Last day at Petsmart, featuring new pets for me!

One of the regular customers at the Manassas Petsmart is this guy named Cliff. He's a car salesman, which is fairly obvious from his mannerisms--gregarious, outgoing, almost pushy, quite the pal. He's also an animal lover, and quite the impulse buyer with money to burn--if he sees an animal he likes, he gets it, plus a quality setup for it, and cares for it properly while it's in his care. Of course, animals don't always stay in his care long--a pair of hamsters and a pair of gerbils lasted a day each before he decided he didn't like them; a parent-raised cockatiel (which I warned him wasn't the best idea) came back in favor of a handfed 'tiel.. and he's accumulated eight lizards and a stripe-knee tarantula. (Three leopard geckos, one albino leopard gecko, one eyelash/crested gecko, one bearded dragon, one agama, one iguana.) Don't misjudge him, though--he cares for them well and properly, even if he takes their ownership lightly.

Sunday, though, he decided he just had too many animals and wanted to pare it down to the iguana and the cockatiel. So, into Petsmart he came, found me, and offered me all of the lizards and their supplies, plus the tarantula, for one hundred dollars. This is insanely cheap, and you'll see why shortly.

I expressed interest in some of the lizards--though not all--and he went home to get them, bringing all seven back in a box. I decided I really like the eyelash/crested gecko* (~6"), the bearded dragon* (~10"), and the agama* (~6"), but not so much the four leopard geckos. (I'd been wanting a lizard or two for a good while, but couldn't afford it--so this wasn't so much an impulsive decision.) Around that time, some other customers had gathered to see all these lizards, including a couple boys and their mom, already owners of two adult leopard geckos. He offered them all four of his for $40, and when the boy and his mom hesitated, Cliff dropped it to $25, and off they went--four leopard geckos (including one albino), plus a log and a dish. Note, here, that those four lizards total retail for about $165.

* Descriptive webpages:
1) [Eyelash] Crested Gecko
2) Bearded Dragon
3) A desert Agama, a member of the Agamid family (which includes the Bearded Dragon.) Looks like a tiny beardie with less spikiness. :)

That left the other three, all of their supplies--which he later went home to fetch--and the tarantula/supplies that I didn't want. He asked for $100, which I bargained against--after all, he'd asked $100 before for all the lizards/supplies; he countered with "I knew you didn't really want the leopard geckos"--shaky logic and he knew it, but I got him to drop it to $85--as low as he claimed he was willing to go, as he wanted to go buy a ferret at Petco. (I made him realize that he'd be making an unwise, underinformed purchase, so he may've held off for a bit. Maybe.) That was good for me, so I went on my lunch break, pulled cash from the ATM, and the exchange was made.

How good a deal is this, you may ask? Well, let's see.
( The breakdown )

The total: Almost $450. Think I got a good deal? :D

I set up my new pets in the back room, and alternated between work and checking on them. It was another busy day--~$400 in fish sales--and we didn't get to closing procedures and recovery until after closing at 7, so we didn't leave until after 9. I went to my parents', chatted with them, explained the new pets, had some dinner, got some paperwork, checked out my old-room-turned-guest-room (very yellow/flowery/antique-y), got my nice brown shoes--which I accidentally left behind--and came back home. Nathan allows as how I might just have too many pets--nah! ;D--and I set them up on my room. I really need some more furniture for my room, shelving and cabinets and whatnot, even moreso now. ;)

( Representative pictures! )

Monday, first day at RDR! Orientation and whatnot. :)
Monday evening, vet appointment for Sylvie. :\

First day at RDR!

0830-1130: Orientation in Centreville, with lots of paperwork filled, lots of papers and booklets handed over (as well as an RDR mug and polo shirt), lots of benefits explained.

1130-1200: Drive to Lorton.

1200-1300: Lunch hour. Nice timing, eh?

1300-~1430: Orientation stuff in Lorton--meet lots of people, chat with the lab manager for a while, get my irises scanned into the system (!).

1430-1630: Hang around semi-aimlessly, eventually chatting with some other techs and signing up for some classes coming up this week. See, the other five people haven't started yet, and the 8-week training session for the five of us doesn't start until the 26th. So, I have to find ways to entertain myself until then, and I'm allowed to take the short classes offered in that time. So, I'll be learning about those explosive/drug detectors and some door and fence systems--some of which won't be covered in lab tech training, so I'll just have some extra knowledge. :D (The other techs say that the interesting part of the job is really the travel to other countries--being in the lab just gets tedious. I hope to transfer to Special Products--like the original position I was aiming for--eventually, after being an installation tech for a few years. :)

Regular schedule for techs is 0730-1630, and the office is less than four miles from me. Easy commute! :D

Now, off to the vet. Appointment isn't until 6, but southbound traffic is terrible at this time of day. :P

Vet followup

Dr. Kawasaki (whom I really like, as he's friendly, knowledgeable about ferrets, highly skilled, and well-respected) agrees with the insulinoma diagnosis, and clarifies the eye problem as retinal atrophy, which he apparently discovered. Can't do anything for her vision, though she's getting along fine as is. For the insulinoma, he recommends surgical removal of the malignant pancreatic bits, which is an easier (and thus more reasonably-priced) surgery than adrenal, total cost under $200. I'll schedule that sometime soon.

She was also quite active in his office, despite low blood sugar--he says that ferrets basically produce insulin on demand to control their sugar level, so it fluctuates a lot. He also says that the technique he's been using recently for adrenal with good success--if I recall correctly, and I may be missing details--is freezing the affected gland.

skreidle: Personal Trainer

A week or two ago, Nathan told me that in order to get himself to work out regularly, he'd pay me $5 for every weeknight where he sat watching TV instead of working out.

Before last weekend, he decided that there was even less reason to not work out on weekends, so he'd pay me $10 for any weekend day where he didn't work out.

Just now, as he was about to go to bed, he a) remembered he needed to work out, and b) decided that his workouts must be 30 minutes or more from now on, or they didn't count.

Man, it's so much work being a personal trainer like this! :D