Yes, we are the Champions! Scott and I have been playing in co-ed volleyball games for our church for the last 6 weeks and last night was the final tournament games. Usually our team looses within the first/second round for no other reason than lack of players, but for some reason the stars aligned for us this year and we had a good solid team from the start. Since these tournament games are for one night only - double elimination - they can drag on for a very LONG time. In years past when our team would loose right away in the early part of the tournament we would be done early and usually home and in bed by 8... (not really for this night owl). I had no REAL idea how long these games kept going for, but HOLY COW... we got home at 12:15AM... Yes, that's AM... as in the next day... as in our kids were dog tired... as in we kept Sam home from school as a reward for being such an awesome kid and a super-star big sister for helping with the twiners so we could play... and yes, as in 5 straight hours of volleyball 7pm-12AM... and yes, as in one of the greatest nights EVER! Thank goodness this story ends on a happy note with us winning the tournament otherwise this post just might have a bitter tone to it... Go Team Viewpoint!
OK, so on to the puppy story... no we do NOT have a dog/puppy... we actually found a sand puppy crawling along the side of our house as we pulled in at 12:15AM. Now, not being a native Arizonian or having much experience with desert bugs or insects, you could imagine that my first question to Scott was... WHAT THE HECK IS A SAND PUPPY??!! In case you don't know, it's this...
It's something like part arachnid and part scorpion and it's real name is solpugid (look it up, you'll be scared, too)... Scott first screamed scorpion pretty loud, too for it being 12:15AM, but it turned out to be a sand puppy instead. So naturally we had to catch it so we could view it a little more up close and personal. Scott, being the natural bug catcher that he is, ran and grabbed one of the few thousand empty 52oz Circle K cups we have around our house and scooped it up with cat-like reflexes.
We brought it into the house, put it in one of my tall glass vases because bug catcher Scott said it could not climb glass (famous last words). Low and behold at the end of its front legs are little suctions which makes climbing glass look effortless. So, with MY cat-like reflexes I grabbed the nearest plate and quickly covered the top of the vase to seal that puppy in... ;-)
Sorry these next few pics are pretty bad quality... all I had handy was my camera phone, and even then these pics don't do this bug any justice... this sucker was BIG!
And yes, we did add just a little bit of water to see if it could float... yeah, it can't... it drowned. I don't know which would be more humane, drowning or smashing its face in... either way, it was going to die that night. Cruel, maybe, but these puppies eat and feed off of gecko's and little lizards and we like gecko's and lizards because they eat little bugs and insects that try to get into my house... and well, frankly I'd much rather look at a lizard on my house wall than an ugly sand puppy.
An now, just when you thought this post couldn't get any longer, I go and add just a couple more pictures. In all the brew-haha with the sand puppy and getting home at 12:15AM I lost track of Brody. It seems it took Brody literally 3 steps into our house before he collapsed and fell asleep. While all the rest of us were in the kitchen examining the bug, Brody was fast asleep in front of our fireplace all curled up. What a cutie pie!!
OK, so on to the puppy story... no we do NOT have a dog/puppy... we actually found a sand puppy crawling along the side of our house as we pulled in at 12:15AM. Now, not being a native Arizonian or having much experience with desert bugs or insects, you could imagine that my first question to Scott was... WHAT THE HECK IS A SAND PUPPY??!! In case you don't know, it's this...
It's something like part arachnid and part scorpion and it's real name is solpugid (look it up, you'll be scared, too)... Scott first screamed scorpion pretty loud, too for it being 12:15AM, but it turned out to be a sand puppy instead. So naturally we had to catch it so we could view it a little more up close and personal. Scott, being the natural bug catcher that he is, ran and grabbed one of the few thousand empty 52oz Circle K cups we have around our house and scooped it up with cat-like reflexes.
We brought it into the house, put it in one of my tall glass vases because bug catcher Scott said it could not climb glass (famous last words). Low and behold at the end of its front legs are little suctions which makes climbing glass look effortless. So, with MY cat-like reflexes I grabbed the nearest plate and quickly covered the top of the vase to seal that puppy in... ;-)
Sorry these next few pics are pretty bad quality... all I had handy was my camera phone, and even then these pics don't do this bug any justice... this sucker was BIG!
And yes, we did add just a little bit of water to see if it could float... yeah, it can't... it drowned. I don't know which would be more humane, drowning or smashing its face in... either way, it was going to die that night. Cruel, maybe, but these puppies eat and feed off of gecko's and little lizards and we like gecko's and lizards because they eat little bugs and insects that try to get into my house... and well, frankly I'd much rather look at a lizard on my house wall than an ugly sand puppy.
An now, just when you thought this post couldn't get any longer, I go and add just a couple more pictures. In all the brew-haha with the sand puppy and getting home at 12:15AM I lost track of Brody. It seems it took Brody literally 3 steps into our house before he collapsed and fell asleep. While all the rest of us were in the kitchen examining the bug, Brody was fast asleep in front of our fireplace all curled up. What a cutie pie!!