The Realm

I have been very busy with my pets and stuff. The usual but things are very good right now. I'm reworking my first frog tank because my clean up crew died a long time ago and the soil went bad. Plus I made a few dumb beginner mistakes and plants started dying. The frogs are in a temporary home. My dart frog tank is much better as I was more experienced by then. I'm still a beginner though. BUT this one I think will be better than the first time. I'm currently adding little shelves for the froggies to jump on.

I have finished my Valentine's Wreath. This is the best wreath I have made. I'm still a beginner at this too and made some mistakes. But the curl method as I like to call it the tube method is the most difficult. Typical I'd go for the hardest stuff first. Here is a video on it.


https://youtu.be/sig_FJ7777o

So we just had our 26th anniversary Feb 4th. Amazing but it does now feel like it. I'm ready to start work on the next wreath. I want to make a 4th of July next. It will be much easier than this one. Can you guys believe this huge wreath was on that small 14 inch frame?

My puppy saving and gathering is going well, but I'm at the temptation stage of things. There are so many cool plants I really want to get still. I keep thinking "Just one, or two. Cheap ones." You know, excuses like that. I'm very tempted right now. I felt this way as a kid too when I was saving up for Joel my macaw. I must resist. I said I had to put my foot down. No matter how much I want a plant or something else unless it's a necessity like pet food. Because just that "one cheap plant" with shipping and tax becomes an expensive plant that's over budget. And I'll never mean my goal this way. The goal can be met in a few months if I say 100-90% each time. All of it is preferable of course. I shouldn't even do 90. It's not easy. Also I am spending but it's part of the goal. That can lead to temptation and self tricking too. "The pen is on my list but since I'm getting that I should take advantage of this deal for this other thing." ARG no! Well, do I want this dog or not? I have to remember that because when I add something else not on the list it becomes "or not." But yes it's hard right now. I'm struggling with this. Oh the other distraction is the thought that says, "Ok you'll meet your goal. You'll get all the supplies and the money, but there won't be any puppies in the state left." So I end up looking at for sale ads when there's no way I can do it now. And there is the possibility I may have to go out of state to a near by state when the time comes. I don't want to go further than two states away though; Georgia, Alabama and the Carolinas. I don't want to go beyond that. But hopefully it won't even come to that. That's still far in the future.

I'm also making good progress on sorting things in the house. I still found some of my mom's old stuff. It's so annoying. It's like her things will never disappear. But we went to Orlando and managed to sell a lot of plates that were finally worth something. But I think that other than all the tons of photos, everything that's left now is our stuff. At last we're in the home stretch as far as getting rid of stuff we don't need and shouldn't even have anymore. Things are still cluttered but I think it's because I'm sorting. I can't wait to get to the point were we have more space so when I'm sorting it won't look so cluttered. I want my house to be a normal house before we buy the puppy.

So yes lots going on but it's been rather good.
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I got a commission from a buddy on youtube the other day. I'm working on drawing his jeep for a T-shirt design. I hope that it can get done in time before I leave on my trip. Last time I went on a trip I said I would start to pack seven days before so I would have plenty of time. I had every intention to do so this time but then Bullet suddenly passed away and just totally messed up my schedule. So I am behind on packing and everything else. I spent half of yesterday our last day off before I go working on the commission and packing. Right now I'm in the approval stage before I finish it up. Hopefully there won't be too many changes and I can proceed with coloring. This will turn out nice once it is done. As for the packing, I'd say I'm 60% percent done. I think this will be the most minimal packing I have ever done I'm proud of myself.

One of the things I got behind on were my plant chores. Plants are pets too. Well apart from carnivorous and creepy strange plants I do love the Spring bulbs as well like tulips and hyacinths. Unfortunately they don't grow in Florida because it's too hot and they don't get the chill period of two to three months of hard winter. But I am trying thinking if I put them in the veggie drawer of the fridge for two months they might be ok. I have two hyacinth bulbs from last year that are coming up though I did not chill them last year. But Chris and I bought a bunch of hyacinths and two small pots of tulips from Walmart. They had a rack where everything was a dollar and every time we would go I'd pick up two or three. Could not help myself. All the hyacinths have bloomed. I love how they smell and funny enough I had one in my room. My room is super bright in the winter because it is on the south side. I love that and means I can over winter plants in here. What I had not counted on was how powerful hyacinth scent is in a tiny room. I couldn't keep it here. Too powerful. To the point you can taste it. Bleh. So it got kicked out back to the living room where it is ok to be "smelly". But what was neat was that for the first time I picked up some Grape Hyacinths Muscari armeniacum. I knew of these but had never paid attention to them. For a dollar I figured why not. I had no idea they were so tiny. In photos they are super close up and look huge. I thought they were the same size as regular hyacinths and the flowers would literally be like grapes. I imagined them like fox gloves with bees going into them. Nope. Super tiny. More like gnats could go into them. But they have a very light scent that is nice and not over powering for a small room. I loved my one little pot I had. So I went to Walmart the other day for supplies and all the bulbs are in bloom there. Make sense since mine are. But what bugged me was that the poor grape hyacinths had been stuffed into dark tiny shelves. They were all bent over and the soil was totally dry. These poor plants have a long drive in a truck and get dry. Then Walmart just puts them out for sale and doesn't water them. When I got mine the soil was bad and water is the first thing I do. But now it had been weeks and these poor things were limp and dry. I bought three and watered the poor things and gave them bone meal and fertilizer. I was worried about them, but after a day and some went under lights they have recovered and are fully upright. I wish I could buy all of them just because they will die. What a waste to grow them, ship them then they die from neglect. And I don't think they will sell like the big hyacinths and tulips because they look like grass and people don't know what they are. I wish they'd give them to me. But then there's the whole lack of winter here and I don't know if they'll make it til next year. Poor things. I found out they also come in pink, white and blue. But they only had the wild purple ones. Anyway here's a pic.



The plant on the left is the first one I got weeks ago. The two on the right are the new ones that are in recovery. They aren't flowering as well but they look way better than they did. I don't know why they sell Spring bulbs in winter for Valentine's. I wish they'd keep them out through Easter. You only find lilies in Easter. I'm going to miss the blooming of my tulips. Too bad. Notice the cute flamingo mail box. I got that one and a cartoon Narwhal one from Walgreens. They came with Valentine's and I put the other one in Chris's room so we can give "mail" to each other. We have to watch for when the little flags are up. I already put two Valentine's in there for him. It's a fun little game.



Here's his in his game room. It's too bad this is the first Valentine's EVER we won't be together but it's ok we already celebrated. He's totally backing me up on this trip and wants me to go. Well I have to go and get back to work now.
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I'm doing a lot better now but still wake up with a sore throat every morning. But things are going great. I'm quite excited about many things going on. A few days ago Space X launched the Falcon Heavy rocket here. I can't believe I missed it. It is visible from Tampa and I was out and about that day. But I did see it on youtube and it's very exciting that I felt like I was there. Florida is known for exploration and its space coast. I've always wanted to go see a launch in person. I have seen several space shuttles take off but not from the East Coast. I plan to rectify that this year. So next launch I hope to go to Titusville and watch a rocket take off.

Chris and I celebrated Valentine's on the 13th. Turns out he had to work on his usual Weds so that screwed this up for having Valentine's off. But we went out and he bought me a tripod for Valentine's day. I love it and I needed it. Well I still have to learn how to work it. One reason I asked for that was because I found out the International Space Station will pass over us next week and do a solar transit. I wish it were a lunar transit but it's a solar one. I can't believe I have to find my filter paper from the eclipse. I never thought I'd be doing that again but I hope that I can film it going across the sun. Please pray that there will be no clouds and perfect weather for me on the 22nd. My gosh I feel like it's the eclipse all over again. I'll take all my sun blocking clothes with me too and set up in the parking lot of a local church. It's right in the path of the center line. I wonder if I'll be the only one there or if others will set up too. I don't think anyone knows about this and I'll probably get people asking me what I'm doing. So I am very much on a space kick lately. I have been learning about the CEO of Space X Elon Musk and really starting to like him and look up to him. I respect people in power like him that have worked their way to the top and are innovative leaders. He also owns Tesla which is why he was able to launch a Tesla roadster into space with a dummy spaceman driving it. I have no idea what the point of that is, totally pointless, but it's so awesome. There is an awesome car flying through space right now with beautiful footage of the earth. Just that alone got me all excited. The other amazing thing is that this rocket has reusable boosters that land back on earth. I never understood why they couldn't do this in the past. It was such a waste of resources and money to let them burn up and fall into the ocean. We're getting that much closer to living in the age of Star Trek. It is so amazing and exciting for me.

AND while look up all this stuff I found out about these amazing globes of the planets that spin by solar power. They are inside a glass shell suspended in liquid of some kind. So that and the earth's magnetic field helps them turn. They are so cool. I have ordered one and can't wait to get it. I have ordered Pluto. Here is a video of it.



I hope to get back out to the lake where all the white pelicans were too. Would be a great place to use the tripod and get photos and videos. I'm so behind on videos. I need to make the one of the monster trucks and of the pelicans.

Lastly I'm working on art again. I'm reworking and updating Conspiracy as it's possible I may use that for my driver side door of my Jeep. I'd like to come up with all new art actually but that is probably my best drawing of Fear. With Fear's art it's constantly improving and updating it seems.
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