Worked to death

I overnighted at Breezes Montego bay last week and I was a bit disappointed. This was my first time staying at an all inclusive hotel and after my 4 hour drive up the only thing I could get was a beef cheeseburger with fries or a hot dog? come on now. I got the food and went to the bar for a drink and was called over by one of the trainee managers who tried to pick me up to take pictures for her. I would have said that she had some big cojones to fraternize with the guests but it would seem all the staff was that way.

One thing I noticed at the outside bar was all the bees. I took a walk around the property and there was so many bees, apparently they were attracted to all the soda machines. You had to fight the bees to get to the machine and when I actually got a cup it was full of dead bee parts. The bees needed to chill from all the work, they were at a "luxury" resort. I did the same though, I dragged my ass out of bed at 11pm and drove to the middle of the city to put in a few hours of work. sux eh? my work patterns are so odd.

Tastes like chicken?

What the hell is wrong with these lizards? I have no real problem living with them but they have crossed the line.

Saturday night I stepped into my kitchen and heard no end of commotion somewhere in the room. After some investigation I realized the lizard that normally lives under my fridge was in the garbage bag I placed on the ground pending the arrival of the garbage truck. It was eating my left overs so I quickly identified where it was in the bag and just stepped on it through the bag *splat*.

I thought that was the last of those buggers in my kitchen for now but some night later on this week I stepped into my kitchen to do the dishes and saw a single lone chicken bone in the middle of the counter, someone tried to help themself to a snack before I could clean up. Needless to say the lizard pictured above soon came into view as he tried to make his escape. Look at it, he is still licking his lips. I went for my camera and bug spray and now he is no more. Lizards be warned.

Back at home

The parents are back and this was the first weekend I have spent back at my own home in over a month! One thing I have noticed is that their house is 10x hotter and more humid than my apartment. Anyway, I just thought I'd share some of the more interesting shots I took while I was up there last weekend.

Give thanks for good weather.. not everyone is so lucky to have good weather and nice blue skys throughout the year like we do down here in Jamaica(although the heat can be pretty brutal). There seems to be a lot of thunder and rain daily now, the rainy season missed it's May mark. At least my car will get a free daily cleaning for now.

After seeing all the snails and slugs that are drawn to my mothers plants around the house I now realise that for the past few years I haven't seen any of these monsters where I live. I remember getting great joy throwing salt on them when I was young but now I just want them to live a full life. My mother would have a fit though cause they eat her plants and she doesn't want them near anything.

The dog food: chicken neck and back cooked in white rice. Their dog is so spoiled, fat and lazy. He only eats the chicken and a little of the rice then leaves the rest for everybody else to eat and trust me when I say everybody else gets a share. Birds, lizards, rats and apparently now frogs eat the left over food daily. The frogs or toads only come out at night though, so that picture was taken in pitch black.. it came out kinda fuzzy.

The dog.

How to kill a croaking lizard

I guess I've mentioned croaking lizards(geckos) enough for google to throw a few people my way with queries on how to get rid of them, so this is my definitive guide for all those who come this way.

For those of you who have cojones my first line of offence is bug spray :D as depicted here. The fly right off the wall once the spray hits them so try to get them square on the head. The lizards may not pass immediately but they will be left in a disabled state for a while, long enough to sweep them outside or to pick them up with some tissue and discard.

I have seen my parents make attempts to catch them with glue traps but those didn't yield much. I have actually caught a large croaker with a spring loaded rat trap, I guess they like cheese as much as the rats. I have attempted to blind them using a 10mw laser but it seemed to have no effect.

For those of you who are deathly afraid of these things (yeah, even pictures of them) need not read/scroll down any further.

I strongly suspect that I sprayed this bugger before and he some what recovered from it.. but not too well... I doubt he survived his second dose.

Unwanted neighbours..

So my friend Alex was so kind to come down and give me my camera last week. I am still trying to figure out how to use it properly but here is my first blog picture post using it:This is a hawk of some sorts that has decided to live under my eaves since last year after I installed a 2' florescent bulb to light up my parking area for better security at night after they stole my neighbours car. You can't see the light but its about 1' to the right. To install this light I had to carry a heavy wrought iron chair unto a ledge that is less than 2 feet wide to climb up and drill and install the fixture and I remember while I was up there looking at the top of that column noticing no signs of life.

The picture clearly(maybe not) shows droppings and urine(?) running down the walls. This indicates two things to me:

• The bird moved in after I installed the light
• The bird is a pest messing up my wall and needs to go

It would be cool if the bird ate the other pests around like the roaches, lizards, wasps or rats I see in the yard below, but I doubt it does this as I have seen no decline in the other pests. I have done my job on the other pests though, bug spray for them all. I see roaches fly in every now and then if I leave my windows open and the light on at night but I think my place is roach free for the most part as I tend to go for the broom and bug spray to kill them if they don't fly out instantly.

I don't really have a problem with lizards as they eat other bugs but the girls who visit me always seem to create a bit too much drama for me every time they see on here.. so they get the bug spray too. I always feel bad killing the lizards though, esp. the big ones like this one here. I snapped this picture last year April before I started the genocide. This one was a fat one, over 1" wide, and would croak so loudly that it would often wake me up at night. I sprayed him with bug spray and he jumped off, falling downstairs. I assumed the fall killed it but it came back two months later. We repeated and it hasn't showed up since, RIP lizzy.