A Christmas Story . . . With Geeks

I've been away from the computer for a few weeks, just enjoying spending time with friends and family and enjoying the holidays. But something really wonderful happened over Christmas that I wanted to share with you - it is both crafty and geeky, and as such, is a perfect addition to this blog.

My sweetie, Darren, and I celebrated Christmas a few days early at his parent's house in Estacada, OR, as both his brother and his dad had to work Christmas eve. His dad was handing out presents, when, towards the end of the evening, Sweetie approaches me with a little scroll of paper sealed with a bow.

He says to me, "Now, a gift like this is a huge commitment, so I wanted you to have the choice to accept it or not." At this point his mother and his sister are looking at us, and I'm thinking, "Dang, did he get me a puppy?"

I unroll the scroll and start reading. My eyes get really wide and . . . and I blurt out, "OMG, you got me flesh-eating beetles!" My eyes teared up, I covered him with kisses and his mother and sister realized that no, in fact, he was not proposing.

It is, flat out, the most romantic gift I have ever gotten.

I don't know if anyone remembers this post where I talked about preparing bones to use in my art . . . but flesh-eating beetles, or dermestids, are one way that labs, museum curators, taxidermists, and other professionals clean bones. It would be super-cool to have my own colony to prepare lots of skulls and stuff, so that I could use really pristine - and delicate - bones in my art.

But Darren's right - being responsible for the health and well-being of a colony of of flesh-eating beetles is a huge responsibility, one that I'm frankly not sure I'm ready for. Who would take care of my flesh-eating beetles during the weeks I travel? Would I take the tank with me on the plane, or would I ask a friend to come and feed roadkill to my beetles? Speakign of which, where would I get enough carcasses to keep them fed? Though, apparently, if you don't have animal carcasses to feed them, you can give them hot dogs. Hmm. Hot dogs.

Anyway, that's the coolest thing - he knew the beetles would be the perfect gift, and he knew, too, that I might not be ready for such an amazing gift. And that's why he's the Sweetie.

That's why I bought this t-shirt from ThinkGeek: