Creepy crawlies!

I know, I know. I've been a bad blogger.  My workdays have blurred into my work nights and I have lost track of days and fallen behind on emails yet again.  I will catch up eventually, I promise!

It was an interesting week in C'ville.  I learned about the local animal population....oh boy, did I!  It started with an innocent conversation in the middle of my office when I asked if there were poisonous snakes in the state.  Certainly they had gardener snakes, but could they be deadly?  The answer - oh yes!  There are def copperheads and even rattlesnakes in this area.  I ran this by another colleague who was quick to inform me that they had found 2 snakes in the plant over the past couple of months.  One was a copperhead.  Awesome.

I had to run home at some point last week to sign for a delivery...probably around 3pm.  As I walked to my front stoop, I noticed a little lizard sitting next to my pot of basil.  At first I thought it was a newt, but after closer inspection I determined he was a bit bigger than he should be.  Needless to say, he did not want to hang out with me and took off running down the side of the house.  When I got back to the office and asked if they had newts or salamanders around here, they said no, just lizards.  Again, awesome.

After I vetted the lizard scenario with my colleagues, I struck up a conversation with a guy who was in the building for an interview.  He was a very chatty fella and from the area.  He was telling me that when he phone screened with us he had to delay the interview because he had just discovered a snake in his house.  A cowsucker snake to be exact.  Yes, you read that right.  I am immediately assumed that I was being setup by my office mates who found my awe amusing, but alas, it was a true story.  Apparently cowsuckers are not poisonous, but they hang out in fields.  After further Googling, I have discovered they are also called rat snakes.  But enough about them... I'm trying to eat my breakfast. Ew.

Then on Friday I went to the weekly labor planning meeting with our sr ops team, controller and gm.  One of our sr ops mgrs comes in laughing hysterically over a conversation he just had with one of our employees about frog giggin'.  Now before you cringe, think about the last time you had some nice, delicate, buttery frog legs.  This is where they come from.  Somewhere in the world, someone is going frog giggin with their little trident spear and pocket knife.  If you are eating, I suggest you stop reading or hold on to your stomach because what happens next is kind of gross.  So they catch a from in a trap and use the trident to pin down the frog and cut off its legs....while it is still alive.  Apparently if you kill the poor creature first, it dries up their legs and you can't eat them.  This lovely employee had fried frog legs for breakfast.  Just think about that.  Awesome.

I must have looked shocked because the gm and controller called me out...said I was rethinking my decision to come down here.  If he only knew the rest of my week!

So that it what I have learned about the local animals.  Besides being afraid of ticks, I'm now worried about cowsuckers and lizards getting in my house.  But fear not, I do not believe that I will have to worry about frog giggin.  Not a local tradition I care to experience. 

I realize that I keep promising pictures that I have yet to deliver.  You are probably thinking I only wished that I was Lady Liberty.  By the way, they only call her Lady Liberty around here.... I've called her the Statue of Liberty and received some strange looks.  Strange. Strange.  It's kind of fun being the pale girl that talks funny.  I'm actually kind of tan by my standards!