4 Aug 03

Hi peoples, :)

You always know it's me when the header says, "from the peanut gallery ..."

I'm Barbie, 37, from southern Connecticut. Due to health issues, I can't become as heavily involved in darts as I'd like to, but things are looking up, and I have big plans for next year :) - already planning new tanks.

As a newbie (only a few years), I am still learning very painful lessons about the in's and out's of keeping darts [have a beautiful tinc doing the float in preservation liquid :( ].

For the most part, I've always been heavily involved in geckos, but having had to cull my collection down, I'm only working with rhacs at the moment. I also have eight snakes, rats, western hognoses and kings; red efts (my second favorite 'phib) and a variety of salamanders.

By trade, I am a phlebotomist, and would like to become a med tech. Not sure yet if I want a specialty in blood banking or micro; I really enjoy both.

Before I decided I wanted a job where I wouldn't get rained on, snowed on and shot at, I was an advanced life support tech for an ambulance service in a large urban city here.

Prior to that, I was a photojournalist for a couple of Connecticut and Florida newspapers, but politics really fry my butt, so now I just shoot for pleasure. Jack of all trades, master of none, LOL. But I consider myself lucky to have been involved in both fields; they were the best 'human nature' learning experiences I could have ever asked for.

I love hiking, fossil collecting, fishing and field herp photography, and am planning a web page specifically devoted to indigenous herps of Connecticut, and the importance of their conservation.

I like to set a 'mission' for myself each time we go out; focusing on a specific herp to photograph. Often we get skunked, but that just eggs me on further. We're still looking for Connecticut's rarest to photograph, the Eastern spadefoot toad, and the bog turtle. If they're still here, we'll find 'em :).

I'm engaged to a wonderful guy that I've converted into a herper!, and he's now interested in inverts. The most fun I have is when we hike, and he finds something he's never seen before - I love the look on his face when he rolls a log and finds somebody's occupying it. :)

I found FrogNet quite by accident a few years ago, and for the most part, I mainly lurk. I am so grateful to have such knowledgeable people just a 'send' button away. I just love FrogNet!

We also have two litter-box kids, Sammy and Scoopy >^,,^<

At the moment, I'm retyping Hesslehouse's dart frog book for inclusion in Tracy's FAQ project (I swear, I'm still working on it!).

Since I'm stuck at home, at least for the moment, I'm also trying my hand at a whole new thing: creative writing. I'm working on a series of children's books, that will use herp characters to teach kids about conservation. Without giving away plots, LOL, they'll be along the lines of salamanders and toads, displaced by habitat destruction, who wind up in little kid's backyards, and they teach the kids about the devastating loss of their native woodlands and wetlands.

Well, that's about as exciting as I get.

"Thank you, you've been a great audience!" Next ... :)

Barbie >^,,^<





_______from the notes and contributions of Frognet Patrons_______