Packing up.

We are so excited to get to Cambodia, but between here and there is a lot of packing and organizing.  We can't wait for this part to be through.  Last night I was going through all my non-digital pictures trying to get them scanned so that I can take them with me wherever I go and I found some pictures from our trip two years ago.

For Ankor Wat we needed to get small pictures of ourselves to go on our passes (or so we thought).  We stumbled across a glamour-shots photostudio and I thought it would be fun to get our pass pictures done there so that I could also do a Cambodian photoshoot with the background pictures and poses and everything.  It didn't sound fun to Matt, but he indulged me.  And it was fun.  Really silly and really fun!  For a few dollars, this is what I got:

They had me put on some makeup and then sent me in a backroom to pick something to wear out of some boxes of clothing.  There were a group of young teenage girls poking their heads in to watch me get my pictures taken, so I invited them to come in and they picked some backgrounds for me and told me which poses to do.  Those girls were the best part.

Also there to get her picture taken was a baby with the chubbiest cheeks I've seen in my whole life!  I wanted to pinch them but I didn't.

And here's the close-up

Sassy Cambodian girls

I was going through some of my old pictures and decided to do another post about my trip to Cambodia a couple of years ago. I never shared much about my trip with any of my family or friends, other than the accident story. In this post I want to share one of my favorite things about Cambodia: Sassy cambodian girls. I mean sassy in a good way, as in "lively, bold, cheeky, and full of spirit."

I ran across so many adorable girls and young women. I wouldn't have had any idea how adorable they really were if Matt hadn't been there to interpret what they were saying.

We came across this young lady selling fruit at a bus stop on a bus ride from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville. We also saw her on the return trip.

First of all, she has the most charming smile. As soon as we walked up to the stand to look at the fruit, she started talking about Matt and I, not knowing that Matt spoke Cambodian. She said I was pretty before she knew we could understand what she was saying, which melted my heart of course. She and Matt began speaking and she was so full of spunk, teasing Matt and giving him a hard time about various things. I told Matt to tell her how adorable I thought she was, and then I took this picture of her.

On a bus ride from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, we were greeted by a whole group of girls at a bus stop. In this particular area, these big spiders are gathered from the jungle for food. Fried spiders are a snack food. So, we got off the bus and this whole group of girls were there trying to get money from us. They wanted us to pay them a dollar to hold a spider. I didn't get any pictures of some of the younger ones. These girls were so smart, so precocious, and so charming with the English they had learned just hanging out at the bus stop trying to earn money from tourists. They were very aggressive in their marketing tactics, but I declined their offer to hold a spider for a dollar. There are so many people asking for money for so many different things, that you can't say yes to all the requests. We started talking with the girls, and they were very excited to speak with Matt in Cambodian. They asked him how he got his eyelashes so white and he said that he soaked them in water buffalo milk. They thought that was the funniest thing ever. At that point one of them decided that dollar or not, I was going to hold a spider. A cheeky little girl placed one my hand without even asking how I felt about it.

Having the spider on my hand made me a bit nervous because that thing had fangs and I didn't want to make a wrong move and have it bite me, but I didn't have to worry for long because one of the girls moved it to my shirt.

Things were going well until it started crawling upward. I was happy to have it lounging on my shirt, but I didn't want its fangs anywhere near my face. I wasn't sure how to pick it up in the right way so that it wouldn't bite me, and I wasn't having much success redirecting it. Just as I was starting to get a bit nervous one of the little girls reached up, put her finger on the back of the spider, and said "stop!" (in English) in the cutest authoritative little voice I have ever heard. The spider stopped climbing towards my face.

Here are the spiders they were selling, all fried up and ready for snacking.

The last Cambodian girl I want to mention was probably about my age and is in the picture above. This was in Siem Reap, the major tourist destination in Cambodia since it is near Ankor Wat. As we walked down a street lined with food vendors, we were intercepted by this woman. She owned the very first stand. She was so aggressive yet so charming, and she seemed like the grown-up version of the little spider girls we had met during our bus break that day. She spoke very little English though. We looked at her menu, and she was selling fried rice which is what we wanted, so we sat town at one of her tables.

As dinner progressed, we watched her alternate between serving her customers and recruiting new ones with so much efficiency and confidence. She was doing the job of at least 3 people and I was really impressed. Matt spoke Cambodian with her to order our food. When some English speaking customers arrived that she was having a hard time communicating with, she did not hesitate in assigning Matt to interpret. Once when she accosted a couple of tourists on the street who seemed slightly confused, I motioned enthusiastically from the table for them to come over to eat. They came over, I endorsed the food, and they stayed. Our hostess loved that, and I was having fun too. We had a system going for a couple of minutes where I would try to convince the tourists she had captured that eating there was a great idea. I was feeling pretty happy because I felt like I had recruited a couple of customers for this really great woman.

Then I decided that in the spirit of cultural tourism, I would like to give it a try, so I took one of the menus and had Matt ask her if I could go out on the street and take her place as the recruiter. She agreed, and I had a lot of fun trying to intercept the passers-by with similar tactics. I am clearly not as charming as she is because everybody just seemed irritated with me and I did not get a single customer. My job as recruiter ended after I strayed too far down the road into competitor territory. I heard Matt and a couple of other people yelling at me to come back, so I went to see what the fuss was. Our friend was making fists and little punching motions to indicate that I was going to get myself, or her, beat up. Though she was smiling and the people whose territory I had invaded just seemed amused, I decided to put away my menu and finish dinner. She gave Matt and I free drinks for our services. The picture above is of me with a menu, waiting for someone pass by.

Capitol Reef

Matt and I went on a little camping trip to Capitol Reef National Park this weekend. It was really fun, but we are both a little sore today. Yesterday we went on a 15 mile hike through Upper Muley Twist Canyon, definitely the longest I've ever hiked in one day. It was a record for Matt too. It was getting pretty painful by the end! Though much better for me than a 10 mile hike we made on a backpacking trip last summer carrying a 40 pound pack. That pushed me to my limit.

Our campsite just outside Capitol Reef

We decided to sleep under the stars rather in a tent so we could watch the meteor shower that night. We saw a few shooting stars, but missed most of it because we were too tired.

While we were playing around the campfire I made a torch using a big glob of tree sap. In this picture I was pretending to be in an angry mob. (I probably associate torches with mobs due to all the church videos I've seen in my life.)

Matt giving me some attitude the next day at the trail head. We had to hike in 3 miles to get to the trail head, which added 6 miles round-trip to the 9 mile loop.

On the trail

We had to do some scrambling at various points, which slowed us down some.

The reef

Nearing the end of the loop. We were happy to return to this point because it meant only 5 or 6 miles to go.

What a wonderful sight to behold!

That evening after our hike we packed up camp and drove part way home, staying the night at Matt's parents' home in Venice. Before Venice, we stopped at the Walmart in Richfield. After three hours in the car we were so stiff we could barely move. We were laughing hard because we looked like we were doing a slapstick Balky and Larry routine just trying to get to the store entrance. Going with the cart was a no-brainer.

Me the next morning in Venice, after a shower and a good night of sleep, barely worse for the wear.

A huge thanks to Matt for once again planning a great adventure!

Baby mice, free to good homes!

Matt got me two little mice for Christmas, Mopsy and Mitzy. They have been the best little pets and I love them. They both had babies last month, but only Mopsy's survied. Mopsy's 11 babies are adorable and they are nearly weaned. I am keeping a few but the rest need a home. They will be ready by Easter and would be a great Easter gift! If anybody is interested in taking one or two, or knows someone who might be, let me know! Please send the link to this post to anyone who might be interested.

Mice make charming little pets. They are inquisitive, acrobatic, and full of personality. I also like them because they are only 1/10th the size of rats and 1/3 the size of a hamster, meaning that they require less space, there is less cleaning up to do, and they are (in my opinion) much cuter. They are very easy to care for.

These babies are extremely tame because I have spent a lot of time handling them. If I stick my hand in their cage, 11 little babies run over to see if I have a treat for them and they all try to run up my arm because they want to come out and play. It is fun to watch them groom themselves like little cats and try to climb all over everything like little monkeys. They are high energy, playful little guys.

Here is a video showing how tame they are:





And another video with them playing by themselves in their cage:




And here is a slide show that includes pictures of them from the time they were born through today:



Right now there are 8 babies available, all males: 4 pure agouti, 1 agouti with white patches on his face, 2 pure white, and 1 white and black. If you are interested, let me know if there is one in particular you want and I will save him for you until he is ready to go (a week or less, by Easter for sure).

From what I have read, males need to be kept by themselves because they fight with each other when they are adults. I have heard that sometimes males do get along living together as adults if they are from the same litter and have never been separated, but sometimes they still do fight and that you have to be prepared to house them separately if they do. So if anyone with a lot of experience with animals wants to take two boys, I would be willing to let you do it. Otherwise, I would recommend one.

These mice are going to make great little pets. Don't miss out! :)

Supplies you need for one mouse include:

1) An aquarium or a cage of some sort: A5.5 gallon aquarium would be large enough for one mouse, but a 1o gallon would be even better. You can get a 10 gallon aquarium at Walmart for about $12. If you use an aquarium you also need a cover. Here is a link to a cover that you can buy from Walmart.com for about $6 (Walmart doesn't sell them in stores). I have that one, and it works well. Or, you can just go to any pet store and ask for a screen cover, though they are a bit more expensive at petstores.

2) Bedding: You can use paper bedding or aspen shavings. Mice can't tolerate wood shavings that contain cedar or pine. There are aromatic oils in those woods that harm their lungs. They sell tiny bags of aspen or paper bedding at most grocery stores or walmart, but it is way more cost effective to buy a huge thing of bedding from a petstore. I got a huge container of aspen shavings for about $15 at a petstore a couple of months back and I have barely started to make a dent in it.

3) Water bottle: I have a couple different water bottles and I like the one I got from Walmart the best. It was about $2.

4) Wheel: Mice absolutely need a wheel to run in. They have a lot of energy to burn off, and they would go nuts without one. I recommend the "Silent Spinner" which most pet stores sell. It is a good one because it isn't squeaky, like a lot of wheels, so it won't drive you nuts, and also, it is a solid surface wheel which is easier on their feet. Silent Spinners are a bit more expensive than other wheels though, about $10.

5) Food: A food mix designed for rats/mice is best, but they can do well on hamster food also. Don't get the huge rat/mice pellets that they sell at Walmart. Get a mix from the petstore that has seeds and corn and other items included. Mice really enjoy variety. And after they are first weaned, those huge pellets will be too big for them to break apart anyway.

6) Hiding spots and toys: Mice need a secure, hidden place to sleep. A tissue box or some other little cardboard box will work perfectly, or you can even buy a little house for them at the pet store if you want. Placing items in their cage like toilet tissue rolls and other things to climb on and chew on is also important so they don't get bored. It's good to mix it up a little bit so they have some variety in their environment.

Caring for mice:

Mice do not overeat so it is best to leave plenty of food in their cage at all times. Make sure when you feed them each day there is at least some food left over from their last feeding so you know that they aren't going hungry. They also like fruits and vegetables as treats (though citrus is bad for them). Parakeet seed (millet) is also a good treat. I change out their water once weekly and also clean their cage once weekly. Usually, cleaning the cage consists of changing out the bedding and wiping down anything that has gotten dirty. It doesn't take long at all. Every few cleanings I'll wash the whole aquarium with dish soap and dry it off. It's really easy.

As far as playing with them, mice don't like to be grabbed or chased and they don't like to be picked up by their tails. If you do these things, they'll start avoiding you. You have to wait until they come to you and jump in your hand in order to take them out, which if you treat them well, they will be excited to do (as long as they are awake). Once they are out of their cage, if you can tell they are feeling anxious and want to go back in their home, put them back or they may be reluctant to come out next time. If they don't want to come in your hand, bribe them with treats. Or put a little cardboard tube in their home and gently herd them into it. Pick up the tube and place it on your lap and let them come out on their own time. Playing with them often will keep them tame and will help to prevent them from becoming bored.