Gecko Food Fest

I thought it might be getting too cold for the geckos now that our temperatures have dropped from formidably hot to cold enough in the mornings to require a jacket!!!  And...especially since I saw their favorite menu item in quantities I've never seen before adorning my kitchen window now.

Well, that was what I thought until I began noticing the "shy" creatures snatching and gobbling up those little tasty moths that ventured too close to the waiting jaws of the reptiles hiding hither and thither.  Apparently temperatures aren't critical--yet!

What entertainment items do you find attached to your kitchen windows?   (Which are, no doubt, more translucent than my own that need a good Windexing, hosing down, scraping, etc., etc.

Rub-A-Dub-Dub--OR--When Is A Swimming Pool Too Small?

"Last day for outdoor water sports, kids."  **Translation**  "Kids, you better get the heck out of the house and play now that the temperature has become reasonable for outdoor recreation!"

Mom and Grandma knew that it was time.  It is no longer prohibitively and excessively hot for children frolicking about outdoors.  Besides, children confined to the inner sanctum of their living quarters tend to get short with one another.  That's what happens when one (two and/or three) don't have plenty of time to release their energy in the out of doors.  As much as they normally enjoy and long for such outdoors-ness, we've notice a lack of enthusiasm of late.  They've apparently misplaced their memory of the joys of such activities and needed an enticement to remind them of the joys therein (or is that, there-out/their-out??).  At any rate, the inducement to go out and "Have fun, or else!" worked.  See evidence below.

There they are all happy and tucked into the smallest (perhaps) swimming pool on record for three normal sized children.  I'm really not sure how they managed to arrange themselves so that they fit, but fit they managed to do.

There was whining and weeping and wailing from each individual for one reason or another, and the final blow was that there was going to be one man out!  Noodle was in with Little Britches and Blue Eyes was devastated that no one would give up their favored spot to allow him in.  There was much howling as to the genuine fact that there simply was NOT enough room for ONE MORE PERSON!

All that was, however, prior to the authoritative command of "Stop whining and fighting and figure out a way to work together!"  When no one budged, and new whining set in, that same authoritative voice strongly suggested that they all stand and try a new arrangement.

Since they've all inherited a large degree of engineering skills, an arrangement was made conducive to all three miraculously fitting in the very tight, but still nearly full of water arrangement you see above.  Since it worked so splendidly, they received another command, from said authority, to stay put while the camera was located and put to use.

Make what you will from these expressions.  Engineering ingenus?  Or children can amaze adults when pressed to do so.  Or not.

It was inferred that the reason everyone wanted IN the water was because goose flesh and chattering teeth claimed their own whenever these three were not immersed in the water.  Eventually, after much too much endurance in such cramped quarters made traveling back in-doors essential, the moaning, and groaning began anew.  "I'm too cold to take a bath!"  "I don't want to get ready for bed yet!"  "I'm too cold to walk."    (It was 80 degrees outside.  And, since they've been used to near 100 degrees, I guess it WAS kind of freezing!  In the full sunlight, etc.

When the hot bathwater was drawn, scant minutes later, everyone (though not bathing in the hotter tub at one time) finally expressed gratitude for the relaxing relief and settled down.  Then we ate supper and all was well in the world once more.  For a few minutes!

For Just a Few Minutes It Looked Like Niagara Falls!

Only moments ago I heard the throb of thunder.  I suspected precipitation soon to follow.  Then . . . It Looked Like Niagara Falls outside.  I checked the rain gauge.  Within 10 to 15 minutes we had .5 inches of rain!  And coincidentally the temperature dropped as well from 83 to 73 degrees in about the same time period.

It has slacked off pretty much now.  I'm not sure if more will follow, but we'll take it!  (Ha!  What choice do we have???)

Nonetheless, I'm so grateful for the rain!!!  Hooray!  And I'm so grateful for the cooler temperature, too!

How's your weather where you're located?  Share how quickly it's changed, or how long you've been blessed/endured whatever circumstances you've had placed on your plate!

Bangkok Restaurant Review

Saturday some of the family (#2 daughter and #1 son) accompanied me to a Thai restaurant in Alexandria, LA, interestingly called the Bangkok Restaurant.  My daughter, has been to Thailand and loved it there.  She is very particular about Asian food--actually about all kinds of food from around the world--so I follow her lead when visiting such restaurants (most of the time) when ordering.  She ordered Pad Thai--which was delicious--and Beef Curry (the red variety).  Son ordered a Thai Pork Fried Rice dish. We also had fried Spring rolls.  It was all delicious--except for the beef in the Red Curry.  It tasted a little old. 

The personal favorites of mine were the Pad Thai and the Red Curry sauce.  Very yummy!  I will go back.  Oh, and by the way, the lady who waited on us was originally from Thailand.  My daughter always tries to learn if those preparing whatever kinds of Asian food at the restaurant we plan to eat at are authentic to the cuisine offered.  Koreans for Korean food.  Japanese for Japanese food, etc.

There was an Asian grocery attached to the restaurant so my daughter checked it out while we waited for our meal.  She was VERY impressed with the freshness of their produce and meats as well as the variety of other commodities for sale.

They're Multiplying!

Tonight the grandchildren returned from the weekend with their dad.  Little Britches and I were checking out the gecko activity on the kitchen window.  A small moth--the likes of which seem to be a favorite meal of these geckos--was tantalizing and teasing each of the three little reptilian critters I saw by flying close and getting missed as it passed by each of the predators.  Two of the star-toed fellas were on the top half of the window as the third dashed from top to just below mid-way on the bottom section with a near miss for said moth, when suddenly a fourth fellow skulking in the bottom left-hand corner snatched the winged meal for himself.

Now I've got to wonder:  are these geckos multiplying and hiding out all over my back yard?  Jeanie, in Paradise, has hinted that they multiply quickly. (You can check out her experience at jeanieinparadise.blogspot.com.)  It might be alright if they could manage to eliminate a large portion of the  mosquitoes and other unsavory insects lurking about us--like the blight of stinging red wasps and some kind of hornets that have attacked us in recent days.  My husband has sprayed the apparent hidden nest of red wasps and we keep finding remnants crawling now (rather than flying) around our front door.  (These suckers are about 2 1/2 inches in length--with attitude!  And when they pop you, you know it for sure!)

Heretofore I've been in the habit of catching them live (when they are IN the house) and tossing them outside.  I may have to alter my modus operandi.  We're all just slightly wary of entering and leaving by the front door now!

So . . . are we under attack?  Being overrun with wildlife once again, or still?  I'm beginning to wonder.  Again!

Love, Love, Love

New photos showed up for me to "oooo" and "aaaahhhh" over.  The youngest of my adorable grandchildren has been sitting in front of a camera once more.  There's no way I can describe how this little bundle of joy fascinates me.  She just makes me giggle with joy when the opportunity to see her up close and hold and snuggle her arises.  Not often enough, I assure you!

But here are some pictures of this adorable little babe.

One of my very favorite pictures of our little Baby Cakes.  That's her very pretty Mom holding her.  (I think Mom looks like a movie star.  What do you think?)

She is such a kick!  This is another of my all-time favorites.  New, but still an all time favorite!

I imagine that she's singing Gene Kelly's version of "Singing in the Rain."  Or, maybe she's singing the Beatles "Love, Love, Love."  

I'm sure her PopPop would argue that she's really cheering on the football team of his choice that's playing on the TV behind her.  (PopPop has a Super Bowl ring or two from the days of his professional career in football.)  Anyway, I can hear her singing in this photo, I don't care what anybody else says!

Caught Two of Them

In my previous post I mentioned a trio of geckos lurking about my kitchen window, my dirty kitchen window.  I don't exactly remember why I was walking into the kitchen just a few minutes ago, but lo and behold!  I saw all three geckos attached by their little starry feet to the upper portion of said window.  Racing upstairs to snag the camera I tried to get back in time to catch them as if they would be waiting for me.  Yeah.  Well, the illusive little critters were still lurking about, but not so much within camera view. 

I tried to catch them w/o flash.  Got double images.  Blurry double images.  Tried with the over-the-sink light on.  Forget that!  Tried with only the kitchen (florescent) light on.  That was problematic, as well.  But, nonetheless, I did see all three at once, or at least parts of them not hidden from view and snapped a few frames.  I'll include a couple of them--if you promise not to snicker about how utterly filthy my poor kitchen window is.  Please.

Aren't those little feet just cute?

I may try another evening to do better--with cleaning the window and/or taking better photos of the reptilian critters.  Are they reptiles?  I forgot to look that up!

Geckos on Kitchen Window

For several weeks now we've been watching a trio of geckos that like to congregate on our kitchen window in the evenings snatching up moths, at least, and possibly other flying critters attracted by the light over the kitchen sink.  For the longest time I thought there were only two, then I noticed three one evening a few days ago.

I'd have pictures except for two very simple reasons.

1.  My kitchen window is in dire need of washing.
2.  When I thought I'd just suck it up and forgo the window washing and just try to take a picture, well, you guessed it:  the gecko anti-paparazzi informant was on alert.  Yep.  There was nary a gecko to be found when the camera showed up.

So, I can rest now that you'll not be exposed to how much in need of a cleaning my kitchen window is.

Until last night, I never saw anything but the underbelly view of any of these little critters.  All I saw before was a kind of soft, pinkish little critter (or three) with long whip-like tails and the cutest little feet that look like stars.  Their digits fan out from the center and make me think of sparkly stars.  It's a very scientific term.  You should look it up, of course.  But last night . . . I saw the dorsal view.  It's striped.  The color is kind of light tan with thin, dark stripes down the entire length of the body and tail.  Don't recall the head being striped or not.

So, last night I actually saw one of the trio that was clinging to the bricks that form the sides of the window.  I nearly missed it.  They are somewhat illusive.  If you watch them too long they seem to realize that they're on display and they hide behind the window where top and bottom sections meet (where I can raise the window) or just above or below the window.

I've often wondered where they habitate during day-light hours.  I have a large aloe vera plant in a clay pot close by.  I wonder if they find refuge near, under, around, or in said plant/pot.  I should read up on their habits.  They get a little snappy at each other on occasion for some reason or another.  Perhaps there aren't enough of the right moths and/or other insects they prefer to ingest and competition is involved.  Perhaps they're not all the same gender?  Perhaps they're not acquainted with the lovely Geico Gecko and his gentlemanly manners.  Who can say?

I'll try again at photographing them.  Sometime.  When their guard is down.  Maybe.

P.S.  I'm editing the post:  I went back downstairs and noticed a head sticking out from the edge of the bricks.  When I moved to get a better look . . . it disappeared.  I'm not convinced that they're shy.  I think, well I'm not sure what I say to describe their feelings of being watched.  Maybe they're just creeped out.

And Then It Poured

Yesterday morning we woke to the blessed sound of heavy rain.  I don't exactly recall the last date that we had rain--a week or so ago--though it was minuscule.  But yesterday, we received the mother-load.  Before the day was out, we had 4 inches in the rain gauge.

I am SO GRATEFUL for the blessed rain!!!!!!!  And cooler nights, to boot!  Our poor grass was getting crunchy it's been so hot and dry for so long--even though we've tried to water.  Now it looks green and fresh and not nearly so thirsty!  So happy are we . . .

If Something's Broken, We Gotta Fix It

This morning Little Britches and I were heading out to do a few errands.  We heard something like a chain-saw not too far away.  Then we heard a heavy "thump". 

Little Britches:  "Gramma, what was that?????"

Me:  "I'm not sure, but it sounded like a chain-saw.  And maybe a big limb fell down."

Little Britches:  "Huh?  What they doin'?"

As we started to leave the neighborhood, I noticed a guy or two and some trucks parked on the side of the road and a neighbors huge pine tree lying down--away from their house--in the yard.

Me:  "See that big tree on the ground?"

Little Britches:  "Um, yeah.  Why they do that?"

Me:  "Looks like the tree was dying and they probably were making sure it wouldn't fall on their house."

Little Britches:  "Why?"

Me:  "Well, if a big tree like that falls on a house, it wrecks the house and they can't live there any more."

Little Britches:  "It would be breaked?"

Me:  "Yes.  A big tree like that falling on a house would break it in pieces."

Little Britches:  "Oh."  Hmmmmm.  "If somethings breaked, we gotta fix it."

Me:  "Yes.  That's a good idea."

Little Britches.  "Yes.  We have to get some sticky tape to fix it back up."

Me:  "Yeah . . . maybe, so."