DK's m..a..d.. d..o..-i..n..g..s........

[Craigthor]

bwahahaha... Now all the shrimpie tanks can go in an out.

[DKShrimporium]

Well now, normally DK is not too interested in drama. And she has an executive policy of categorically NOT photographing and posting pictures of herself or her body parts online, unless there is no way to avoid it - I mean: hands, no big deal.

But thank goodness for itching.

This morning, her wrist was itching.

By some amazing fortune, she was able to spot and recognize this - yikes!!!

She used her best forceps, and still the head broke off and now she's wondering what to do. She even used the forceps under her microscope, to do the deed, and can use same microscope to verify that, yup, that nasty mouth part is still attached to her.

By the way, all these were taken BEFORE she "removed" the vermin. See how dang small it is??

UGH!!

Oh, yeah, DK is totally not into fine accoutrements, as you can see from her cheapo import watch. They do nothing for her.

[DKShrimporium]

UPDATE (yes, minutes later).

DK could not abide by tick parts embedded into her, no matter HOW small. So she got out a needle and did the deed.

Here is the needle she used. Under the microscope.

The tick parts picture is a blow up of the needle picture.

See how small? DK is impressed with herself that she was able to get these pictures!

Said wound is now recovering slathered in neosporin and underneath a fancy-schmancy waterproof bandage, although she will not be subjecting that area of skin to shrimp tank water for at least 24 hours. Unfortunately, being a Geekette, and thus having not one but TWO microscopes, she has pulled samples of shrimp tank waters and seen all what is growing in there, to glom onto such broken-skin wounds...


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[wicca27]

awsome pics, sorry about the reason for them, do keep an eye on the area and take photos with you to the dr if for some reason you start filling ill

[sbarbee54]

put some vasaline on it next time. it will sufficate it and it should back out in 3 hours or so. Most ticks with their body broken off are still alive and will continue to cause havok, but some do die. Another trick is to soak it with rubbing alcohol. Or just get a scalple and have at it

[Bananariot]

Are you gonna have the tick checked for lyme disease? Idk how it is in PA but Long Island has a crazy amount with deer and such so whenever we get a tick we send it in just to be safe

Hopefully everything's good!

[DKShrimporium]

Originally Posted by wicca27

awsome pics, sorry about the reason for them, do keep an eye on the area and take photos with you to the dr if for some reason you start filling ill

Yes, on alert for Lyme, for sure. Ironically, I just had delivered a bottle of doxycycline this week!

Originally Posted by sbarbee54

put some vasaline on it next time. it will sufficate it and it should back out in 3 hours or so. Most ticks with their body broken off are still alive and will continue to cause havok, but some do die. Another trick is to soak it with rubbing alcohol. Or just get a scalple and have at it

Fortunately, I know definitively that I got all the parts out, from looking at the process under the microscope. That thing was incredibly small - we're in prime tick country (often have a herd of deer in our backyard and have 44 acres of wild scrub bordering our yard that is full of deer) but this is the very first time in all these years living here I've ever actually seen one of these tiny ticks. We get the large ones daily in tick season, between two Germans.

Originally Posted by Bananariot

Are you gonna have the tick checked for lyme disease? Idk how it is in PA but Long Island has a crazy amount with deer and such so whenever we get a tick we send it in just to be safe

Hopefully everything's good!

Well, don't have it anymore. Got to it early in the process so hopefully chances are very low. Even if it was a carrier hopefully I nuked it with the neosporin which is soaking the wound for a day.

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IN OTHER NEWS:

DK broke with tradition and went to the BORG. Picked up a couple pieces of lumber, a few bits of hardware, and a security torx set.

She then had it out with the microwave, and in 5 minutes... let there be light.


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[wicca27]

never thought about the light being so important in the microwave but you do have a point kinda need one when using it for something other than popping corn

[diwu13]

Dang... you are definitely a righty then haha. I can't imagine how much longer it would've taken if you were a lefty!

[DKShrimporium]

Originally Posted by diwu13

Dang... you are definitely a righty then haha. I can't imagine how much longer it would've taken if you were a lefty!

The hard part was that I did it under the microscope, so every time I pushed the skin with the needle it changed the plane of focus. I had to rig the plane of focus slightly depressed so when I did push it went INTO focus.


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[ravensgate]

Good gravy...needles and scalpels for ticks? Must be in lyme country. I remove at least 30 a day from dogs and horses and occasionally myself. Fingernails and being used to pulling them do the trick!

Fingernail polish remover gets them to back out. That or vaseline or rubbing alcohol like suggested but fingernail polish remover does it quicker.

[DKShrimporium]

Heh heh heh... Shrimptern 2012 2.0 is en route, today...

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IN OTHER NEWS

DK re-did a made-from-parts-'n'-pieces canopy light fixture, over the weekend. It's over a vintage craigslist tank (36", the WORST size tank to light) and she wanted to improve the light performance but with a cheaper light source. She replaced four undercabinet 18 inch fixtures that required $8 per bulb (minimum, more if specialty bulbs) with an array of spiral compact fluorescents at a couple bucks a pop and readily available in the correct spectrum at her local Lowes. She ditched the idea of encasing the run in the vinyl gutter as it was the wrong dimensions, and eventually came upon the sockets-mounted-into-conduit-junction-boxes - they are the perfect size and weight and structure. The sockets are ceramic ($2) with an L bracket attached to them which DK used to pop-rivet into the junction boxes. Tank doubled its available light at a cost of only 30 more watts power consumption (went from 4 x 15 watt linear bulbs to 5 x 18 watt spirals).

(The doubling wasn't due to wattage, but rather distribution: going through the polycarbonate twinwall at an angle, light is lost; this new configuration produces more light directly over the plant mass that passes straight down through the twinwall. The Twinwall is part of DK's vapor control and energy efficiency program.)

Everything about this tank is utility, so elegant and sleek it aint!


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[DKShrimporium]

The Mermaids are changing their outfits... had a smorgasboard of zucchini last night and apparently their outfits got tight... hussies!

Under the microscope the molts are perfect... but have you ever looked at a molt under the microscope? Teeming with microscopic life...


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[tetranewbie]

Wow, that's a great scope shot!

[DKShrimporium]

So, Shrimptern 2012 2.0 has arrived, and in true DK fashion she worked her so hard she was too tired to blog on evening 1. After a fairly extensive technical tour of the Shrimporium, including such critical items as ways to use a coffee maker in a Shrimporium not related to producing libations, we went after the double wall over. Yeah, you heard right.

Oh, yeah, it was after chowing on black beans and red rice a la Shrimptern 1.0.

We pulled the wall oven (double wall oven, that is - twice as heavy) from the cabinet and installed two new squirrel cage circulating fans, fooled around with the electronics, and then re-installed it into the cabinet. A replacement brain is en route - that will be installed in a couple days.

We must get the oven back in working order because, well, we have plans for it, this week. So now you know. DK gets real excited to meet anyone who has no qualms about hauling an appliance out of the wall and rippin' her open and re-gutting it. Niiiiiiiiiiiice.

Murphy, being ever hard at work, made sure to blow out the appliance (as well as the guest bathroom light fixture ballast) in the days just before Shrimptern's scheduled arrival.

There was one night Shrimptern 1.0 was so tired that they laid down on the basement floor face down about 5 minutes, to re-charge. At the time, DK was gutting a light fixture, if I remember correctly. And they plan to come back, with fireworks (literally)!

DK scratches her head. Must be the awe inspiring Germans, the draw.

Today we head into Shrimporium projects, and there are a pile from which to choose.

DK must sign off now, because she needs to order the "wow" part for a project that's been in the making... hope to pull it all together this Shrimpternship to share with y'all. DK smiles, even now, thinking about it...

In her squirrely brain she keeps hearing, "CHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!...........CHhhhhhhhhhhhh! !!"


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