looks awesome! His BP is a bright purple while his exo is a brownish color. His toes are nice and pointy (his legs were very worn down when i got him). The only bad thing in my crabitat right now is the temp...i have a little UTH that dosen't generate much heat any more....it looks like there's some water damage. Next week I'm gonna get a new one.

My confessional....

2005-08-12T11:18:00.000-07:00

I've been a terrible crab mommy the last week
Las week, DH and I went on a "romantic" two night get away to celebrate our anniversery. I left my crabs with a lot of (dry) food and an extra sponge.
Then when we got back, I pulled (or sprained, or strained or did something to) my back. I had to call my work and tell them I couldn't come in for the 2 days they scheduled me.
Worst off all I couldn't play with my kids or take care of my crabs. I could onlytell my hubby what to do and hope he did a good job.
I was finally able to properly take care of my crabs yesterday. I bathed them (which i only do twice a month now anyways), and i gave them deeper water dishes so it's easier for them to submerge.
I used aquarium sealant to glue some shells, netting and glass marbles to the insides of the bowls to make it easy for them to get inand out of the water. they seem to like it!

So Grunt finaly finished molting...

2005-08-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

......And she's kinda back to normal. She's still a little anti social with me, but she hasn't tried to attack anyone else in the 'tat (that i've seen).She's HUGE now! Her favorite shell was just a little big on her, but now it's waaay too small. I didn't know they could grow so much in one molt!!She has plenty of shells that would fit her now, but she hasn't changed (yet). I even found a turbo that looks a little like her fave shell (it's pearlized, but her fave shell is pink and the similar one is white) but she hasn't shown any interest in changing.

Of molters, mold, and more unnecessary panic

2005-08-01T10:33:00.000-07:00

I had mold acouple weeks ago in my crabitat.
So i had to bathe my crabs in salt water, then fresh water.
Well, as I was digging all my crabs up (which is stupid to do unless you absolutley have to, like when you have mold, or worse, mites), and I came a across Legolas. He looked like he was torn up, and I started crying, not thinking that he could've been molting (DUH). Since he molted in march, i didn't think it was possible for him to need to molt again. Well, that's what happened, the bugger molted on me again.
Grunt FINALLY molted last week, but she hasn't come up yet. I looked on the bottom of the iso cage last night and saw no signs of her exo, so I'm expecting her to come up any day now.
My hydrometer broke, so I have to get a new one. Hopefully i'll get one that can be calibrated.

YARGH!!!!

2005-07-14T09:24:00.000-07:00

Well, now my crabitat has MOLD. Now I have to go out and buy some more eco earth and do a deep clean....@&*%$!
This really blows because i have two new crabs (PP's named Mei Mei and Bananarama) that are destressing...

NO news is good news....

2005-07-12T10:04:00.000-07:00

Well, unfortunately, megabyte died. I think it was a bad molt because his big pincher had fallen off and parts of him hade the exoskeleton coming off as well. I am 100% sure her died cuz he smelled oh well. The good newsd is my male ruggie, Hawthrone had a successful molt (tho he didn't fininsh a couple pieces of his exo...bad boy) so i re-integrated him with the rest of my crabbies and added ground cuttlebone to their food. He's alot more active than he was when i first brought them home. His exo is so smooth and shiny and he has beautifully pointed "toes".
I think either Zoidberg or Grunt is next. Zoidberg's toes are really worn down, and i've seen him eating alot. And Grunt's been showing symptoms for a few weeks now. We'll see tho...

Worry, worry (part 2)

2005-06-24T01:53:00.000-07:00

Well, I got Hattie back in her shell using the glass cup method, which worked like a charm! Hattie was back in her shell -literally- with in minutes!
I figured out Grunt had been bullying her. I picked Grunt up and she tried attacking me! THis is totally out of her character -she's my sweet one! So i took Hattie out of iso and I isoed Grunt. She ran around iso for a while then buried her self. I haven't seen her in over a week, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
The teenie PP my hubby bought died so we took it back and got another PP. This one's name is "Mega Byte"; he's not quite as big as Zoidberg, but not as small as Legolas.
I got a couple pics of my crabs to share. I'll need to borrow my bros digi cam again so i can get some more.

Worry worry...

2005-06-12T00:05:00.000-07:00

Long story short, my 10 gal. tank got smashed by my hubby by accident... He felt guilty and bought me a 20 long, tank decorations and 3 new hermies (2 ruggies and an micro purple pincher).
Hattie's done molting, but I found her streaking, She's back in her shell and back in ISO.

MOLTER!!!

2005-06-03T19:47:00.000-07:00

Okay, I did my monthly deep clean on Monday, and found Hattie burried. She was very unresponsive (she usually comes out when i pick her up), but there was no "dead fish" smell and her big pincher would flex when I touched it. So, I took my 1/2 gal. Critter Keeper, put some Eco Earth, food, fresh and salt water in there, dug a little hole, placed her in there and put it inside the big crabitat. Wedsday, I nited a little bit of a dead fish smeel, and check on Legolas, Grunt And Zoidberg, who were all okay, then dug around hattie and found her shed exo skeleton! So i covered everything back up and now I'm scared to death because i can't even dig her up to look at her! ARGH it's frustrating and stressful, i tell you what!

For the sake of typing...

2005-06-03T19:39:00.000-07:00

My best friend keeps trying to get me to put some of my stories on a web site, but i dunno.... I don't think any of my stories are good enough to let out in the open.
She told me that it doesn't matter bc u can hide them and they're copyrighted and every thing, but i still dunno if they're even worth copy righting lol.

In a rut

2005-05-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've been feeling...I dunno.....BLAH
My husband thinks I'm depressed, but I don't know. I just don't feel like doing any thing....and I mean ANYTHING.
I've been working, taking care of the kids and my crabs and going to bed. That's about it.
Maybe I'm just in a funk or something... UGH!

Blah blah blah...

2005-05-15T18:21:00.000-07:00

I went and got the aquarium sealant, no i just need to wait for my shells to dry. Out of all the bags of shells (4) there was only 6 usable shells. Next pay day I'm going to buy some shells from work--there seems to be more shells in there.
I'm looking into getting a 20 gallon (long) aquaruim. The height and width are the same as the 10 gal i have now, but instead of being 18 inches long, it's 30 inches so, yay for me!
For mother's day, my husband got me tickets to go to the midnight showing of Star Wars: ROTS
so i can't wait for that.
I got may nails done, and I don't really like the color. In the bottle, the color looked like orange with a hint of pink, but after the lady but it on my nails, it just looks orange (ick).
Next time I think i may go with a green or a blue.

La la la

2005-05-13T21:49:00.000-07:00

Ugh! I keep missing this one episode of Stargate SG-1 that has Wayne Brady as a Jaffa. Kinda ticks me off but oh well :(
I went to dollar tree today and bought these bags of shells for my hermit crabs; i need to open them and find out how many my hermies can actually use lol. I also need to go to the salvation army and get a pot I can boil things in. Oh well. I figure what ever they can't use, I can use aquarium sealant and decorate their food/water dishes. I also bought some re-usable stickers to decorate the out side of the crabitat. Should be cool.

Bored

2005-05-02T22:04:00.000-07:00

I know I'm not the most exciting person in the world (and a lot of ppl would agree lol).
But i basically write in here when I'm bored or ticked off.
I started a livejournal account and I may use that to chronicle my Sims lives. I dunno yet.
I guess I can vent here.
Theres a person at work I cannot stand, and from what I've heard there have been some customers complaining about this person. The person said something to me in a very snooty tone in front of a customer (which is embarassing to say the least) and the customer said "That was pretty rude." So yeah it made me want to grab the person by the ponytail and fling 'em on the roof.

Crochet/Craft links

2005-04-28T11:24:00.000-07:00

www.crochetme.com
http://www.crochet.about.com/
www.michaels.com
www.freepatterns.com
www.bernat.com
http://www.lionbrand.com/
http://www.caron.com/
www.coatsandclark.com
http://home.inreach.com/marthac/links.html

Animal links

2005-04-26T22:39:00.000-07:00

www.aspca.org
www.petsmart.com
www.petco.com
www.akc.org (american kennel club)
http://www.cfainc.org/ (cat fanciers)
www.catshouse.com
http://www.hsus.org/ (Humane Society of the US)
www.animalplanet.com

Hermit Crab Links

2005-04-26T22:28:00.000-07:00

(Forums/ BB's are marked with a *)
www.hermit-crabs.com
www.myhermitcrab.com*
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HermiesTalk*
www.hermitcrabassociation.com*
http://groups.msn.com/hermitcrabowners*

Ignorant sales people.

2005-04-25T10:09:00.000-07:00

Okay, I went to the mall and there was a kiosk where they were selling hermit crabs.
I'm sure many people have seen this. Unfortunately, the people who run these kiosks see hermit crabs as disposible pets. THIS IS NOT TRUE!!! Hermit crabs, with proper care (see www.hermit-crabs.com for more info) can live 10, 15, or even 20 years! The merchants do not provide the right environment (amongst other big-time no nos, they put them under hot lights that evaporate the hermit crabs much-needed humidity)
There are two ways that "Crabbers" handle this situation. They "rescue" the crabs by buying as many as they can and getting the word out --or-- They inform the merchants that they're practices are unacceptable and refuse to give them money until they change their treatment of the animals. Personally I'm with the latter.
My reason for this based on what I learned about supply and demand in hisgh school economics--As long as there is a demand, there will be a supply. If enough people boycott these kiosks and "spread the word" then the merchants will lose money and close or (now, I don't know how likely this is) treat the hermies better.
Next time you're at the mall and see this kiosk, please inform the people who are considering buying a hermit crab that before buying a crab to do their research.
I cannot stress this enough:
HERMIT CRABS ARE NOT "DISPOSABLE" PETS

OMG!!

2005-04-15T19:48:00.000-07:00

I forgot an obsession! I have certian friends who will really jump on me for this one too, LOL.
Harry Potter.
There, now I'm safe!
But...for how long??

I have a job!!

2005-04-15T19:46:00.000-07:00

That's right! I Have joined the ranks of the employed. I'll be working at a craft store (swoon) starting on monday!
Yay!!

Napoleon Dynamite

2005-04-11T12:32:00.000-07:00

Have you seen this movie!!
OMG, it's hilarious!
It was written by a couple of LDS guys and prduced with a budget of a few hundred "G"s, and so far it's grossed over $40 million!
It's proof you don't need foul language, drugs or sex to be funny.
Now, if only %99 of the audience would realize this...

My Crochet Projects

2005-04-11T12:17:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm only working on 1.
It's a beaded basket that I'm making for my niece's ninth birthday. Jeeze! I can remember the day she was born! Seems like it wasn't too long ago .
ANYWAYS
Every year, the women in our family get together, draw names, and whomever's name one draws, they get a gift for that person. I think, depending upon whose name I get, I'm going to make a blanket, or something of the like.
My sis-in-law is expecting, so I think I'll make something for the baby as well. I have a few things in mind.
That's it for now!

My unnatural obessions...

2005-04-03T07:39:00.000-07:00

There's oh-so-many to list!
Lemme start with my hermit crabs.
I love me some hermies!
I only have three (all purple pinchers). My two bigger ones are Legolas (hubby named him), and Hurricane Hattie. My newest is a mini named Grunt- like the little guys in the video game "Halo". Grunt is now my fave (i know, I know, it's horrible to choose faves, but i couldn't resist). He went through all the shells in his size with in 24 hours of me bringing him (or her, I haven't gotten a good look yet) home!
for more info on hermies, please visit www.hermit-crabs.com
My next osbession I've had since middle school: Small furry animals in animorphic situations. Who doesn't think a squirrle in a party hat is cute??
Then there's Stargate. This has to be one of the coolest sci-fi franchises since Star Trek(I know I'm gonna get a lot of grief for this one...oh well).
And the afore mentioned Halo. This is the only FPS (aside from Star Wars:Dark Forces) that I really like. Heck, forget like, I love this game!! I could spend hours playing it with my hubby! The sequel's pretty kick-butt too.
Let's see...
OH!! Can't forget The Simpsons. Homer ROCKS!! I think the best episodes were in the early seasons tho.
Futurama...oh that's a sad story. One of the best prime-time cartoons, shot down before it could become a real hit! Good thing [Adult Swim] and DVD's came along.
And crochet. I love to crochet. I'm thinking I'm in withdrawl tho because having just moved, my stash is still in a box. I need to get more yarn.