Well I have been writing the journal now for one FULL YEAR!!...............there were plenty of people how said I wouldn't be able to do it?.............that I would run out of material and get stagnant?...............LOL.............well that did happen, and the journal is still here!!.........I myself think it is a masterpiece...........but that's just me being bias.......;).............I know I would read the hell out of it if somebody else wrote it........" The life and times of a Boner"..............I'm thinking it would be easier to do some type of streaming video for you guys next?........." Ralph's Reality Show"............or maybe talk to the producer of SURVIVOR and get my own show..............LOL...........GAWD!!.............anyway...........I'm very happy to be able to entertain all you guys and gals reading the journal.............I appreciate all the positive feed- back too.............yes this makes "others" jealous as all hell of Ralphie.............but that's not why I'm doing it...........I do it because I enjoy it.............it's not that hard once you "master" working with all the pics and know how to work with your web-site..............the writing can sometimes be hard to "get started"............but once you get rolling...........it flows with ease............I gotta BIG MOUTH people!!...............I always have something to say!!...........and most of all..............my life is full of cool stuff!!.............so here it all is ( most of it anyway )...........this journal is not just for the "snake world".............it's here for anyone who knows me and just wants to know what I'm up to................I always wanted to keep a diary and never did..........after looking back at a year's worth of journal entries ............I have to say that I'm pretty taken back as to how much I have written............I've pretty much documented everything in my life for the past year in this jorunal...............and you guys are seeing it all!!..........It feels weird when I take a call and the person on the other end is telling me about things that they read about me in the journal................they say they "feel" like they know me............I like that.......;)..........OK............enough of the sentimental "patting of the back" crap...............lets get on with November!!

Robbie finished up cleaning all the snakes on Friday, I got all my paper-work done and started working on some "computer stuff".............and then it happened.............yepper..............T comes down and wants to do some more photo work on my PC..........."why did I ever tell her about printing pics"????............so I stopped what I was doing and let her "do her thing"..........some of "the gang" were in RDR chat at the time.............so T and I were "chattin" with them.............T has never been in my chat room...........she said it was pretty " neat".............I'm hoping that I'm not creating a monster now????............That's all I need is for T to know how much "trash talk" goes on in the chat room...........did I just say that?..........nahhhhhhhhh.........LMAO!!...............so don't be surprised if she stops in on Tuesday nights!!.............after she printed all her pics and we said goodnight to everyone in chat............I figured it was time for her to have her own password for the RDR Forum..........LOL........MAN...........for three years I have "sheltered" her from all the evilness of the internet ...........especially all the "ham bones" that visit my site.......:P........well that's over now............I think her meeting everyone in Daytona kinda "broke the ice".........but "it's all good"..............maybe she will boost me sales??................LOL.............hell......maybe I'll let her take over on the sales?..................NOT!!...........she is happy that "I'm Happy"...........but she could care less about the snake biz.............and I like that!......;)........plus she knows that I'm a total ass and that I live for this stuff!!.............I guess it's from getting beat up so many times in school?...............LOL.......

Today ( Saturday )................Phil and I met up this morning to run a bunch of errands.........we did some shopping for supplies, went to the dump.............then we went down to Liberty Reservoir to pick up my boat.............my uncle and I keep a boat stored at the reservoir for when we want to go out on the water and fish.............it's by permit only..........the park police make you take the boat away during the winter months............so we loaded it up and took it up to Mr. John's place for storage...............we seen Mr. John while we were there and he asked me if I wanted to rent his Mom's house?...............she just died recently............he told me I cold "gut it" and put all my snakes inside..............it's zoned agricultural, sitting smack dab in the middle of a huge farm.............so that gave me something to think about............I know eventually I will build a huge building for my wood shop, and storage..........maybe rodents and snakes too??...............but I want a building...............not a house...............so I told Mr. John I would be more interested in buying the house with a few acres.............that way I could maybe let Robbie live in the house, and I would build my building out back...............who knows?...............I already picked up the acreage down the street from Mr. Johns..........it's more than enough room and we will be putting Fatty's house there...............and hopefully a building in the back...............so I'll have to see how it all pans out................if Mr. John wants to sell.............I'm buying it........;)................so we shall see........;)

After Phil and I finished up all the things we had to do we went and grabbed some lunch..........we took lunch back to my place where Fatty was working on taking down all the Halloween stuff..............He got there while we were out running around...............so we ate lunch and started dismantling everything.............and what a job that was...........I didn't realize how much stuff we actually had..........so we got everything tore down and packed up........then we humped everything up to my attic.......that's where we will store everything until next year.............."The 2004 Halloween Bash"................whooooowhooooooooo!!!............start looking for your costumes folks!!..........

We finished up everything, Fatty rolled out.......Phil and I hung out and watched some TV..........we both took a little nap.......;)...........we are all going to The Colonial tonight for a Halloween Party............they are giving out prizes for "Best Dressed".............it is also Karaoke night.............so it should be fun.......and now that they made the place bigger...........we will be able to play shuffle board and "spread out".............I'm glad that they made the place bigger........now there is something " to do" while all the bumpkins are singing all that "country crap"................no offense to all the "bumpkins" out there.............but I'm a "Rock n Roll" kinda guy!!...........The eighties RULED!!!..............so that's it for today............we got a bunch of stuff done.............and tonight we are going out to relax and have fun.............:)............

Well last night was pretty damn cool...............it was Fatty, Sandy, Phil, Robbin, Theresa, Linda, Bill and me ............everyone dressed up except Bill and Phil..........Phil's excuse was "he wouldn't have time to take off his make-up"................lame excuse!!............we're glad Phil is nice enough to go and drive us all home when we are feeling a little "woozie"...........eveyone was doing Kareoke..............Fatty and I signed up for "Talk Dirty To Me" by Poison............we did get called up to sing it.......I was horrible...........my voice has not been right since all the yelling at Fatty's party last week...............but we got through it OK.............I was signed up for a few more songs...........I told Don ( the Karaoke dude) to take me off the list...........my voice was shot............and it was too damn hot in the place............it was making me feel sick............I felt like I was suffocating in my mask and costume...........Sandy sang one song...........she did great..........Sandy has a great singing voice................we played shuffle board the whole night...........our group had the table all to ourselves.........the place was very crowded because of it being a "party".............we were all in the new section that just opened up........so it wasn't too bad..............but damn was I hot!!.............I really wanted to leave............but Linda and I were kicking total ass on the shuffle board table.......;).............we were partners most of the night............and we KICKED ASS!!............

The time had come for all the prizes to be given out..............so they started announcing all the winners..............and would you believe it??...........they started calling out our names!!...........They did the awards for best "male" costume..............Fat Ass won second place male..............I won first place male...........and Don ( the guy who runs the karaoke ) won "Best Overall Male"..............Don was dressed up as a women...........and he did look damn good........LOL................I was a Vampire ...............Fatty was the "Evil Clown"...........so then they announced the lady winners..............Robbin won second place female..............some other chic won first place female..........she was ZORRO.............I thought her costume sucked................and Theresa won "Best Overall Female"...........so "the gang" took away most of the prizes...............damn right!!.............so it was worth staying there and being hot and miserable ..............I was just a total wuss with the heat??.............and heat usually doesn't bother me at all.................after the awards were given out and we snapped the pics, I went in the bathroom and peeled my "face" off...........I stripped down to my pants and a shirt............it felt much better!!................we stayed until the place closed...........2:00 am...........it was a fun night!!

Today T and the kids are going to see "Monster's Inc. On Ice"..............T's Mom, Kalli and Izac are going too............I'm going down to Big Rock................:)..........it is 80 degrees today..........it's unbelievable!!............we may get to play volley-ball up until Christmas if the weather stays like this??..........whooooowhooooo!!............we had some great games.............the games are always better when it's not as crowded.............so we played until dark............T and the kids got home a little before I did.............and T was making a home cooked meal..............holy shit!!................what was the occasion??.........we rarely eat at home............and if we get a home cooked meal it is because we went to T's Mom's or my Mom's house to eat......;)...........we have a hectic schedule around here...........and we've been eating out pretty much seven days a week for the past ten years easily.............that's the price of both of us having our own businesses...............it's not a bad thing............I'm sure it's not very healhy though......and after ten years.............everything that you eat "out" tastes the same.........I remember as a kid thinking it was the best thing in the world if my parents would take me out to dinner just once a month.............now that's all I do............and if we don't eat out...........we order in or bring it home........LOL............T works until 9:00 pm most nights...........she usually does not even get home until 9:45 pm..............so dinner is pretty much "up for grabs"...........we all eat together on Mon, Fri, Sat and Sun............the kiddies are with my Mom or T's Mom on the other days at dinner time............so they are getting fed well.......;).............especially at my Mom's place.............that's all they do around there is EAT!!...............how the hell did I get on this topic??..............

I went to KS and seen a post there getting started on the "Snow Ball".........there were already some posts there responding to the thread .............basically the topic was " how the snow ball project was a failure"............so naturally I was upset by it.............nobody knows more about the snow project than I do...........I have produced two male Snow Balls from two different "strains"............the VPI line and the Jolliff Line...........I have more different "types" of white snakes in my collection than any other breeder in the world.............I figured if anyone should join in on the thread.......it would be me.....;).....plus I was way over-due........it was your typical bullshit posts as usual .........somebody is slammin' this project............the other guy is agreeing that the project sucks............then you got a guy who knows nothing at all about the project "claiming" he knows what the hell is going on?.........at this moment in time there are 6 Snow Balls in existence ...............I produced two of the six............and these other Boners think they know what's going on with the project??.................give me a beak please............."Failure" they think huh??..............lets break it down..............there is ONE VPI Snow Ball in the world ( RDR )................ONE Snake Keeper Snow Ball in the world ( SK )................and FOUR Jolliff Snow Balls in the world ( Jolliff, RDR, VPI and Adam )................this is to the best of my knowledge as of today anyway...............so how in the hell can anyone say it's a failure??..................sure they are not exactly what we expected...........that's what refinement means!!............it ain't the end of the line.........hell it's only the beginning!!..........they sure do put good money in the bank for being "failures"...........do these Boners expect me to be selling my Snow Balls??.............or any other breeder for that matter...............the Snow Ball like any other double homo snake is damn hard to produce..............once you hatch one............your on "easy street".............having a double homo snake like the Snow Ball or the Caramel Glow means one thing!!..............KaChing!!...............and Props to the breeder who produced it................it seems to me that there are more and more jealous people in the hobby now more than ever.............but it's understandable.............the breeders keep producing more and more killer mutations to drool over and they keep putting more and more money in their pockets................because they DESERVE IT..............so naturally there will be people out there jealous and pissed off that they can't do the same.................so in turn they just shit on everything they can't have or do??...........but they like to disguise it by saying that it is just their "opinion"..............LMAO...........give me a break people!!...............There are no "Failures" in the ball python world...............only jealous people who slam each other when they can't have what they want................I know..............cause I do it too!!............I'm as big of a baby as anybody else..............but the difference is that I do something about it...............NOTHING is unreachable if you really want it people!!...............NOTHING!!...........so anywho..........I posted some pics of my adult VPI Snow Ball male with one of those cute little "Lucys" I produced this year...............sure the VPI Snow is not as white as the Lucy is...............but it's overall appearance is patternless and pale white...............yes there is some yellow...........BUT again..............the overall appearance of the VPI Snow Ball is exactly what I would have expected...............is the yellow disappointing?..............sure it is..............is it the snake's fault?..............NO...........it's nobody's fault..........."it is what it is"................am I going to breed and refine the VPI Snow Ball??..............duhhhhhhhh.............sure I am.............it will get better and better through refinement and selective breeding.................who in their right mind thinks that the very first morph you produce of any type is "the end"................what BONERS!!............real breeders know that it's just the beginning.............it will take up more room and time..............it may take years to get the end result...........but that's the nature of the beast when your working with color mutations...............so to everyone who says the Snow Ball sucks!!............I say "what's the damn rush"............it's the best damn "Pale Albino" on the planet...............show me a "Pale Albino" that is homozygous for both the albino and the axanthic gene..............you watch............as much as the axanthic gene has been shit on..........it WILL produce some phenomenal mutations one day..............I'm thinking the "True Ghost" may be next..............it's like anything else................it will make a huge come back..............just like the Ghost did...............NERD has resurrected the Ghost into a very popular and expensive mutation again ...............the way it should be..............I could kick myself in the ass for selling the Ghosts that I had in the past..................so the lesson learned as T Barker always says................"It ain't over till the fat lady sings"...............and that's the truth............the only thing stopping most of us from seeing these projects to the end of their potential is TIME!!.............this stuff takes time.............and lots of room to start more refined groups year after year.............get out of the BIG RUSH people and stay focused.............who cares what the other guy is saying................so that's my "bit" on the Snow Ball project...........the thread was fun.............it really didn't get out of hand..............I got a lot of positive responses to the pics I posted..................and I got to have some fun.......;)

While I was there I replied to a post about the "first morph"........I put in the post how Bob Clark imported in the first Albino and he started the proejct..............also how VPI started the Axanthic and Clown line...............and Pete with the Pieds......yada,yada,yada........it was a very "broad" statement basically giving "props" to the people responsible for bringing the project mainstream.............and that was that..............I would have never expected some ass-wipe to pick it apart word for word and call me out on it...............but somebody always does...........they wanted to prove the point that Bob did not import the Albino himself..............that Bob bought it and the original Striped ball python from an importer in Florida...........I'm like........."who cares"............all breeders do that?..........Bob Clark IS Albino ball pythons..............as he IS Striped ball pythons.........it was a crock of shit if you ask me...........Bob did email me and thank me for sticking up for him..........yep.............even Bob reads the crap...........I should have just let it go............but being the ass that I am.............I continued on..............and I really didn't have the time.........and believe me...........it takes time to go out on the forums and get all wrapped up in a thread............I love it............but it can waste an entire day.............then it gets out of hand............and you get pissed off...............and the worst thing that can happen is that you get pissed off .............because then you start to dwell on it and really make it ugly...........when it doesn't even matter..............it's just people typing words in a forum..............I'm going to go way out on a limb right now and say that 99% of the people who start shit on the forums are just having a bad day..............so they figure they well spread the miserable-ness around...........that's how people are............it could be in a fourm............at school or in the office.............when your having a bad day............then the people around you will suffer for it...............my problem with the whole "nasty thread" thing is that I just want to kick the person's ass after awhile...........as I'm sure some would like to kick mine.....;)..........it would save a lot of time and energy if you could just go up to the person and kick his ass..................LMAO!!!..............this is great stuff!!.........so bring it WUSS!!!.......talk about an immature statement I just made.............but that's just me being a "dude".............most dude's are like that............they are all mouth until they are face to face..............then one ends up being a real wuss..........thank God this ain't the days of the "Wild West" .................but the thought does cross my mind during a "flame" what can I say?.............HOW MATURE RALPH!!................Jesus!!.............hey ladies ............aren't you glad that you are so much more mature than a man?................I mean come on.............this is school yard crap..............but it's so damn fun!!..............Right Guys??................LMAO!!.............now I'm going to have people standing in line at the shows to kick my ass............LOL............maybe it will be profitable??...............hmmmmmmm..............but really folks..............people really do act "more brave" behind a screen than they will " in person".............and I know some are just "opinions"..............I don't expect people to kiss my ass just because of who I am.............hell............I probably have more of a following than most breeders and I can't get but one or two to stick up for me in the forums??................so that right there shows you how "weirded out" people get on the net during a "Flame"..............it cuts both damn ways..........I don't care though..............I understand that most people do not want to "look bad" in front of thousands of readers and members.............ME............I could care less.................what ever pops into my feeble little brain comes right out of my mouth the next second ...............I pay for it later............;).............Let me tell you though.............it is wonderful having so many friends and people showing me support ..............I respect everyone in the business...............especailly all the Big Breeders who started it all.............you guys all know that "I'm all show and no go"..........." The Wuss of Wusses"................I'm your huckleberry.......;)............

Tons of emails this morning!!.............that will be the last time I "chime in " on KS for awhile..........why am I still writing this crap?..............this will only encourage people to piss me off..........LMAO!!................BRING IT!!!...........it's breeding season ..............and I have some extra time on my hands............;).............so I answered some mail and got a few things done around the office..............Robbie is up at the rat barn cleaning..........today is another gorgeous day too!!.............I'm taking advantage of the "hot spell"...........I'm actually going to get off my ass and put some snakes together to breed............YEP!!

I got every male that I want to use for breeding this year out and ready to be with a "lady" ........today is officially the day "before" I start breeding for 2004.........LOL.............yes folks...............I'm going to breed all my ball pythons so that ALL of my clutches are produced in 2004...........most of the eggs will be produced from May till September ...........a very few may be a little earlier or later..........but not many...............I like to breed October through April...............I like to hatch eggs May through September...............6 months on............6 months off..............I don't do this ( breed ) all year round like some.............not like a "pot luck breeder" somebody said awhile ago.............I thought it was pretty funny...........and very true for some............but hey............what ever gets you eggs is fine by me.........when I write my 2004 potential offspring page............it will have snakes listed that "I know" I will be producing in 2004................sure it's "Potential"..............but here at RDR it's better than that.........I won't write it until I know what my girl's follicles are doing.........;).............my 2004 season is exactly that.............the 2004 season...............not the 2003 season draggin' ass over into 2004................and I'm not knocking that at all............it's just not for me.............I like NOT BREEDING snakes for 6 months out of the year.........it must be an "East Coast thing"...............so now I'm all geared up..............hopefully all the snakes will cooperate with me and produce some nice clutches this season.................and NO, I'm not sure how many clutches I will be producing..............I'm still thinking about not trying to go crazy and get every female I have bred this year...............too many eggs........I have enough inventory to last another season..............I don't mind selling 03's in 2004.............and neither will the customers.............my snakes will be bigger..........:)..........

Fear Factor was great tonight.............I was hoping that little "surfer chic" would win the whole damn thing........and she did!!............it was an "all chic" show.............and man were the "nails out"..................I could only imagine a "chic thread" on KS going bad.............that would probably be one of the most entertaining threads yet...............yeeowwwwwwww!!...........Las Vegas was sexier than ever.............the best new show out in my opinion...........and don't disagree with me or I'll have Big Lou kick your ass........LOL.............man, I just can't drop that subject can I...........I'm over it.............I'm just having fun with it now................since I can't reach through the screen and ring his skinny little neck!!...........LMAO!!...........I'm obsessed!!..........no folks............I'm fine.............I'm just putting a spin on it as to the way most dudes see it..............we see "being wrong" as a challenege to our "manly-ness"...........so we rip right into defense mode and that's when it gets totally out of hand............the subject matter gets forgotten and all you have is two dudes playing reindeer games...........didn't I read somewhere that dudes have like a million more brain sells than chics??.............I have no idea why we would though?.........it has to help us in some way I would think?..............there's one for you ladies..............tell me why men have more brain cells.................and be NICE!!........;)..........Monday's are turning out to be sweet for watching TV..........now we have the new show "Average Joe"...........a beauty who gets to pic through all the "Average Joes" to be her soul mate..........LOL..............GIVE ME A BREAK!!.............she sent four dudes home tonight...............and guess what??..............it looks like she may like fat guys!!.............I Love It!!............she let all the fat guys stay...............Fat guys try harder ladies........;P........this show is "more" than we think though...........I have a feeling that there will be some kind of "sick twist" as the show goes on...............anyway,I'm out............and of course no hard feelings to the people who made me look "less manly" on KS.............I'll kick your asses later!!................

Robbie is up at the barn cleaning........day # 2..........he made a couple rat deliveries yesterday. I worked on getting all my breeding pairs set up today.........I got a great "game plan" for the 2004 season.............now all I have to do is stick with it and I will be in good shape.............I'm thinking of more "Quality Stuff " this season...............and less eggs all around...........but that's me "just thinking"..............I'll know more as the season goes on..........I can't believe I'm breeding again so soon, I swear breeding snakes shortens your life somehow??..............but it could be worse.............I could be a breeder who breeds all year round.................nadda!!.............that would just be a total pain in the ass for me and the way I do things around here.............Pete Kahl and I do it the exact same way............and we pretty much get the same exact results.............give or take...........EAST COAST weather baby!!............it's a no-brainer for breeding ball pythons................so there's my secret folks...........I'm dumber than shit!!...........and a little lucky too.....;)..........LOL..............but really......being able to take advantage of all the wacky weather patterns that come through Maryland in the Fall and Winter time is most excellent ............I can almost guarantee when I will walk in the snake facility and find ALL the pairs are locked up or breeding, just by the way the weather patterns change................A "front" of any type stimulates balls to breed like horned toads!!........sometimes breeding will slow down and become stale...............that's when I open the doors and windows and crank up the big ole' barrel fan............I let the fan pull cold air from outside into the snake room...............I let it blow all over the place and really cool the place down fast, then I shut off the fan, close the doors and leave the windows "cracked"...............the next day...........everyone is breeding again..........I made a "Ralph Front"........this temperature change is what stimulates them to breed..............why??..............I couldn't tell ya.............I'm sure that Africa does not have drastic weather patterns like this...........but here at my place, the balls react to it almost instantly and breed!!..............so that's just one of my little tricks.............I'll let you guys know more as the season goes on..............I gotta have some material left for future journal entries..............it can't all be Robbie cleaning, paper-work and naked women now can it??................so stay tuned............I'll let out some nice little "tid bits" here and again..........

Also..............do not play around with low temperatures with your ball pythons with-out watching them like hawks...............low temps are just inviting respiratory problems............it's happened to all of us...........and it sucks............it can mess up your entire breeding strategy to have sick snakes............I have messed around with temps for a long time and I feel that I know just "what's right" for my facility and what the snakes can comfortably handle..............don't ever just drop temps and forget about the snakes...........they will get too cold at night and develop respiratory problems.............some people don't even mess with their temperatures and do fine..............I believe in dropping the night time temp.............I do it for almost six months............I believe this is why I get so many fertile clutches.............and also why over 90% of my females lay eggs ...............BUT.............I watch my snakes very carefully for six months............they always have heat to go too.............it's the actual room temps that I manipulate............so find what gets your balls horny and stick with it..........:)

Phil came by later in the day...........he and I went up to the rat barn and gave Robbie a hand cleaning for awhile............Phil loaded up some rats for deliveries tomorrow...........Robbie was having a very slow day.............I had to be home for the kiddies or I would have stayed and helped finish..............he said he was OK and that he would get it finished ............everybody has a slow day sometimes.............excpet me!!!...............Rock On!!!.............I came home and got the kids in bed............then I went into chat for awhile ............T came down to see what I was chatting about!!................see guys!!..............it's starting already!!...............Theresa!!!.................get out of my office!!!...........LOL............we hung out in chat for awhile and called it a night........

Well the idea of Ralph Davis "Bobble Heads" came up in that thread at KS a few days ago..............and damn if it didn't "spark" some ideas ........thanks Mark......;)............now I'm getting emails and phone calls about how I really should start a series of RDR Bobble Heads................LMAO!!.............naturally we would start with mine...........so I have to say............I'm looking into it, and I have some friends looking into it for me as well...............as much as I like toys and action figures.........it just "seems right"..........I actually started thinking about what mine would look like................and the rest of "The Crew"..........hey Mark!!......if your reading this...............once I go into production of these things............I'll have to send you a case "on the house".............you can have a hundred little Ralphie's bobbling their cute little heads at you in your snake room..........LMAO!!.............you started it man!!...............anybody out there with any idea or info on manufacturers please feel free to email me...........I have one lead myself.............the dude who plays Gene Simmons in the band KISS Nation............his name is Carlos..............he has some major connections in the toy industries...............so I'm going to give him a call and tell him what I'm after.............I'm sure he will point me in the right direction...............and then it happened.............one of our beloved RDR Forum members did some "mock ups" of RDR Crew Bobble Heads...........one of me, Big Lou, Fatty and Mojo...............just seeing them in a pic made them seem so real..............so this is majorly "doable"............ Todd McFarlane...............look out bro!!................I'm coming to a store near you!!...............maybe I'll ask KISS when I meet them on the 20th if they can give me any pointers...............I adore my Kiss Bobble Heads................maybe Gene would like one of me?................just maybe............Fatty even got in on it and posted "his version" of a Bobble Head..............he didn't like his "Cheer Leader" rendition so well..................so he made up his own "Terminator Fatty"..............it's all in fun...........so something good did come out of the shitty thread on KS.............eat your heart out Matt!........who's got all the "wit" now...............BONER!!!....................don't you just love to hate me??.................awwwwwwwww........:)...............so where was I?..............Oh yeah..........if any of you would like to help out or give me some ideas.............I would greatly appreciate it and make it well worth your trouble ...........maybe even send me some drawings ..............everything will be put up on the journal............I'm thinking "me" with no shirt on of course ( gut hanging out )...............tan shorts................hat on backwards ............tattoos..............holding a cool little snake.............not sure what the text should read??...............maybe "King Boner"..............."Ralphie".............."Rub me for luck"..........." Bit Me".......just some ideas.............but I will get them made............for me and my friends if nothing else................it was a brilliant Idea!!.............am I just totally full of myself or what?.................and Dan Sutherland calls this "rambling".................you wish you could ramble like this BUD!!!............I'm providing a service here!!...................now I just pissed even more people off...............:)................I love each and every one of you.............and so does BIG LOU!!............he sends all of his love from China..............I'm not sure he's coming back either folks??.................I think Lou wants to start a factory over there and start manufacturing reptile racks.................I'm serous too!..............he emailed me and said that he has found some sources to do the work..........I know Lou well enough to know that he is seroius.............so maybe we all will be using snake racks that say "made in China"...............just like everything else!!.................Rock On Lou!!...........Get'er done!!.................

Robbie and I fed the snakes today............he fed all the young snakes, and I fed all the adults..............now that I'm in " breeding mode" I will be spending more time with the adults............I feed breeders all year long..............sometimes I will feed a female that is in a cage with a male if she is at the front of the cage waiting for a meal..............this is tricky..........and I do not recommend it..............feeding while two snakes are in the same cage is not a smart thing to do............But if you know your snakes like I do and you can see that the male is not interested in eating...........you can do this............plus a male totally loves seeing his lady eat.............that is yet another little trick to get a male interested in his girl again................so on feeding days during breeding season I take my time and feed all the "singles"..............then I go back through and see what pairs are at the front of the cage wanting to eat..........if they are "locked up" or courting..........they will rarely be interested in eating...............most of the time it's just the female at the front of the cage and the male is in the back sleeping..........zzzzzzzzzzz..............that's when I will let a female eat while she is in the same cage as the male..................I just keep an eye out so that the male does not try to come up and eat her meal..............and this rarely happens................the female kills and eats............and that's that............the male doesn't even care................but once the female goes back to her heat after eating...........the male gets excited and starts courting...........dont ask me why?............I know I like watching everything Theresa does...............so maybe ball pythons are the same way?.....................so we got everybody fed............George and Mel came down to watch us feed and to pick up some rat pups for George's new snake "Lester".............George is "hooked" now.............and so is Mel.............now Mel wants to keep turtles and fish..........:)...............while I was feeding the small rats off to the snakes, Mel found one in the tub that she liked.................so I didn't feed it off...............and it really was a cute little rat...............she ended up taking it home to be a pet...........LOL...........George was telling her "NO"...............he didn't want any rat as a pet.............I told him that they make great pets.............and they really do..............now I'm sure she will want another one next week to keep "Earl" company................yes I name everything "Earl"...............James came by to get his rats too.............he comes all the way from the eastern shore to pick up rats from me...........plus he buys snakes from me too..............he works at a place where all the fresh seafood comes in off of the fishing boats each day ...........sometimes he will bring Lou and I fresh tuna to cut up for sushi.............well today he brought me a big slab of haddock and four lobsters ...............traded me the seafood for the rats................I gave the haddock to my mom and I kept the lobsters ................T loves lobster.............so I'll be cooking dinner tonight!!...........that's a scary thought................but it's just boiling water.........LOL.............George brought by a guitar for me to get familiar with for a couple weeks................he will be giving me guitar lessons in two weeks.................I have always wanted to learn how to play guitar.............and now I'm ready ............I have a great ear for music............and I can play the piano "some".........and I always wanted to be a "Rock Star"...............maybe I'll get really good and start my own band............."The Boners"................lmao!!...............I'm sure George is going to want to pull his hair out after these lessons..............but I can't wait!!..............I know I can do it.............I just hope I don't loose interest.................NERD plays all instruments ................I have heard his music..........he played one of his CD's for all of us while we were on a "four day herping expedition" one summer....................he really is talented..............much better than I would have ever expected ...............I think Kev could be a Rock Star if he dropped everything else and really tried to get signed...............Kev is surprisingly talented in many things............he's a "Thrasher"................I'm just gonna settle for being a "Goober"...............

I marked down a few copulations today as I was going through and feeding all the adults..............my VPI Snow male was breeding a DH female...........it seems like he was just born............and now he's already breeding................where the hell does the time go?.............he ain't my "baby" anymore..................Mom called me and told me that she cooked the haddock..............she said it was the best fish she has ever tasted.......she wants me to get more...............I told her it tasted so good because it was so fresh..........the fish James brings me is always caught that same day................so I guess that is about as fresh as you can get............I added a bunch of new faces to the RDR Members Pics page tonight...............I moved some people around too.........man are there some "ugly mugs" on that page...............I love it!!...............I really wish some more people would send me their pics and BIO..............it ain't a beauty contest!!!...............it's just nice to put a face with the name you see posting on the internet all the time................and you guys who are "holding out" know who you are!!..............I have pictures of you myself that I'll put up if you don't get off your asses and send me something!!...............I just added Fatty, Big Lou, Phil, Eric, George, Robbie the Robot.....and last but not least.............Jen............what a little cutie she is...........and she's CRAZY!!!................I'm off to go boil some water for the lobsters now................T just called and said she is bringing home the butter....................:)...............

The lobsters went well last night..............but it took the water an hour to boil??...........it was a big pot.............and I was dumb enough to put cool water in it.............but and hour to boil??...........what do I know about boiling water?.............it's an electric stove............maybe they take longer huh?..............but the water did eventually boil...........and I plopped the four lobsters inside the pot...............yes I hurried and shut the lid............I can't even imagine being boiled to death............damn............they were delicious..............11:00 pm we finally ate the lobsters with butter.............yeah I know...............bad for the heart.............tell me about it.............I do a lot of things that are bad for my heart............but eating late at night has to be the worst thing I do.............that and smoking...........I've been thinking more and more about making some changes in my life............my kids are the ones who make me feel the way I do............I figure I have to be around for them as they grow up..............and a heart attach ain't going to fit into the picture very well..............I'm just stuck in my ways.............it's a total "cop out"..........I'm sure everyone does some things that they would like to just stop doing..............I'm able to do it for a short time...........then I just fall back into the same groove as before..............it's like I'm "programmed"...............I can "over-ride" it for a few months..........and then one day I don't give a shit anymore and just go back to my bad habits?.................I guess that's why all those crack-pot motivational speakers will always have a job................LOL.............anyway............I ate the lobsters and they were damn good..............and yes the butter kept me on "the pot" half the night..............I knew it would.......;)............

Robbie is cleaning the young snakes today..............I doubled up on a bunch of snakes...........we had a bunch of left over rats from yesterday and I could still see adults at the fronts of their cages today wanting more food................so I obliged them.......:).............Today I'm pretty much just doing office work...............I got two sets of blue prints for two construction jobs I have to bid............it takes a good bit of time to accurately estimate a price on a construction job.............I'm sure I won't get it all done today.............We got wally-ball tonight.............I think it's going to be seven of us playing.............my brother finally said he's going to show up and play................I think the only reason he is coming is because he wants me to burn him a disk of all the unedited pics from the Halloween Party.........LOL................and believe me............there were some great pics!!..............GGW!!!!......................what a night!!..............Phil will be over soon and we will be heading out to go play................I'll watch SURVIVOR and CSI when I get home............who out of the "Out Casts" will be voted back into the game??.....................

Well I'm still here...............yepper................we played wally-ball from 9 till 11:30ish..........eight of us played...........two four man teams.............it was really fun!!.........we haven't had two four man teams ever since we have been playing...........I can't sleep after playing wally-ball................I'm just too "wired"...........we got home......Phil rolled out............I went up and popped in the SURVIVOR tape..................what a show it was tonight!!..........they finally merged........and guess who's back??....................Burton from Drake and Lillian from Morgan.........they were the best people to come back to the game in my opinion.................and that immunity challenge was off the hook................Rupert amazes me with his strength and indurace............he makes "fat guys" look good!!...............Burton won immunity by a fraction of an inch against Rupert..............but he already had immunity granted to him from being voted back into the game.................at tribal council Burton gave his immunity idol up to Rupert............what a smart thing to do..............I have a feeling they may "bond" now...........but I'm not totally sure...............Rupert knows people will kiss his ass to be on his good side...............I want Rupert to go all the way so bad!!!!.................and Savage was voted off??...............I never seen that coming.............I knew votes would go to Jon the ASS!!............but I didn't think Savage would be who got all of Drake's votes..............like they said though.........."cut off the head and the rest will follow"...................Savage was the tribe's leader............so now Morgan is out-numbered ..............Lillian has gone to Drake's side..............Morgan needs to form some alliances and get things stirred up if they want to stay..............I love this stuff!!!..................CSI was all about Grissom...............I guess some of the cast took a vacation?.............it was a great show..............and Cathy better keep that $250,000.00..................damn!!.................forgive and forget girl...............that's your Daddy!!..............

We ate at home again last night!!..........if we do eat at home.............It's gonna be on a Monday or a Friday anyway.............that's T's days off of work....;)......yes eating at home is very unsual for the Davis Family........Fatty stopped by yesterday after work and brought down a package from upstairs........T must have given it to him?.............or she put it on the steps so that I can trip over it when ever I come up from my "dungeon"............or back down to it, next she'll be sliding food under the door.............LOL..............well the package was my OFFICIAL KISS shirt!!............."Platinum ISSUE"...............and the instructions for getting my "ALL ACCESS PASS" at the show...............I was not really thinking much about the KISS show anymore until the shirt arrived ( yeah right ).............then it started to "sink in" a little more that I'm really going to meet these guys!!.............Fatty and George too!!...............anyway...........we watched movies and had a "Quiet Friday" at home..............I liked it fine.....;)

I went up to the rat barn today to load up trash ( empty bedding and rodent chow bags ) and to check the place out............Mr. John stopped in while I was there...............he helped me load up a bunch of wood pallets that I had laying around from a Freedom Breeder rack delivery awhile back..........after we got everything loaded up for the dump, I went over to the garage where my Sea Doos are stored.............I disconnected the batteries for the winetr...........Mr, John asked me to walk over to his " other" garage to see what his Son Mike bought..........Mike has been admiring my Sea Doos ever since I bought the new Super Charged one.............so he went out and bought a used pair, to get his " feet wet ".............he got a double trailer and two Sea Doos "used " for $5,500.00..........thats a great buy!!........they are not as SUPED UP or as powerful as my new ones............but they are all he needs for his family and friends to play around on.................not everybody has to have 185 horses!!..................which reminds me.............Sea Doo has a new two seater that is 215 horse power.............I haven't decided whether I want to buy one or not yet?............I can't give up the ones I have now.............I like them too much...;)..............so if I get the two seater I will have three!!..............that means a new trailer that can hold four boats!!..............and that will be a big trailer...............but I do have the truck to pull it..............so we'll see.............I went to the dump after that..............I always feel so clean after I take trash to the dump??................I must be weird?..........It just feels good to get rid of clutter....;)...........I went down to T's shop after the dump..............LOL...............I don't visit her much at work..........but if I'm in the area I will usually stop in and harass her. I came home and checked on all my breeding pairs..............I marked down some exciting copulations............Pieds, Snows, Platty Daddy!!..........then I moved a bunch of males around into other female's cages.............I will allow a pair do do "nothing" for one day............then I take the male out and put him with another female.............or two.....or three...........when I say "nothing", I mean no breeding.............they just lay there and look at each other...............I can't expect them to be horny all of the time...........but I hate seeing "down time"............so I'll move males around everyday if need be to get some "action" started...............I'm glued to the balls during breeding season.............yes I was slow getting started this season...............but "I'm all over it now"...............if feels "comfortable and right"...........I check the breeders every day, sometimes twice a day to see who is "frisky" and who ain't.............it's like a game..............you start out with "X amount" of females.........the object of course is to get as many of them bred as you can by March 31st.........so that's what I do............I interfere with their poor little lives for five or six months, moving males around............trying pairs.......trying multiple males .............multiple females.............groups!!..........sure its nice to have a single pair breed like mad......it's easy too..............but then you get those stubborn breeders that fight you tooth and nail it seems.........like they have not one" single horny bone in their bodies!!...............they always end up"cracking" though.............you just got to find out what makes that particular breeder "tick"...............once you figure it out.............your " Golden "............most of the time for me, placing two males in with a few female will get things going...............I've had success in every little thing I've done...............I know my snakes..........especially my breeder males...........they each have their own personalities when it comes to breeding..............they are all good studs...............just some are more bashful.....;)..........I can't tell you how many times I have had females ovulate and lay eggs, and I had not marked down one single copulation..........it's because some males like to work in the early hours of the morning.............and they "un-hook" by the time you get to check on them................when you finally do check on them and see "no action".............what your really seeing is a pair that are " damn tired" from breeding all morning.........LOL.................so don't get frustrated.............keep mixing it up and find out what works for you................write everything down that you can...............each one of my snakes has a record card.......this is the prefect place to keep info about them and what " they like in the sack"..................Rock On!!

George and Mel stopped by tonight...........George knew my guitar was way out of tune so he stopped by to tune it up for me and hang out awhile............T was working on her picture albums and the kids were with her ..........George tuned the guitar and then we sang some KISS songs................Gump was doing a fine job at "Shout It Out Loud".............

No Big Rock today..............I think it's "officially over" now.........;(..............and it wasn't bad out at all..............we could have played damn it!!.........T worked on her photo albums..........the kids played all day.............and I worked on getting some ball python collection pages started..............I got three new pages started today...........Pinstripe, Jaguar and Cinnamon Pastel.............I got the pages done and the pics in place..............I'll write the text later..

I went over to Kingsnake and posted a couple pics on the BP Forum.............the VPI Snow male breeding a DH Snow female, the Jolliff Snow male breeding a DH Snow female..............and a couple new pics of "Lilly"..............and for laughs, I posted a pic of my Platinum Issue KISS tour shirt!!.............The one I'll have on when I go to see KISS front row and then go back stage to meet them................DAMN RIGHT!!!!..............I'm getting nervous now..............I'm scared to death to go back stage!!.........what a WUSS!!!

Look for Ralphie out on the net on Sunday's .....:)..............I get bored as all hell!!.............anyway.............some posts got yanked from Kingsnake AGAIN today..........I didn't see anything wrong?...........it amazes me what has to be "pulled off of forums".........Lord knows I've had some pretty funky stuff said about me on there that made me look childish and immature ( which I am totally ),,,,,,,,,,and I brought it all on myself.............Jeff won't get a call from me asking for it to be pulled down............"I might look bad to the rest of the board"............." OMG.........I may lose sales"..........come on people............it's the damn internet............it's a ball python forum.........it ain't like it's some "pumped up" Forum for the Medical Field............do I want to see my Doctor flaming people and acting like an ass on some Medical Board?.........NO!! ( although it would be cool to see a Doctor just "go off" on some other quacks...........maybe that's just me? )............but this ain't a Medical Board...........it's a reptile site.............Whop de Frikin do!!............people take it way too seriously!!........yeah I like to win and look good in public...............but is it the end of the world if I don't??............sure there are people on the board that I would just love to crack in the back of the head........real BONERS!!............they drive me crazy!!...............would I love to slam them..............your damn right..........do they know that they are "protected" on KS..............yes they do................so Kingsnake is actually a "safe haven" for an ASS to go to and aggravate the living hell out of everyone...............now some of you guys may not know what I'm talking about here................but most of you do...........Rickie knows that me and a lot of my friends totally despise him..........he know's what gets under our skin.............and he uses it in his posts at KS ( real cryptic shit )...........he is totally guilty of it and he knows it..............why does he do it at KS?........because he knows that we all value our " un-banned status" at KS...............so we have to walk on egg shells and try all the "read between the lines" tactics................which really suck!!............he hasn't the balls to come over to RDR where he was banned for a very short time.............his Password works there................and he knows it..........what a total COWARD!!!............so yes posts were removed.........who asked for them to be removed, I have no clue?...............I don't really care..............but I will say that KS was way more fun a couple years ago before everyone got so "thin skinned" and "Sue Happy"..........."You hurt my reputation at being an honest ball python breeder on KS"............LMAO!!........"I'm calling a lawyer!!"..............give me a break.............you know what I say anymore...............SCREW IT!!.........some people just gotta learn the hard way ( That's me.........and I gotta be me!! )............it's so un-natural to have to bite your tongue when your a Boner like me............I know some of you understand totally where I'm coming from..........if I got something to say I'm gonna say it...............if your feelings get hurt than consider yourself "blessed"..............it's total bullshit that somebody can't be yanked up and called out for being a total ASS!!.............that goes for me too!!.................did I inspire anyone to go out and kick some ass yet??...............LMAO!!!........are you getting all of this?................yes, even Ralph has enemies and people he doesn't like very much.............should he ignore them?............absolutely..............but it's impossible sometimes........so find your "mark" people and let'er rip!!................bring it to RDR if you want to...............I want the good ole days back........not all this politically correct BULLSHIT................I mean come on................how friggin long can you look at a message board with the same old shit day after day after day before you crack? ( your human ain't ya? ).............so just don't go back to the message board you say, don't read the "crap"...............yeah right!!...............it's like a drug!!...............you just gotta get some!!.............I say STOP BEING AFFRAID PEOPLE!!................say what's on your mind.............you know damn right well what I'm saying here................I'm talking about every time you bite your lip, when you probably have something great and stimulating to say...................so SAY IT!!!................If Ralphie is on the "receiving end" so be it............don't get all jammed up with frustration by turning the other cheek...............KICK SOME ASS!!................lets see the posts fly and how fast they get "yanked"................lets see who the true culprits really are...............do you see where TV and Radio are going now?..............it's OPEN SEASON!!.............and it sells BIGTIME!.................can you imagine if Howard Stern was a ball python breeder?.................people will "bicker" no matter where they are.............it's totally natural............... I think it's healthy.................yepper.................I said it folks!!...........I'm only human................people piss me off!!!!................and this ain't about the morphs and the jealous people............this is about the instigators!!.................so it's time to mount up................REGULATORS!!!!......................

So after all the fun and BS at KS, I posted a link up "calling all bad people"..............inside I had a generic user ID and password to come over to my Forum and " get rowdy".............people from KS did come over............but they didn't post...........they would have been logged in as "Outcast"..............LOL.............it was all in fun...........sure I was " stirring the pot" a little........:P.............then I put up a post in my Forum.............." $1,000.00 prize".............I offered a thousand bucks to the person who could write the best "reason" on why I should keep writing the RDR Journal..............again.............all in fun..............trying to pump some life into everyone.............it's been very quiet and unstimuating lately on all the Forums..............and I was feeling generous...............so let the games begin!!................who's gonna win the bucks??.........I'm not sure how many people will respond to it..............most will probably feel uncomfortable about the money being offered..............or they just don't want to look like a "Ralph Groupie" in public..........I hope that's not the case with anyone...............we're all just one big happy family here at RDR..........and I'm Ralph!!..........I write the journal........can I get some love or what?......................below is my post in the RDR Forum to start the contest........;)

$1,000.00 prize!!
Posted by Ralphie on 11/9/2003, 9:56 pm
Message modified by board administrator 11/10/2003, 3:45 pm

I'm gonna give somebody a thousand bucks and make them famous!!
All you have to do is write down in 100,000 words or less why I should continue the RDR Journal for all you Boners?........TELL ME WHY!!

The contest will run for three days........10th through the 12th.........midnight on Wednesday the 12th..........we go to the judges...........the winner will be announced on my Journal at the end of the week.

You have to post it right here under this heading for everyone to see!!

Too much ass kissing is a plus!!!

Ralphie............

Robbie is up at the rat barn.............and yes I'm gonna say that every Monday......:)........you never know?...............he may call in sick one day?.................Fatty and Rick are at my electrician's ( Jody ) house building a custom fire place mantel...............Jody and I are trading carpentry work for electrical work.............We have had a "break" in regular construction work.............so today and tomorrow Fatty can work on the fireplace...............I'm sure he will do a super swell job!!..........we always do the small jobs I have on the "back log" when we are slow with "Real Work"

I see that my "calling all bad people post" got yanked??............wonder who that pissed off?...............it's cool.........I only had the RDR Forum open to the "Outcasts" for that night anyway............it did drum up some interest for new folks to get a real RDR password for the fourm................so I guess they liked what they saw................and that's one big group of BONERS having fun............as usual.....;)

Jeff came over today to work on my computer network..............we had to go out and pick up some supplies first...............yes I bought Theresa a killer new printer for her own PC.......so now she can print pics until the cows come home..........and best of all..............she won't be bothering me!!..........;).............we got all the supplies and came back to get everything set up.............the network will allow T and I to share files on each other's computers............she can print to mine............and I can print to her's................sounds Kinky!!!..............and she will have her own internet connection...............so now I think I have my PC back all to myself..........we got the wireless network up and running like a champ!!..........I'm happy as all hell about it...............I'm not sure how I feel about T sitting upstairs at her PC reading my journal though??...............already some of the girls from her shop are reading it and telling her what I write..............but don't worry folks................I won't hold back a thing!!.............and T..............who loves ya baby!!.................even if you are just a "green horn" to the internet world!!.............so now T is all set up..............she has a password to the RDR Forum...............she has administrative access in chat...............LOL..............she's set!!

The "Journal Contest" is going well over on the RDR Forum so far..............looks like there will be plenty of "entries" ( 18 so far )..............people are having fun with it, and that's what I wanted it to do................I wanted to bring in some "fresh air"..............Fear Factor was pretty lame tonight............the first stunt was awful..........five out of the six people totally quit!!............they were dropped into the water in a body bag..............of course they were handcuffed..............all they had to do was unlock the cuffs and unzip the bag..............swim up and grab the flag the fastest................everyone was talking smack...............and they all QUIT!!............I can understand that they were "out of air"............but this was just like any other under water stunt ............finally the last guy did it............and he did it with ease.............what was the big deal people?...................then there were bugs ( as usual )................it was a good show........and the dude who completed the first stunt won the whole damn thing..............."Fear was not a factor for him"......:)................Vegas was good...............but Wayne Newton scared the hell out of me................does this man age??................he looks plastic!!................Rock On Wayne!!!.............I wish I had your talent and money!!................then we have "Average Joe".............she got rid of all the fat dudes tonight............damn!!..............I was just starting to like her too...........LOL..............but really.......she seems to be a nice chick...............her pickins' are damn slim is all..........T says she wouldn't pic any of them...............so naturally that makes me feel like "Mr. Wonderful"..............

Robbie is up at the rat barn ( day # 2 ).............this will be his last week working on the rat barn by himself............I want the place done in one day............that will be Monday ...........George works until noon on Monday's, he offered to help after he gets off work.....:).............my buddy Bob ( The landscaper ) said he would work too................so it will be four of us working on Monday's................and Mr. John may even chip in!!.............It will be a full house!!...........Robbie said he didn't need the help............and that's cool........but I want it done in a day.............no need for two days.............and it's all because I was keeping my own schedule............so now I will change my Monday schedule to do rats............yepper...............back in the trenches again!!............Bob and I hooked up this morning to go buy some new Leland Cypress trees..............I lost 20 trees through the Summer and from hurricane Issy..............Bob was away for awhile..............and now he's back and ready to work............so I'm gonna keep him busy planting trees and working on my yard for a few weeks.................he keeps trying to talk me into putting in an in ground pool, so that he can do all the cool landscaping around it..............I'm still not sure if I want to put one in or not?.............the Sea Doos are more fun for us..............but I know my kids want a pool.............Brooke is practically a "fish" in the Summer time.......and Kyle will be swimming in no time...........so who knows??.................My mom has a pool............so it's not like the kids don't have a place to swim....;)............we got the trees and loaded them up............we bought stakes and "chain-lock" for supporting them while they "root"................Bob started planting trees as soon as we got home.................I came in and started separating all my breeding pairs so that I can feed them all tomorrow ............I will feed them all tomorrow and let them rest until Saturday................then I will put all the pairs back together again for a week...........I'll probably skip next week's feeding on the adults.............it really depends on how many are breeding come next Tuesday ..............I like to feed all year long............and I like to let my snakes rest..........I pretty much got everyone seperated...........there were a few pairs "locked up".............so I let them alone..........they will be un-hooked by tomorrow I'm sure..........

I did a count on all the rats I will need for feeding tomorrow ..............I called Robbie and told him that Bob and I would be coming up to help him finish............he said we didn't have too..........Bob cleaned up what he was doing and we headed up to the barn..........we worked a few hours and got it all done................we have tons of small rats right now!!................good thing too because I'm feeding off 500 of them tomorrow.............not to mention 400 pinks and fuzzies......:)............it's so awesome to be able to produce your own rats!!.............It costs me a couple grand a month to keep the rats............that is my rent, electric, rat food and bedding..............Robbie's pay is not included in that............Robbie gets a salary for the week............no matter what he does.............rats or snakes.......so I have a couple grand in expenses per month...............I'm able to sell at least $300.00 of rats per week between Phil's sales and my sales..............and that's a very low figure............so the rats pretty much pay for themselves ............I may come up short a few hundred bucks a month if we don't sell many rats............but the main thing is that I have all the rats I need and I don't have to depend on somebody else supplying them for me, and delivering them to me............it works out very well...............and the rats actually only really take up one day of work..........one day to clean and feed............the rest of the days we are in there for fifteen mins. to a half hour just making sure everything is OK................even if I didn't make the $1,800.00 or so in rat sales to re-coup my expenses........I would still breed the rats myself........I would be paying a couple grand a month to somebody else to feed my snakes anyway...........I love it!!...............my rat colony comes from a bloodline of hooded rats that I started back in 1993!!...................good stuff!!............after we got done and blew the place out, I drove Bob home........after that I had to get Brooke from Church.................I called Gail and talked to her for an hour on the way to pick up Brookie...............thanks Gail!!.........I always kill a battery talking with you girl!!............I got Brooke home and put her to bed............I went down an caught up on some emails .............tonight is chat night.............I'm gonna see if I can get T to stop in and chat with us for awhile............?

T came home with some dinner.........we ate............then I went down to chat...........T went into her office and started reading my journal!!..........can you believe it!!........that's not what her internet connection is for!!..........damn!!........I went up and told her that chat would be much more entertaining......LOL................so she logged in and hung out with us for awhile ..............I have it set up so that her text when she types is 'hot pink"..............sexy!!..............so we all chatted for awhile.............the place was still "out of hand" even though T was there.......LOL..............we had fun..............T said she enjoyed it...........and now I think she understands why "way back in the day" I would come to bed so late on Tuesday nights..............chat is fun!!.............the "Journal Contest" is still going on............I'm gonna have a hard time picking just one winner...............I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings...............but I'm only gonna pic one winner............there will be other contests folks!!................some of the chicks are talking about a "bobbie contest"............it will have to be edited of course...............but damn man!!........it works for me!!!........LMAO................why do the chicks even read this crap...............I'll never know.................I'm totally harmless ladies!!..............but the mentioning of Boobs gets the juices flowing!!..............but seriously.........I do want to do another contest.............not sure what the topic will be yet?................but I think I'm going to do a few of these a year...........can't keep all the bucks around here right?...........

We fed the whole damn place today!..........I separated the few pairs that were still breeding first thing this morning...........I fed all the adults and Robbie fed all the younger snakes..............George and Mel stopped by too...........I put them to work...........they helped me mark all the record cards while I fed..............T had stuff to do before work........so that meant I had to take Gump to pre-school at 12:30..............I was running late as I usually do when it comes time to take the kiddies to school.............George and Mel were here.............Robbie was still up at the rat barn.............we were all "pre-marking" the feed cards..............that way all I had to do was put the rats in the cages and roll with it.........so I gathered up Gump and all his school stuff and headed down the road............the road I use as a short cut always has cops set up on it shooting radar ( see where I'm going yet? )...........and I know about the radar trap...............it's a 25 mph zone...........T has been "picked off" there speeding a few times since we have lived here..............it's a perfect spot to catch speeders.............well you guessed it............I was flying down the road and got nailed by radar..............the cop flagged me down and told me that I was doing 56 mph in a 25 mph zone...............I said "I know"..........he didn't care that I was late getting Gump to school.......LOL............so we had to sit there on the side of the road and wait..........Kyle's school is like three mins. from our house too..............this really sucked!!...........I was thankful that the cop did not notice that I had Kyle in the front seat.............he was wearing his seatbelt............but Kyle is too small by law to be in the front seat...........I was just in a hurry..........and I paid for it....;)...........I was getting pissed off waiting .........I was saying "Come on dude"...........kinda to myself.............and Gump would repeat it too.........LOL.............he didn't want to be late for school either...........then all of the sudden a Suburban comes flying up the road going way faster than I was............the cop stopped her briefly and let her go??..........he gave me a big fat ticket!!.............$270.00 fine..............and 5 points!!...........I've never been in that kind of trouble before........WOW!!..............he said that I should go to court and that the points would probably be reduced or even dropped if my record was good...........which I don't think it's bad?..............but after this I might as well be a damn murderer..............FIVE POINTS!!...........in all my life.............this was the worst fine of them all...............and I was totally guilty ..............I was flyin'...............I did ask the cop why he let the women in the Suburban go?..............he said her kid was in the front seat with a nasty gash in his head................she even ran straight through the stop sign............I could understand why she was speeding............I would have been too...............hell I'm flyin' down the road just because Kyle was late for school..............if he was hurt I would have never stopped............the local hospital is also on this road.................it did give me an idea though..............next time, God Forbid this happens ..............I'll have Gump act like he is injured so that the cop will let us go.........LMAO!!.................so I took my ticket "in shame" because I'm such a bad Father,,,,,,,,,,I got Kyle to school and went back to feed the snakes............the whole time I was thinking that "it wasn't my day to take Kyle to school"............and it wasn't............that should have been T's ticket damn it!!..............isn't it funny how things go??............I guess it was just my turn..............but really ............I wouldn't have even left the house today if it weren't for having to take Kyle to school .........unexpectedly!!.................I did get a free pizza today though....;)..............George and Mel ordered us a pizza and had it delivered here.............so the day wasn't "all bad".....;)

I fired up the web cam today while we were feeding the snakes..........you may have caught a glimpse of us running around like goofs.............I finished up the feeding .........George and Mel rolled out............I sat down and got a bunch of my paper-work done............I put the web cam right on my big ole behind to...............did you guys see me trying to balance checking accounts and pay bills?...........I had a pretty impressive "role call" on the forum this week...........36 people " rang in".........we only have 800 password's issued..............so to see 36 people lower themselves to post that they were actually present was great!!.............the rest of you guys are BONERS!!............there are many benefits to making yourselves' "know" on the board .............there will be valuable cash and prizes given out...............and you gotta be "present" to play..................so let's see some more posts from all you lurkers ...............I'm taking notes............:)........you'll never know what Ralphie has in store for you unless you participate .........anyway............I worked some long hours in the office tonight.......the whole time the web cam was running I was trying not to pick my nose or scratch my ass................guys do stuff like that all day long...........LMAO!!..............I'm sure somebody grabbed a few "stills" from the web cam and will do some editing on them to make me look like a total goober.............it's just a matter of time before those pics will be "played"...........:P

I worked until midnight .............midnight is the end of the "Journal Contest"...........I went in and announced that the contest is over...........looks like 25 people posted to the contest thread..........I read all of them and saved copies of each post............no matter how small it was..............I got it!!...........I thought everyone's entries were great!!.............even the one's that didn't have many word's came across in "that person's" own unique style..........I enjoyed reading what you guys had to say................some of them were very heart warming and serious, some were funny as hell, ALL were masterpieces in their own way............it was a good mix of entertainment............now I have to pick one winner from the bunch???.............I will pic a winner and post their winning entry here.............I will also post the "runner ups" because there are some really "original" and "well though out posts" there...............to everyone who contributed I say THANKS...........It was really fun and I appreciate you guys showing me all the great encouragement and support..........and too the people who did not post...........I totally understand why you didn't........it's cool......;)...............but remember that the people who entered this one already have scored some major "brownie points" with me...........LOL.............no matter who wins............I hope nobody gets their feelings hurt...........there will be more fun to come............I also asked in the forum for people to cast a vote on who they think should win?............I knew that would not get a great response because they are majorly being put "on the spot".........I think I know who the winner is.............I just wanted to see some other input!!...........It was a great success guys!!..............I'm feeling good about myself now and I'm all "pumped up" for another 12 months of RDR Journal ...........don't worry.........the Journal ain't going anywhere.............and either am I....................You guys ROCK!!!!........

Now for "Gump's Version" of the speeding ticket............T came home and told me that Kyle couldn't wait to tell her the story of me getting the speeding ticket after school..........Kyle told her that I was driving fast..............I hit a tree and a Cowboy was mad about it........LMAO!!.............he was paying attention pretty well .............because we did have to stop near a tree in somebody's front yard.............and the State Trooper was wearing a hat like a Cowboy............and yes he was pissed!!...............so that was Gump's version..........

Robbie is cleaning the snakes..............Bob is out in the back yard planting and staking trees..............the wind is unbelievable today??...............all Bob could do today was dig holes..............it was way to windy to put the trees in the ground............he staked all the trees that he planted yesterday and he staked all the trees that were blowing over today.........LOL..............I took my stakes away from the trees way too early in the season............everything was fine in the wind until I decided that the trees were ready to be " un-staked"...............and that's what did it.............the damn ground is so saturated with water from all the rain that the roots of the trees just pull right out of the earth when the wind blows..............so it's "back to stakes"...............I don't care how long they need to be staked.........I love my trees!!............I'd say the wind got up to 50 or 60 mph today............super nasty gusts................and it snowed!!...............yepper..............there was a very short snow squaw here...............it was nuts!!................our power flickered................and yes I was working in Dream Weaver on the web site when it did...............the damn computer re-booted and I lost some of the stuff I was typing ................yep...........I need battery back-up for that kind of stuff.....:).............I lost a few hundred words.........it was easy to remember what I was writing..............so I would type a few sentences and then press "save" ( just incase )................LOL..............I didn't want to lose info again.............but the power stayed on after that.................we did lose my internet connection ..............I had the web cam running..............so the last image you guys see there is when the internet crapped out on me.............many people in Maryland lost power and are still out of power today because of all the high winds knocking over trees, telephone poles and power lines............today took a very unexpected twist with the weather for sure.............poor Bob stuck it out though............he worked in the crappy weather all day..............and it was COLD!!

While Robbie started to clean, I went and doubled up a bunch of female ball pythons that I'm trying to fatten up with small rats...........my snakes are still destroying food.........even the ones that have been breeding..............I love it!!............Bob went and picked up some lunch for us and we all stopped and had cheese steak subs.................with HOTS.............and the hots are talkin' to me right now as I type................I think my body is finally too old for hots?...............and I love hot stuff!!................so does Big Lou!!........I watched a show last night on OLN I believe..........it was a half hour show on the
"Booger Monster" in Alabama.................it is supposedly a Sasquatch that runs around in the swamps...............the same story you hear from everyone down in the swamp lands........you guys all know how I love Sasquatch!!...........If I were single............I would give up everything I had to be one of those poor Sasquatch Hunters..........LOL..............I really would!!.............unless you have seen a Sasquatch............you wouldn't understand..............I've been total fan of Sasquatch ever since I seen him................yepper...............I seen a Sasquatch when I was young...........hooking school with a freind................but that story will come another day...............my close friends know about it................I'm not sure they believe me at all..............but they know the story..............so anyway.............this show sucked!!.......it was way "over-produced"........but I watched it anyway...........I watch all the Monster shows whether they suck or not...........I just love Monsters!!......Bigfoot is smarter than all of us............

My internet connection came back up......it was out several hours............people are still with out electric all over Maryland...........I was lucky............today anyway..............LOL.............I'm scared to leave the house now......I sent Bob for lunch...........not really though..........a ticket is a ticket.............we all speed sooner or later.........I got caught.......at the worst possible time I could be speeding too!!..............If I do it.....I do it BIG!!...............so now I wait for my court date and then I will through myself at the mercy of the sweet loving judge........LOL..............we shall see....;)..........I've been working on the web site and the journal most of the afternoon until now.............it's 7:30 pm...........I read the responses the RDR Forum members wrote on "who should win the contest".............they told me what I already knew.......:)........I had a winner last night.............:)................and Perry!!.............this dude is "off the hook" with his crazy "Sasquatch stories" he writes............Perry writes short stories and sends them to me though email ( about all kinds of cool stuff )...............he posted one Wednesday and one Today in the RDR Forum..............both were about a "Killer Sasquatch".............great stories..........the kind that you hang on to every word until the very end...............I posted a few of Perry's stories on my "Ralph's Word's " page so that others could read them that do not visit the fourm..........Perry will be a mega-bucks writer one day............he has to be!!

Below is the latest story that Perry posted in the RDR Forum..........

One more for the Bigfoot Boners
Posted by Perry on 11/13/2003, 12:10 am
User logged in as: PerryC69

Towpath Bluffs

Rubber touched the pavement with a screech as the Boeing 727 landed at Baltimore/Washington International. A reunion of sorts was taking place as friends from around the country were joining together to remember old times and to invent a few new memories. For Ralph Davis, it would be bittersweet. Two of his long time friends, Mojo and Rene were flying in from San Francisco and Wisconsin, but he knew only to well that they would have to leave again in only one short week. They were childhood friends, buddies that shared everything, but jobs and family obligations had torn them in separate directions. At least he would have this week and he was bound and determined to make it as memorable as possible.
The drive from the airport took milliseconds compared to the grueling time it had taken Ralph to get there. Traffic into the city was backed up for miles. An eighteen wheeler had swerved into another lane, crushing a small compact car making it even smaller than when it had rolled off the assembly line. Ralph had wondered if anyone could have survived such a crash. His question was answered as the three men traveled west. Three bodies covered by rain ponchos lay lifeless on the concrete next to the wreckage; one appeared to be a child.
“I hope that isn’t anyone I know” Ralph quietly murmured.
Mojo and Rene rubbernecked to catch a glimpse but were only too sorry they had.
Attempting to change the mood, Rene bellowed “So what do you have planned for us Ralph… keg parties and strip joints?”
Ralph smiled as did Mojo, remembering the days before they were married and had no care in the world except partying and then partying some more.
“Actually, I thought we would spend a quiet week fishing. I know a great spot that is miles from everywhere…and more trout than you can imagine.”
The idea sounded good to Mojo. He dealt with high finance, although lately, his thoughts had drifted elsewhere. After suffering from a mini heart attack at the age of 34, he had taken up photography. He had plenty of money in the bank and could retire if he wanted. It was tempting.
Mojo confirmed his thoughts aloud then said, “how’s that sound to you Rene?”
“Fine with me…I am sick of looking at people, especially women.”
Ralph laughed then said, “Oh I feel for ya Bro…a gynecologist…must be tough.”
Rene smiled then replied, “well ya know, it’s not all eighteen year old hotties that come in for exams…imagine having to see your grandmother naked from the waist down. I have nightmares. I can relate to Vietnam vets that still sleep with there rifles.”
Ralph and Mojo looked at Rene, seriously for a moment, then shut him down in a barrage of laughter and heckling. Who was he kidding?
Before the three men had noticed, they had arrived at the campsite high atop a mountain, smack in the middle of the Appalachian range. Ralph’s new Dodge pickup easily maneuvered the rugged terrain that led them up to the twenty acre pond and the sparse campsite that Ralph and his friends Lou, Fatty and Phil had previously constructed. As Ralph’s truck pulled in, Lou greeted them with a wave, and then dropped his load of kindling for the camp fire; Phil and Fatty were fly fishing from the bank of the pond. No introductions were needed. Mojo and Rene knew all the guys well.
“Holy smokes…how long has it been?”
Big Lou greeted the newcomers with an outstretched hand.
“Ages Lou…you look good. Married life agrees with you I see.” Rene patted Lou on the belly. He always poked fun but knew where the line was. Lou had a temper and when he unleashed, it was like a grizzly mauling a freshly caught salmon.
“Hey you two…get over here.” Lou motioned to Fatty and Phil who promptly ignored him. Fishing was more important than sappy long time no sees.
Ralph helped Mojo and Rene set up their tents then they strolled around the pond. The sun set over the blackening mountain behind them sending pink and yellow brush strokes throughout the early evening sky. Trout rose on the pond to greet the mayflies that were hatching. An occasional splash could be heard, echoing off the forested hills around them. After a hearty meal of fresh trout and beer, the men settled in for the night.

*****

“You hear that?”
“What”
“Ralph….RALPH!!”
“What?”
“I heard something.”
“Of course you did. We are in the woods dummy…go back to sleep.”
“No…I mean I really heard something.”
“Mojo…”
“There it is again.”
Fatty spoke up. “I heard that too.”
“What is that smell? Smells like…wet dog.”
The six men were all up on an elbow, half in and half out of their sleeping bags. The fire had soothed itself into a crisp glow; the embers shimmered in the darkness flickering a calming sensation over the grassy surroundings. Rene peered at Mojo then over to Ralph.
“Someone poke Lou!”
Big Lou was famous for his sleep marathons and could shake the bark off a tree with his freight train snore.
Mojo whispered only too loud, “wake him up already!”
“WHAT??”
Lou, startled from his slumber, reacted with an unconscious mind.
“Shhhhhh……..Rene pointed into the brush beyond the two trucks only barely visible in the firelight.
Silence enveloped the friends as they strained to hear any noise that did not belong, but no noise came. Only the heavy sound of darkness and the crickets chirp could be heard, but the men did not sleep, except for Lou. He was out again in no time.
Morning came late, taking forever to arrive for the sleepless men. A heavy dew had landed, soaking everything and everyone to the bone. Phil shivered as he stoked the fire and put water on for coffee. Within minutes, all were up, except for Lou. Five of the six men hovered around the fire, rekindled from its near extinction. Steam rose from the long underwear clad men as they sipped there java.
“What do you think that was that we heard?” Ralph said, holding onto his mug tightly.
The others just shook there heads.
“Well I say we look around.”
“Look around for what?” Big Lou said, rising from his catatonic state.
“Phil and Fatty…why don’t you two look over that way…” Ralph pointed towards the towering pines.
“Rene and Mojo can come with me. We will search the area around the trucks and up towards Towpath Bluff.”
“What about me?” Lou said, not wanting to be left out.
Ralph thought for a moment then decided it would be best if someone remained in the camp. Lou was fine with it. It took him awhile to get moving anyway.
Fatty and Phil walked off towards the stand of pines as the other men headed in the opposite direction. Ralph walked carefully, eyeing the ground for any visible clue. As they reached the pickups, Mojo motioned to Ralph and Rene and then pointed towards the hood. A large dent was prominently featured on the edge of Ralph’s hood. Part of the grill was broken as well. An angry path led away, trampled by someone or something. The three men followed as it led towards the bluff. Rene was the first to find her. He stood gazing in horror, unable to mutter a word. Mojo and Ralph called for him yet he said nothing. He couldn’t. He had no spit.
“There you are…we thought…what the ####?”
She hung from one leg which was wedged in the crook of a tree. Her hair covered her face but no clothes covered her disemboweled torso. The remnants of intestines reached for the ground which was soaked in blood. A ravaged backpack lay strewn about the forest floor. She was alone and appeared to have been there for a few days. Whatever had done this was an animal, human or not.
“RALPH!!!!!!!...........ARRRGHH..HELP ME!!!”
The scream shattered the early morning. The voice was Lou’s but sounded nothing like him. By the time the men could get back to camp, Lou was a fury of arms and legs, covered in ten feet of hair and spit.
“GET IT OFF OF ME!!” He screamed in terror.
The animal stopped its molestation and dropped Lou’s big frame to the ground. It stood half upright then fully erect. The men shuddered in place, beholding a creature that defined reason. It quickly moved towards Mojo who backed away then tripped over a log. It stopped again, displaying its arms that stretched on forever. Its eyes penetrated and its teeth froze the men solid. Without warning, it sprinted off into the bush, following the trail that led to the girl.
Lou lay on the ground panting. His chest and stomach were torn as was his face. Blood gushed from a wound the size of a grapefruit.
“We gotta get him outta here” Ralph said. No one argued.

*****

As Ralph sat in the hospital chair, tending vigil over his badly wounded friend, he read the paper. The headline read “Lone hiker missing”.
He read and re-read the story and thought of her family. They never did find her body. It surely was a vacation to remember.

So I'm sitting here finishing up the "Thursday Journal Entry"...........Phil is on his way over, I called him and he said he was detoured because of fallen power lines...........it's still horrible outside.........then we will go to play wally-ball............I have to stop at the rat barn first to drop off some extra rats...............T will be taping SURVIVOR and CSI for me tonight .............I'm sure I will come back from wally-ball "wired" like I usually do.....;)..............it's been a very fun and "stimulating week"...............I enjoyed hanging out with all you guys again on-line...........it was such a great success that I will have to think up another "contest".........

One more week till KISS!!!.................:)

We have a winner folks!!..........and it's my buddy Dan Wagoner!!...............below is what "Danny Boy" wrote that just knocked me on my butt.......to think that a " dude" could express like this?

RDR Journal: A Diamond in the Rough
Posted by Dan Wagoner on 11/10/2003, 3:05 pm, in reply to "$1,000.00 prize!!"
User logged in as: DanWagoner

RDR Journal: A Diamond in the Rough

All of us here at RDR have immediate family and friends that are a part of our everyday lives. These individuals are who we work with, who we live with, who we spend our free time with, and whom we see day in and day out. In many cases, they play a critical role in who we are and how we function. And while these people are often active figures in our lives, in many cases, they are not meeting a very important and basic need.

Each and every one of us has the basic need and desire to belong. We want to feel like a part of a community. We just want to feel loved. We need to have some type of outlet in our lives that supplies us with this vital need. If this basic need is not met, we feel isolated and bored. For many of us, the RDR Journal is the outlet.

Ralph, whether you know it or not, you are providing thousands of individuals with the basic need for an intimate and personal relationship. It is this type of personal interaction that enriches our day-to-day lives and can assist us in times of stress and crisis. This is the exact reason why people e-mail you in a panic when the journal is posted a day late. These people have gone their entire week without any type of intimate connection with another individual. Over the course of their week, they become stressed with work and life and they begin to feel emotionally isolated and bored. By opening up your life each week, you are offering many individuals the only true sense of belonging they will encounter in their daily lives.

Those who speak out against you, Ralph, and the RDR Journal feel threatened and separated from our established community. They see all of us here at RDR interacting and they want to be a part of it. But for some reason or another, they react in a negative way, when all they really want is a personal relationship that makes them feel loved as well.

Reptiles are the common connection that has brought us all together. RDR is an extraordinary place to share and exchange information about our animals. But it is the personal relationships and sense of belonging we receive from the RDR Journal and the RDR Forum that bring us back, time and time again.

Ralph, I know what you have established here provides you with the same basic need and, as a result, it drives and supports your business. Those who take part in this community are receiving a huge service from you. When considering the $1,000 prize, I begin to feel like I owe you something instead. I couldn’t even begin to comprehend how to repay you for what you provide us with.

I know I may catch some crap for analyzing things from this angle. All the talk of personal and intimate relationships, emotions, and feelings...it all sounds a little fruity. However, I think deep down, each and every single person who reads this will understand where I’m coming from. I greatly appreciate Ralph being real. In turn, I felt I should reveal the real reason the RDR Journal is such a success and why it should remain.

The whole reptile industry can be pretty discouraging. So while there are jerks taking out their anger and aggression over at Kingsnake, and other breeders trying to shake things up in the market or run a cut throat business to make a few extra bucks, it is nice to come home to RDR and have a breath of fresh air. The RDR Journal is truly, a diamond in the rough.

Dan Wagoner
(765)744-7231
[email protected]

There it is folks...............the WINNER of the "RDR JOURNAL CONTEST"............one thousand buckaroos!!........as I said earlier this week..............I though ALL of the entries were great...............Dan was the tenth person to post..............and I knew it would be tough to beat ............Christy and Gail came in right behind him.............I loved both of their entries as well................then you have Peter Frost's " Ode To The Journal"...............and Hungry Medusa's "RDR Journal version" of the KISS Classic " Rock and Roll All Night"................getting back to Christy's entry ..........I have to say that it was the most entertaining of them all...............the RDR Journal causing the world "havoc"...............a true masterpiece!!................and sweet Gail.............her and Dan were on the same "wave" I think...............both of you guys made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside...............:)

Jen - Suicidal, Bonerific.............and Insanely your's.....:)
Fatass - # 1 baby!!.............and Happy Birthday Again!
MikeB - KISS RULES!!...........Chester needs a women!!
Mojo - I'm flaunting it bro!!...........now get over here and work for Fatass!!
Celia - Here is your name sweetie!!.......CELIA!!!......:P
Perry - We consider you "one of the gang"...........now start writing another Sasquatch story!!
Shawn - We'll shake one day..........Thanks!
Phil - At least I blocked out Robbin's boobie..........;)
Snowboner - Judgment Day is far off man.......thanks!
Dan Wagoner - You won Danny Boy!!.......haven't you won a grand before?.............DAMN!!
Chuck - That pic of Stu getting humped by the Lion is priceless!!....can't wait for the Baboons!!
JakeS - Ever read "Biggins'"??
Stu - You watched The Shining didn't ya.......LOL...Does Amy know about the jello?.. AMY!!!
Casey - Handsome??...........am I really?.....awwwwww.......:)
Luke - I'm your "Happy Pill" or your Huckleberry........;)
KyleH - Glad you didn't kiss any ass!!
Jarosh - SURVIVOR RULES!!......and so does Mare!!!
Safranski - We all want to see your BOOBS!!!
Ken2 - Journalholic you are.............thanks!!
HungryMedusa - I loved your post, it will become an RDR classic for sure.....ROCK ON!!
Charles - Mississippi Mad Man!!............I'll keep you connected!
Gail - Sweet Gail.........I always say that "your too good to me".............Thanks!!
AlexB - Pics of snakes my ass!!.......LMAO!!
Pete - A brilliant piece of work..........you'll win the RDR poem contest for sure mate!
Christy - "My Girlie".........the most "original" entry of them all............you are way under-paid girl!!.............I have read your's more than any of the others just to soak it all in..........your the BEST!!..........;)
Rene - I know how you really feel bro.............your a damn good Injun.....we ALL love ya!!!

Again.....thanks to everyone of you guys who posted and contributed in the fun...........we will definitely do it again..............I've had my "pumpin' up" for the year..........so I won't need to be fluffed up again for another 12 months......;)................There ain't a better bunch of people on any other forum anywhere on the net............it's totally impossible!!............YOU GUYS RULE!!!

As you can see up at today's heading.............it's Fatty's Birthday.............so make sure you all wish him a great day..............I'll have him working somewhere ( poor bastard )........LOL.......Happy Birthday Fatass!!..............Dinner on me for you and Sandy both..............Sandy's Birthday was on the 11th.........and their wedding anniversary is on the 17th....................what a busy month for you guys!!.............:)................wally-ball was great last night.............we played three on three.................Fatty, Phil and I lost every game but one to the "Evil Brothers"..............but the games were close.............:).............Big Lou has emailed me from China and told me that he may not see me until 2004??................I hope he is kidding..........but I wouldn't put it past him one bit..............Lou is the kind of guy to just take off and never come back...............not until he is done exploring and investigating.............he loves to "snoop around"...........he also said he bought me and the family some great gifts from China.............his problem now is that he says all the stuff is too big to ship to the US......so I'm gonna wait patiently Big Boy!!.........say hello to Xulin..........oh that poor girl.....;)

I got up this morning and Robbie was already here cleaning the snakes.............Bob is out planting and staking more trees, the wind kicked ass last night!!...........it was BRUTAL!!...........Robbie was talking on his cell phone to Big Lou when I came down.............so I talked to Lou for awhile.............it was good to hear his voice.............he sounds happy as all hell..............he says he will be back in the early part of December..............he says that Xulin is great and he would expect her paper -work to "come to the US" to go through in another month or so............he is happy as a hog in shit!!.............did I mention he was happy?..........;)..................he says he has plenty of pics..............he didn't take a digital camera.............he did take his camcorder and a regular camera................so I'll scan his best pics and get them up on the journal when he gets back................I still don't believe he's coming back so soon?......we all miss him.

I spent an hour or so on the phone this morning with the ticket company that I bought the KISS tickets from................I bought 3 tickets way back when?.................well they only charged my credit card for one ticket?...............supposedly my credit card company did not allow the other two tickets to be charged??............remember I had all that trouble with my credit card getting "froze" the last time I ordered all the Halloween stuff on line.............so I called the credit card company today and asked them if the two tickets were declined by VISA.............VISA said that they had un-froze my card the last time I called them ( the first KISS ticket) and that there were no more problems?..........they said that all they seen on my statement was one ticket............they never even seen the other two tickets attempted to be charged??...............so somebody is bull-shitting me??...................so VISA said all is well...............they would accept the charges...........no probelm...............so I called the ticket company and told them they better be charging my card and getting me the other two tickets ASAP!!............they said everything would be fine...........and to call back Monday to make sure the charges went through..............what a bunch of crap!!...........I just received the first ticket confirmation this week with the T-shirt and all the info.................we figured the other two shirts and tickets would be right behind??.................so George made a call today and found that they only had one ticket listed for me??............so we are all in "panic mode" today..............I did all I can do ...........everything should be fine now ................worst case they don't get the other two shirts ( George and Fatty's ) out to us in time............but that's OK...............we just want our tickets and back stage passes!...............it's always something!!..............I told VISA that they don't even want to be the reason why I don't get those tickets ...........a card member since 1986..............and this is what I get?.............so anyway.............as Dan would say ......"I'm rambling"..........you ramble too buddy!!.................just nervous and excited at the same time......................KISS!!!!................

Survivor was great as always last night...............Rupert won the reward challenge with ease..............I think he was actually thinking about "holding back".............he won a big breakfast..............and he could take a freind..............OR............he could pass the reward over to another tribe member...............and that he did...............he let Burton have his reward.............and Burton took Lil with him...............I think Rupert thinks that may be "good strategy".............but I don't..............I hope Rupert knows that Burton wants him gone!!............but that's how it went down.............Burton and Lil are both "Outcasts"................I guess they will try to stick together and make history ...........although I still don't agree with letting a tribe member that his been voted out to come back in..........I'm still a RUPERT FAN!!...............I know it's gonna be hard for him to make it to the end though...........he's just too perfect for the game................I would want him off the show if I was up against him too!!...........then Rupert wins immunity.......easily too!!.................Ryano got the boot last night...............he is the first person on the jury now.............he was doomed..........and pretty damn lazy...........everyone from Morgan is lazy................so we are down to nine people...............who will be the Sole Survivor???...........GO RUPERT!!!...............and watch your back bro!!.........they are plottin' against ya big boy!!...............win all the immunities that you can!!!!............CSI was OK............nothing special...............but damn do I like Catherine's cloths!!...............:)

Fatty , Phil and I have all emailed RicK for a password to his forum...."Rick's Place".......I never got a response?................Fatty was turned down and so was Phil??.................RicK says that the forum is welcome to all RDR members..................have any of you gained access to his board?...............I have a feeling he has no users yet and don't want us to see that his board is so lame............I just wanted to check the place out and see who is actually using it................it says it's a good place to relax...............maybe people are sleeping in there?..............who knows................RicK knows I can't stand him anyway...............I emailed him awhile back wen he posted that pathetic picture over at KS of the two albino ball tails together.............LMAO!!............talk about the worst pic I've ever seen posted...........so I emailed him and asked him what kind of camera he was using.............I think he uses a NIKON 5700 now.............a total "no brainer" camera..............well I guess he ain't quite figured it out yet?..............your pics suck RicK!!............I was gonna give you some valuable pointers and teach you a thing or two.........I was trying to be a nice guy.............so anyway.............I got no response...............he just went up on KS and in his own smart ass way started responding to other people's posts.............he would write "what camera do you use"...............because that is what I emailed him...............he knows that I would read it and get ticked off...............that's how he does things.............really cryptic and subtle............he will read my journal and that do a "spin" on it at KS.............like the Halloween Costume contest!!......so take notice to those stupid little "digs" he makes on KS against me or some of the RDR users.........now that you know what to look for you'll spot them easily...............and yes I'm just as immature as he is...............you see...........RicK still holds a grudge against me for banning him from my forum............then I took his buddy JY out soon after...........he desperately wants to " belong" over at RDR..............he would never admit it..............but he does...............he lived on my board .............posted the most of anyone.............he even posted to his own posts...........nobody minded really................he just started to get really weird............then he said I lied about something or another and wanted me to apologize publicly to him...............then he wanted to tape my converstaions on the phone.............you heard it all before...............he's so paranoid.........he is the only person that I really have no problem "not liking" for the rest of my days............and I'm not alone...............most people totally ignore him.............but I watch him when I'm around KS................remember.............he did get me banned from KS awhile ago.............what a wuss!!.............he has talked so much smack about other breeders in the past to me directly ................breeders that he is "sucking up" to on KS now...............he used to think I was the best.............I was the only breeder that would even give him the time of day, I sexed his snakes for him and always helped him out..............so now he gives all the other breeders "props" that he used to talk shit about .............knowing it will get under my skin.............which it does at times................especially when he kisses the Snake Keeper's ass.................he had nothing but bad things to say about them in the past.............Pete Kahl, and NERD too................so my hands are tied at KS............and he knows it..............I was told in Daytona that he is trying to find a lawyer to sue me...............a lawyer that will take the case and not get paid unless they win?.................win what BONE HEAD!!!???..............LMAO!!...............ahhhhhh...........the stuff I hear.......and the emails I've saved.............so watch yourselves' out there folks...............this guy is a real pro............people are scared of him and what he will do................he has nothing but time on his hands........who knows what twisted things he thinks up??................but as I said earlier...............SCREW IT............why hide your real feelings................let'er rip..............the majority rules!!...............one man's word against against thousands .............we're getting lazy..............isn't it time to take out the garbage once and for all??..................his fifty years on this planet speak loud and clear don't they??.....................LOSER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Below is the first runner up's entry for the RDR Journal Contest by Christy............I feel so bad not giving this "first place"...........but "Danny Boy" made me cry damn it!!

This Just In!!!!!
Posted by Christy on 11/12/2003, 6:44 pm, in reply to "$1,000.00 prize!!"
User logged in as: Christy

PYTHON KING STRIKES JOURNAL, CRUSHES ECONOMY
Washington - Disaster struck Wall Street, the Fed, and the entertainment world this week, due to a bizarre chain of events rivaling the plot of a Grisham novel.

It all began late Thursday when python mogul Ralph Davis, of New Windsor, Maryland, announced the permanent dismantling of his popular “Journal,” featured on the web site RalphDavisReptiles.com. “Ralph’s Journal,” reportedly was read by more than 50,000 hourly, including influential world leaders, entertainers, and religious figures.

Close followers of Davis’ journal, known as “Ralphettes,” claim to have realized immediately that anarchy would follow the reptile magnate’s bombshell. Davis has been the stabilizing force in the lucrative ball python market for more than five years, often using his journal to “rant” about the disastrous pricing policies of others in the field.

“Word of the Journal’s demise spread like wildfire through the industry,” said Jeff Barringer, owner of Kingsnake.com, a large reptile website. “We closed Kingsnake immediately. Unfortunately, it was too late. Within an hour of Ralph’s announcement, the ball python market collapsed. Animals previously valued at $10,000 were selling for $250. Other reptile prices plummeted as a result. It’s a nightmare!” Unfortunately, this was only the beginning. Within two hours of the announcement, the dollar was being devalued worldwide.

Nevertheless, Alan Greenspan refused to confirm or deny using Davis’ Journal and the ball python market as economic indicators. In what proved to be a ruinous delay, the Fed did not freeze interest rates at earliest signs of nationwide panic. Pricing soared out of control, with retailers selling cans of Coke for $125.95 by Friday, 10am. “It appears I underestimated the effect of Mr. Davis’ journal on the world economy,” Greenspan admitted during the Friday, noon, press conference. He also announced his immediate resignation, and plans to spend more time with his family.

Reverberations were strong on Wall Street, where Microsoft stock spiraled to $.0034/share. The plunge was due to a rumor (later proven false) that Internet Explorer was unable to handle the high traffic on the RDR site, leading to Mr. Davis’ decision to discontinue the journal. “Microsoft is up to the task,” insisted Bill Gates, who is pictured on Microsoft.com sporting an RDR T-shirt and ball cap.

To control further damage, President Bush ordered the stock market closed at 11am EST, Friday. In an emergency press conference, the President urged the financial community to remain calm and stated that solving the Davis Disaster is his “first order of business.”

Californians, already under siege from the worst fire in a decade, were further endangered when a blackout consumed the entire west-coast power grid. Although details remain sketchy, a man that Pacific Gas and Electric identified only as “Mojo” mistakenly set his reptile enclosure’s heating device at 9500 degrees Fahrenheit. The ensuing power drain caused the largest outage in California history. Sources close to the investigation report that Mojo is cooperating with Homeland Security. His lawyer issued a statement early today saying, “Mojo regrets that he did not have Ralph’s Journal as a reliable source of herpetological information.” It has not yet been determined whether charges will be filed against Mojo or the fourteen-year-old Internet user who advised him about the snake enclosure’s temperature controls. More than 80,000 homes remain without electricity.

In a related freak accident, Gene Simmons, legendary star of the rock band Kiss, nearly died in his home today as a result of choking on “fake blood.” Allegedly, Simmons was sitting at his computer eating potato chips when he began to gag. In his distress, he mistook a container of fake blood for water, took a large gulp, and aspirated the thick concoction. “It was really gruesome,” said an attending paramedic. “There was blood everywhere. Fortunately we were able to revive him, although his makeup was beyond saving.” Band members refuse to say whether Simmons was on the RDR site when the incident occurred, but a shaken emergency room technician confided, “Mr. Simmons was wheeled in muttering ‘No, Ralph, No!’ blood still spurting from his nostrils. It was horrible!”

Elsewhere in entertainment news, Rupert Boneham, the beloved Survivor star, removed himself from the competition after a teary farewell. “Nobody wanted him to go,” said a fellow tribe member, “but after hearing about Ralph’s decision from a cameraman, he felt he had no choice. He said his fellow Americans needed him, and he had to go talk to Mr. Davis. That was Rupert, always looking out for the good of the tribe.” In an emergency Tribal Council, cast-off tribe members voted ex-Survivor Osten Taylor to replace Rupert. The tribe has spoken.

For more on the Davis Disaster, see related stories, “Pope Suffers Heart Attack,” and “Dozens Report Bigfoot Sightings in Maryland” on page A-3.

Below is the second runner up's entry for the RDR Journal Contest by Gail...........she is so sweet to me..............why I have no idea?.......;)

Here you go Ralphie..............................
Posted by gail on 11/12/2003, 11:49 am, in reply to "$1,000.00 prize!!"
User logged in as: Gail

Ralph...you know you can't stop writing your journal...you love your journal and so does everybody else. Others can write their own type of journal, but your journal will always stand alone. It's totally unique and totally you. Everyone knows you spend a lot of time on your journal and I'm sure that is one of the reasons people love it so much. You aren't writing it to brag or to boast....you are just writing what is going on in your life...be it about Brooke and Gump.... an incredible new snake in your collection.....or how much you appreciate your family, friends and workers. That is what makes it special....you are not marketing yourself or your animals....you are just giving people a peek at your life. You are having such a good time living you want to share it with whoever wants to read your journal. You share even the bad things like when Gump broke his arm......everyone that has a child or niece or nephew could feel themselves going through what you and Theresa went through. I know that when you wrote your experience with the hurricane a couple of months ago.....I could picture all of it.....like a movie in my head....sort of like the old silent movies.....and I thought ....."sh!t, poor Ralph, that could happen to any one of us¨ and I'm sure a lot of people decided to check out their emergency plans..

I wasn't going to write anything, mainly because I don't really like writing mushy stuff......I don't and won't kiss ass....and I don't care about the money.....I just think that maybe once in a while you need people to let you know how your site has added to their lives. Some may look to your journal for advice on breeding snakes, because as we all know, you are very forthcoming in giving out your recipe . Others just enjoy reading what is going on in another persons life....and knowing you makes it more fun to read the day to day journey of Ralph Davis and company......... How would everyone know what Lou is up too....or Fatass, or Phil, or Robbie the Robot..... .
Like we were saying the other night.....you bring some fun into this business/hobby. This business can be a bit depressing.....there is a lot of lying and backstabbing that goes on .....and people afraid to talk to one another for fear of what they are working on getting to someone that wants to beat them to it and break their bubble......you give people hope.....hope that there are other people out there just like us that just want to have fun and enjoy breeding the animals they love and meet some great people at the same time. You are a CHARACTER..... you bring some excitement and laughs into the reptile world....and without your journal a lot of people will lose their enthusiasm that they have towards breeding snakes. You let people know that you can make some decent money at it, but it takes work and a bit of luck.... You let people know that everyone in the business is important, from the little boy next door saving his money for some het Albinos, to the big guy that buys 10's of thousands of dollars worth of incredible morphs.....and whether people have bought animals from you or not, they are all welcome to your forum, to send you emails and to read your journal.

So you better keep writing or you will be one sorry bone head and you know it

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee,

gail

Below is the third runner up's entry for the RDR Journal Contest by Pete Frost ..........great work Pete!!..............I loved it!

An Ode to the Journal!
Posted by Pete on 11/12/2003, 1:55 pm, in reply to "$1,000.00 prize!!"
User logged in as: Frosty

An Ode to the Journal!

I've got some things I want to say
On why your journal has to stay
That $1000 dollars would be a perk
Even for those of us that Lurk

We love to hear about your snakes
& all the hard work that it takes
You've got the coolest morphs in town
Upon your head I place this crown

Now its not often, I have to say
that I give out such praise this way
We have to keep the 'stiff upper lip'
Well, after all I am a Brit
You hold no punches, you tell it all
We see the pics of the biggest free-fall!
Brooke, Gump, T and big Lou,
Robbie, Phil, to name just a few

My Ode is coming to an end
That 1000 bucks I would like you to send
Ralphie-mate your not a wanker
For your Journal, I’ve got to thank yer

Below is the fourth and final runner up's entry for the RDR Journal Contest by Hungry Medusa.........how did you know I liked KISS??.........Rock and Roll all Night!!!

Because you ROCK!!
Posted by HungryMedusa on 11/12/2003, 12:41 am, in reply to "$1,000.00 prize!!"
User logged in as: HungryMedusa
66.41.233.139

To the tune of. . . well, you'll figure it out
You show us everything you’ve got
You keep on writin' and the Ralphettes get hot
You drive us wild, with your great balls
You say you might stop writin’?
The party’s just begun, don’t be a dink!
You drive us wild, we’ll buy your snakeys
Just keep on writin', and keep on writin'

We want you to write the the journal all nite
We’ll read it every day
We want you to write the the journal all nite
We’ll read it every day
We want you to write the the journal all nite
We’ll read it every day
We want you to write the the journal all nite
We’ll read it every day

You keep on producing what no one else can
You’re kickin’ ass ‘cuz you are da man
You write that thing, we’ll read it, baby
You show us everything you’ve got
Ralphie, baby that’s quite a lot
And you deliver the goods, we’ll drool like crazy
Just keep on breedin', you keep on breedin’

We want you to write the the journal all nite
We’ll read it every day
We want you to write the the journal all nite
We’ll read it every day
We want you to write the the journal all nite
We’ll read it every day
We want you to write the the journal all nite
We’ll read it every day
We want you to write the the journal all nite
We’ll read it every day
We want you to write the the journal all nite
We’ll read it every day
We want you to write the the journal all nite
We’ll read it every day
We want you to write the the journal all nite
We’ll read it every day
We wanna read the journal!!!

That's it for this week folks!!...............I hope I didn't bore anyone ............everyone who participated in the contest will get RDR T-Shirts the next time I see ya................and ALL of you are right here on the Journal for all to see..............see that CELIA!!!!..........;P..........have a great week-end PEOPLE...........email me for a password for the RDR Forum if you wish.............ALL are welcome and you don't have to call me for a "consultation"..............what a sicko!!...................It's 2:50 pm and I see some good stuff getting started over at KS............looks like RicK is taking some heat...........I hope it lasts till Sunday......it won't though..............it will get yanked...............if RicK has any balls he'll let it stay up...........plus he just edited his Forum Page and took off the part about "Welcoming all RDR Forum Members".......am I a total goob or what??........man it's great to feel ALIVE!!.........Have a Great Weekend Everyone!!..............

We had a really nice Friday night "Loser Chat" last night.....;)........Danny Boy called me yesterday too and thanked me for awarding him the GRAND PRIZE for writing about the Journal...........he didn't take the bucks either............he took the credit instead............he has previous credit as well..............So Dan is working his way up to a Platty I think.....;P

Bob and I hooked up this morning to run a bunch errands ........stuff I had to do and stuff we had to pick up for all the trees I'm having planted ( by Bob )............stakes and chain-lock...........we picked up all the landscaping supplies first...........then we went and got all my stuff done..........I had to go check the rat barn out and load up two rodent orders..........Robbie or I deliver rats to a local pet shop..........that was one of my orders...............and the other was a local "snake dude".............Chad..............I brought the rodents back to my place and Chad stopped by to pick them up............he wanted to see all the new snakes too.............so I showed his around...........I picked up a patch kit for my turtle pong today too..............my turtle pond is inside the house...........800 gallons maybe?...............anyway...........it sprung a leak!!..............a small leak.............but enough to keep the floor around it wet all the time............I had been putting off fixing it , hoping it would stop on it's own........no chance............it was a small hole near the top of the water level..............the hole has actually always been there..............I had a dab of silicone on it to keep it sealed...............one of the turtles must have ate the " dab"...............LOL...............so it opened the hole back up.............I drained the water level below the hole and patched it up.................of course I had to climb in the pond to do the work................the turtles were fascinated with my toes........;)..............so I got that fixed.................Bob finished planting all the new trees.

While I was up at the barn I seen Mr. John............he asked me to come up to his son's Glass shop ( above the rat room ) and check out a little "project" that he and his son did...........Phil and I installed an exhaust fan up in the glass shop this summer............it's in the side of the building...............well now it is letting the cold air in during the winter..........the built a nifty box around it with a door and weather stripping to keep it sealed up for the winter..........they had a gate latch on it...............it's pretty high up on the wall so they were using a broom handle to un-hook the latch and open the door when they needed to..............John wanted to know if there was a better way to open it.................and me being the genius that I am ( and knowing about gate latches )............I knew that there is a hole on the gate latch to attach a wire of string so that the gate can be opened by pulling it.................so I fixed him up with a piece of string attached to the gate latch..............the string hangs down and all they have to do is pull it to open it...............yepper..................."Don't try this at home"................LMAO!!..........always gotta keep Mr. John happy.......;)

Bob rolled out after the trees were planted.........Chad rolled out after the "grand tour"..............I fixed the pond..........then I started all my paper-work that I have been falling behind on..........this was not a normal Saturday for me..........I usually have all my "paper" done by Friday................I'm just behind..................get side-tracked and the work piles up!!.........Tracy called me today and we were talking about the Snow Ball project.............it's surprising that a VPI Snow was not hatched this year ( yet )...............I feel pretty lucky about that............she made me laugh.............she said that Dave had some advise for me..............he read on the journal that it took an hour for me to boil the water to cook the lobsters on the stove..............he said next time use a "turkey fryer".............the are heated by a flame ( propane).............I should have know that...............that's how we cook all the shrimp and crab legs for our parties...........it never even crossed my mind do do lobsters in...............so no matter how lame you think the journal is or that I may be "rambling on" .................you just might find something you need to know................or even something that you can help me with...........so THANKS VPI.............I would have never expected to get advice on cooking lobsters from you two........LOL..............I'll do that the next time for sure..............and thanks for reading the journal!..............on a side note......... Dan says that I "ramble", then copies my journal idea............but I take that as a compliment...........the journal has and will go "where no man has gone before "........soon there will be more journals to read from other reptile breeders............and I know this.........I'll be one step ahead though..........I don't mind being a leader.............where I'm going some may not follow.................from "Rock Star".........."get your own life. stop trying to be bloody elvis. except elvis was the king. and i'm just the queen. very funny. ha bloody ha. bastards. you bastards."......

I watched "Dreamcatcher" on pay per view.............it was pretty good.....kinda reminded me of "The Thing"..............but "The Thing" was way better.............that's one of my all time favorite movies.............it's hard to watch an alien movie where the alien's look like what we are all taught to think they look like..............big egg shaped heads and bug eyes...........but the story wasn't to bad................Morgan Freeman should have "passed" on this movie...............what a joke his character was...............do any of you remember way back when watch the show "The Electric Company"..................I watched that in the third and fourth grade I believe...............Morgan Freeman got his start on that show...............just a small trip down memory lane................I'm out................oh yeah........I know what's missing here in the journal...................a "for sale" plug every entry................tacky or classy??..............you decide..........I guess I am different..........

T went to a "girls party" today...............you know what I mean right?...............kinda makes a man feel reel insecure when they do that don't it?.................LMAO!! ..........the kiddies are with me...;).............The first thing we did today is get all the males set up back with the females...............I'm letting them breed all week!!...............Brook and Gump helped me...........they usually do if they are around...............I have all the males set up in a room that is slightly cooler than the rest of the facility ...........anyway..............I go back and get the male out of his cage,,,,,,,,then I schlep him back to the breeder room and put him with the appropriate lady....;)..........having Brooke and Gump do it with me lets me do it three times as fast!!.............we would go back to the "male room"...............I would hand each of them one male and his record card................then I would grab a male myself..............so we were moving three males out at a time................worked for me!!..............Brooke could care less..............but Gump thinks "he's the man"..............I forgot to give him a card with the male a few times...........he made sure that he corrected me on it too!!.............ROCK ON GUMP!!!.................so we got all the males fixed up nice with the ladies...............I'm not telling you guys how many males I have in the breeding program yet...............you might be surprised..................shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...........:)................after that I took the kids down to my Mom's house............Mom is learning the computer and the internet very slowly.........so today I decided to give her some email and internet lessons...............she wants to know how to save pictures of Elvis off the web............LOL...........and she has some friends on line now that she can email with...............so it's time to bring her up out of the dark ages...........:)...........The kids played while I showed Mom some tricks with the computer..........my dad got home from his furniture store and we all went out to a Japanese Steak House to eat.............if you ever get a chance to go to a Japanese Steak House............you should go...............the food is fantastic and most of all..........it's very entertaining............they cook the food right in front of you...........and they do all kinds of knife acrobatics.............it's a really cool time.................I talked to Brian from BHB Enterprises today............we just talked about this coming breeding season and what kinds of projects we are working on................Brian tells me that he has never seen somebody explode into the reptile world as well as I have.............that makes me feel pretty good..............:)..............even if I haven't been breeding snakes for 20 years...........like some of the nasty jealous people who like to take jabs at me...............I tell these people to "keep trying".......if your truly meant to succeed.............you will...............if you just plain have shitty Karma..............then forget about it.............YOUR DOOMED!!!...........it's all about karma people!!............try it once in awhile................just totally floor somebody by doing something unexpectedly nice to them.................BHB sounds like he has some great plans for 2004...........I'm very glad I was able to pick up the group of Pinstripes from him that I did...............Brian is really down to earth and is well aware of what is going on in the BP market..............he just likes to keep a low profile ...............unlike me!!................so bring it on BONERS!!.............getting back to my Mom............she was telling me while I was teaching her about the PC that some of her customers were reading my journal??................My mom is a hairdresser............she has her own shop like my wife T does.............anyway..............my Mom's customers have been with her ever since I was a real little boy.........all of her customers have been with her for almost 30 years..............they all have watched me grow up from a really little Boner to a great big Boner.............so I guess you figured out that these ladies are "older"............sorry Miss June!!..............and they all knew that I was into all kinds of creepy critters when I was little.............and they all know I'm still into the same stuff now.................critters, KISS, Star Wars...............nothing has really changed.............I'm still the Goob I've always been as long as I can remember...............it seems like yesterday I was in my bedroom with my hamster's habitrail running around the entire perimeter of my bedroom...............I had a major habitrail system going on..........glass aquariums all over the room filled with critters..........KISS stuff..........Star Wars stuff...............and look at me now..............the same stuff as I had 30 years ago...............it sure does pay off if you do it long enough don't it...............not to mention I've been dreaming of going back stage with KISS for almost 30 years..............and I'm going to be doing it this week!!!!............now I have no idea where this bit is leading???...........oh yeah...........my Mom's customers are reading my journal................and they are telling my Mom about it while they get their hair done..............well Mom does not know about my journal.............yep.............ain't I bad................so she goes on line and starts looking at my journal................my Mom's neighbors even read my journal??................NUTS!!.............then mom gets a look at the Halloween Party pics.................thank GOD she was out of town that week-end...........her customers had seen them too and thought they were a riot...............Mom does have cool customers....;)................so now my poor Mother has to listen to all that "did you see what Ralph did?........and did you see what Ralph wrote?".............while she is trying to do hair!!..............LOL.............anybody out there want to take this to radio??.............I'll bring in the sponsor's dollars!!!!................so what ever the hell all that was...............bottom line is that I go a lot of people reading my journal now that are family or close to the family..............I told T today that I would not be home during the day tomorrow because I will be cleaning the rat barn with Robbie................she said "I know.............I read it on your journal"................LOL.................I'm screwed now people!!!............T is emailing me messages to take out the trash on Tuesday mornings!!..............Unbelievable!!..........maybe we can make this into a movie one day?..................Howard Stern did............

Today was my first day back in the rat room "cleaning" in a long time............Robbie, Bob and I met up at the barn this morning and cleaned the hell out of it!!..............we started at 8:00 am and finished the place at 3:00pm..................7 hours DONE!!.............it felt damn good too.............Robbie has been doing the work by himself in two long days ( Mon and Tue ).............I got tired of it.............Robbie would keep saying that he didn't mind..............but I did.............it's just too damn long in the room!...............so I went and helped him get the place knocked out.............Bob was a big help too................Bob helped me do all the rat breeder groups, mice and feeding while Robbie did all the Mom tubs and weiners..........it worked out fine.................George even stopped by to water all the buckets!!............talk about a lot of help!!..............SWEET!!...........so we got the place done, swept up and blown out.............we loaded all the trash on my truck.............Bob and I went to the dump to get rid of it all.............we backed up to the dumpster like I have done a thousand times ...............unloaded all the trash.......as I was getting back in the truck I noticed that my front driver's side tire was flat??...................totally flat??...............it was fine when we came into the dump?...................so we drove down very slowly to a flat spot and changed the tire............which was a task in a half!!.............I had to look at the damn truck manual just to find out where the jack was?................then I had to read the manual again to figure out how the spare tire dropped down from under the truck?............I would have been screwed with out the manual ..........I even called my buddy Jimbo who works as a mechanic at a Chevy dealer to ask how to release the spare tire...........it takes a key!!!............talk about complex!!...............we finally got it all figured out and got the tire changed out..............there was a slice right in the side of the tire.............I must have run over something.............I have no idea what though?................I didn't even bother putting the jack and all the other funky tools that come with it back where they came from...............it was too much of a pain in the ass just finding where they were hiding.............then they are all clamped down in a "special way"...............I just said "screw it" and threw all the stuff in the back of the truck.........LOL...................I went to the place where I always get my tires and dropped off the bad tire.............they will replace it and call me when it's done..............we ate at home again tonight!!......whowhooooo..............you guys could probably care less..............but believe me..........it's a big event here when we eat at home...............T had no volley ball tonight ............there is a light fixture damaged and hanging from the ceiling in the gym that they play at..............so they can't play there until it is repaired.............and T loves her volley ball..............she'll be moody tonight!!........:P.........we watched Fear factor, Las Vegas and Average Joe............Fear Factor was pretty good.............until that big muscle bound beef cake lost??..................damn............he was trying to be the first "muscle dude" to take the cash............but he lost...............pretty bad too...............guess he had "fat fingers"..................Las Vegas is just the BEST!!.............Nessa " Ice Queen" Holt is the foxiest Chick on TV for me right now............ggdddderrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!............yeow!......and Average Joe............they were doing so good...............and they blew it.............they had to bring the good looking studs onto the show..................they ain't "Average Joe's".............they are mindless model boys.................TRUE BONERS!!...............I was just thinking how nice it was that the beauty might just hook up with one of these normal guys..............and then "they" walk in...........and boy ole' boy did the beauty's eyes light up...............damn!!...............I'll still watch it...........But I'm pissed................just like I'll be if Rupert doesn't go all the way on SURVIVOR!!..........I added "polls" to the RDR Forum............it's a feature that I never turned on before.............I got some emails about it , so I turned that option on............it's pretty cool ..........basically there is a question in the post.............and there can be up to eight categories to vote for...............kinda breaks up the bordem, and gets people involved..............Im sure there will be plenty of very entertaining polls once everyone's nasty little wheels get turning...................:)................I've been handing out passwords to the RDR Forum left and right................800 users...............and do you know that out of 800 people on the board, I've only had to ban three of them................two were related ....................Majority Rules!!.....................

Robbie and I fed the whole place today..............now that the rat barn is getting totally cleaned on Monday..............we can move everything up a day.............so now Tuesday's are feeding day............ we took our time feeding today..............Robbie has been working on switching a few of the mouse eaters over to rat pups.........and I fed all the adults .............including the pairs that were still together ................which again I say is risky business............you have to know what your snakes are going to do when you feed them together...............the main thing to know is if they both want to eat or not?...........usually the male don't want to eat..............and the female is up at the front of the box acting like she is starved...............but sometimes the males do show interest in eating...............so if they do you "should" separate them to feed..............I do not...............I will feed them both together.................I will actually hand them each the prey item off of a pair of hemostats................once they each coil the prey..............I pick the snakes up and place them at opposite sides of the cage from each other..............they will usually get done swallowing at the same time and not give you any problems...............but you need to watch them.................even if you feed a female and "think" the male is not interested in a meal.................he could come up and try to eat the prey item while the female is trying to eat............bottom line.............if you ever do this..............make sure you are paying close attention to what your snakes are doing.............I have become a master at this from feeding adult boa constrictors together...............and they are quite easy due to their ferocious feeding responces................so Robbie was working on the babies.........and I was working on the adults..............taking my time...........plus I really think pairs kick into the "funky monkey" right after a good meal........;)...............after feeding, Robbie took off..............I worked on the computer the rest of the day until it was time to pick up Brookie from Church.............I called Gail on my way there ...................battery died again too!!..............;P..............we had a great chat tonight...............the place was packed...........Tracy Barker even stopped in and talked with all of us.............the chat seems to be more popular now than ever...............tons of gossip to be told!!.............and "Loser Chat"..............perfect!! ................breeding is doing well...............I'm not going "hog wild".............I'm actually going very slow..........I'm trying to control my urge to put every possible pair of snakes I have to breed together!!................breath Ralph..............just try to relax and breath...............ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh................this ain't a contest........everyone already knows that your The "King of all Boners".................just relax and take it nice and sloooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww..................LMAO!!..............what a GOOF!!...............I'm out..............

PS. Always know what breeding pairs are actually "locked up" on feeding day............a female won't think twice about ripping herself off of a male to have a meal if she is hungry ( damn women )...............and if she does this..............the male is more than likely going to end up with an injured hemipeen..............and if that happens..............your boy will be out of commission for the rest of the breeding season................ouch!!...............be careful...........don't even go near the cage with food if the pairs are locked up and the female is alert enough to smell food in the air.......you can just look at a snake and know if they are "interested or not"...................and email me if you notice that your snakes like to "lock up" after a meal.................:)

Robbie got her this morning and we both pulled rat pups from the snakes that didn't eat over night ...............then Robbie started cleaning snakes...........he's liking this new schedule ( me too )...........:)..............I did paper-work and worked on the web all day.............phone calls and emails...............The other two Platinum Package KISS shirts came today!!.............so now we got all three ...............everything is a GO for tomorrow night!!..........I can't wait!!..............Fatty, George and I will have a night that I know we will never forget!!............We are having wicked winds today and major rain..............very odd weather for this time of year?...............but it's good because it will stimulate the hell out of the breeding pairs................they love rainy weather...............why?..............I have no idea..............I don't think they get much cold rainy weather in Africa............but if it works..............I'm lovin' it..............ball pythons and my boas for that matter start breeding like "clock work" when ever there is a quick drastic change in the weather..............that's why sometimes if the weather gets "stuck" in one pattern and the breeding slows down............I'll open the door and blow cool air through the room for a few minutes..............this works like a charm!!..............but don't do it to the point where you chill the place down so much that the room can't recover............you just want to thin out the hot humid air and freshen' the place up................your snakes will understand ................trust me.....;)..................I opened up a new ball python room today.............it is not password protected...............so anyone can see it, post on it or read it............yes I'll ban your ass if you do stupid shit.............use your common sense and you'll be fine...............and don't try to sell any snakes!!............that means linking up to a "for sale" page too...............no threats..............no porn..............and no language that you can't hear on TV...........pretty basic stuff to the average normal person................just a new place to have fun...............it is by no means taking place of the RDR Forum............that is the "real deal".........everyone is "family" there...........the new forum should do well................enjoy it and be helpful!!............

Well the new ball python forum is kicking ass!!................it looks like people are really enjoying it and having fun.............it also has "polls"...............people seem to love polls...............:)............I see a few new faces in there...............most are already RDR Forum members...........but some are new.............that's good to see.....:)..........Robbie is here cleaning................he decided to cut out of here early yesterday to get some personal stuff done he had to do.............he asked if I minded if he came back Thursday and finished up on Friday............I had no problem with that...........he has a week to do his work...............as long as the rats get done on Monday and the feeding gets done on Tuesday...............I don't care how he divides up the work of cleaning the snakes............Bob is here staking more trees today.............that wind storm we had this week did a number on some of the ones he just planted............but they'll be fine once they are staked..............he is going to stake every tree on the property for the winter to give them a chance to settle back in ...............hurricane Issy kicked the crap out of my trees!!.............Today is the day PEOPLE!!.............today is the day that my dream will finally come true.................meeting KISS back stage!!!!.............up close and personal!!..............I'm still a wreck.......I haven't eaten all day............I'm scared to.....I'm afraid that I will either puke or crap my pants at the show.............so I figure I better go there "empty"................yep.................a true BONER!!..........I did office work all day............and took a bunch of calls...............Fatty and George will be here soon............we are leaving here at 4:00 pm..............the concert starts at 8:00 pm.................there will be an opening act.............then KISS...............and then back stage!!...................HOLY SHIT!!!............I think Aerosmith will be playing too.............but who cares.......;P

Fatty and George are here.................we are heading out to fulfil our dreams.............I think this means more to George than any of us.............he "Lives KISS"..............from having one of the best KISS collections on the east coast............to playing Ace in the KISS tribute band "Love Gun"......to having his own tribute band dedicated to Ace called "Loaded Deck"............to running the Baltimore KISS Convention each year.................I'm glad he's doing this with us..................Fatty and I are just along for the ride.........LOL................NOT!!................I'm out people!!................I'll be a "changed man" when I get home................if I even come home?..................I may talk to Doc McGee and get a job picking out all the hottest looking babes to come back stage with KISS ..................doubt that would work very long though............not unless the guys from KISS like big butts!!!...............later people!!..................ROCK ON!!.................

Well we did it!!...........it was everything I could have wanted and more!! .................we left my place yesterday at 4:00 pm.............it took us a couple hours to get to the MCI Arena in DC.............we took my dually and that wasn't the smartest thing to do............the streets in DC are pretty narrow and "Mable" was tight!!.............we got there and found a parking garage..........so we drove down inside of it and were stopped by the attendant...............he said that the truck was TOO BIG to park in their garage............it was 20 bucks to park there...........so we told him that we would pay for two parking spots...........and he agreed......40 bucks.........LOL..............so we made our way down into the parking garage...........the ceiling was very low................we kept poking our heads out of the truck to make sure we were not going to rip the roof off................there was one spot in the garage that there was one inch of clearance between the ceiling and my On-Star antena............it was crazy!!............we found a spot to park ........gathered up all our gear and headed to the arena ........George had his bag of " Kiss Goodies" a bunch of stuff that he brought to get signed..............I had my bag of goodies too................four cameras.............my digital, Fatty's digital and two disposables ...............I had a pair of KISS shorts with all the members faces on it to be signed and the original KISS comic that was printed with some of band member's blood mixed into the ink..............Fatty had a vintage pic to get signed.............I was a wreck going in because I knew that we would be searched...............and I didn't think that cameras would be allowed in the arena..............so we got to the main entrance where they stopped you and searched your body and bags..............the dude stops me and asks to look in my bag.............he asked if I had a camera?...........I was sooo busted!!...........so I opened my bag for him to look in............I had the KISS shorts on top and some other KISS stuff scattered in the bag..............he looked right at FOUR CAMERAS and said OK.........me and Fatty just looked at each other in disbelief??.............George came in after us and breezed right through..............the guard had to be blind?...............or just didn't care??...............so we made it through the "search"............then we had to go to this special ticket window to pick up our Platinum Passes and information about the "meet and greet" after the show...........that went smoothly...............we each got a back stage pass to hang around our necks............and we each had to sign a waiver releasing any liability from the band if we get injured back stage............from tripping, slipping or getting electricuted!!.............stuff like that............we all signed with pride......;)..............we were early.......and we were hungry.............so we went to our seats first to check them out.............they were in the second row!!..............maybe 8 feet from the front of the stage.............we were so happy to see how close we were...........we were on "Paul's side of the stage".................I was totally stoked!!...............we were so close!!..............so we seen our seats and headed up to get something to eat..........I was afraid to eat but I did anyway..........we got pizza,sodas and soft pretzels.................we took them back to our seats to eat...........the first band went on ............they are a new band out of Philly called "Auto Matic Black" ............they were great!!..............a very young bunch of guys..........I was surprised that they were so good.............their families were there up at the front of the stage cheering them on and taking pictures............I snapped a few pictures of them too..............I looked at Fatty and George and said " They are allowing us to take pics"...............SWEET!!.............there were security guards all over the place............one every 6 feet at the front of the stage and a ton of them running around the concert hall..............I was scared to death to take my bulky digital camera out..........but when I saw everyone taking pics of Auto Matic Black I figured it was cool..............I couldn't wait to get some pics of KISS.............so the opening band went off stage............then the KISS crew came on and got the stage all set up for KISS to play...............they dropped this huge curtain with the KISS logo on it.............I snapped a practice pic of it to see how it would look shooting from the angle I was at...............I didn't want to be "obvious" that I was taking pics..........it wasn't going to work...........to get good pics I would have to flat out take the camera out and expose it to anyone who was watching............so the time came for KISS to come on................we could see Paul though the curtain checking his guitar and amp..............it was so spooky.............he was right there!!................we could have touched him................then they announced KISS................"You wanted the best!!..............you got the best!!.................the hottest band in the world!!...................KISS!!!".........the curtain dropped and they opened the show with Detroit Rock City.............George and I each had our cameras out...........he was using a very small disposable..........I was using my Nikon 5700............so we are hearing the intro to Detroit.............and the stage is empty??...............KISS was above us!!.............they were lowered down on a platform with cables!!.........I felt like a BONER.............I didn't even see them at first...............so I hurried up and snapped a few pics...............so did George...........the guards were watching us the whole time giving us the "evil eye" .............earlier while the opening act was playing, the guards told us that they didn't "think" we could take pics??.............."Think" was the "key word"..........LOL...............so we would snap a few shots and then hide the cameras ..................George was way better at it than I was................my Nikon was just too damn big and bulky to hide.............they looked awesome .............these guys are in their fifties!!.............Paul was in unbelievable great shape..............and so was Gene..............they were so close and playing perfectly............they made eye contact with all of us down in the first few rows............it felt very "personal" to be so close................Paul is an incredible front man..............he had the crowd in the palm of his hand................I was screaming my ass of at the band and singing every song as loud as I could...........it was so loud!!!...........so we were snapping pics ever so often, when the coast was clear.............I had just snapped one of Gene when I felt a tap on my shoulder..........yepper..............it was a security guard..............asking me to come with him.............he said that I was not supposed to be taking pics and that I had to come with him...............so being a nervous wreck I followed him for a few feet.............then I said "screw this".............I told him to just take my pic disk from the camera................so he took it and I turned to go back to my seat..............then I said "screw this" again!!..............I went back to the guard and told him that I was not the only one snapping pics............Gene and Paul seen me pointing a camera at them.............they did not seem to mind..............so I took my pic disk out of his hand and put it back in my camera.............he was pissed!..........I told him that I would delete the pics in front of him..............so I switched the camera to "view pics mode" and deleted the last pic I took.................he thought I wiped out the whole disk and was satisfied ..........LOL....................SUCKER!!!........:P.........so I got out of that one smelling like a rose..............and yes I put the camera back in my bag and let George take the rest of the pics with his disposable camera...............he was a master at it!!..............he would hurry up and snap a shot............with the flash too!!.............then he would stuff the camera down in his pants!!................we got some great shots!!....................so we watched the whole show...............they did all my favorite songs..............Gene breathed fire at the end of "Fire House"...............he spit blood before"God Of Thunder"................Peter did " Beth" and "Black Diamond"..................Paul was just amazing to watch.............he was right there in front of us...........cool as a cucumber ...............hardly any sweat...............Gene was sweating like a pig...............the show was totally awesome!!...............The best show I have ever seen KISS do............and the closest I've ever been to them...............I was totally satisfied just to be that close to the stage.................but it was gonna get better!!.................they ended the show with ole faithful......"Rock And Roll All Night"....................Paul broke his guitar at the end..........I moved up close hoping he would toss it out to me................but he didn't toss it out at all................must be a liability thing?.............everyone wants to sue everybody else over something lame............Paul did do a really memorable thing during the show...............there were two girls right behind us..............both blondes............they were "Rocker Chicks"..............Kiss groupies for sure.................well Paul got one of them to pull her boobs out............and she kept them out for the whole song .........bouncing them all around..........I could barely notice though.........LOL..................yeah right!!.............I turned around for a free bobbie shot again and she is passed out on the ground??...............her friend didn't even try to help her..............this girl was passed out on the floor laying there with her boobs hanging out!!............I could tell that she was OK.............she was just messed up on something?...............so she laid there a little while................then she got back up................now here shirt was ripped and the buttons were all busted off..................so what does she do??...................she let them boobs of hers hang out and she watched the show!!.............LMAO!!!.................Rock On Girl!!.................she was kinda skanky...........but hey............boobs are boobs................Paul seen the whole thing and was laughing up on stage..................I'm sure he get's to see stuff like this everyday of his life..............so the show ended............we had instructions on where to go for the "meet and greet" after the show.............we were to immediately go to the other end of the arena and meet some dude named Jeffrey...............he was the Kiss hospitality dude................

Some of the other highlights of the show were watching how much Gene spit on the stage ...........besides having one of the longest tongues in the world...............I think he could kick ass in a lugie spitting contest...............I bet he could spit a hefty lunger twenty feet!!.............I guess he works up some good spit from spitting the fire and blood..............he is AWESOME!!!....................my HERO!!!

So we packed up our gear and made our way back to meet Jeffrey ...........there were probably forty people lined up to meet KISS backstage ...............twelve of us had paid the thousand bucks to get the Platinum Package........Fatty, George and I were three of the twelve ..........Jeffrey collected everyone's signed waivers of release..............and had us all follow him back through the corridors single file.............I was scared to death!!...............we all ended up in a wide hallway where he lines us up against the wall and told us what to expect...............he said that the band would probably sign anything that we asked them to sign and to be courteous to others and not "hog up" the band members..........some of the people back stage waiting had already met KISS before at other shows and said that they were totally cool and that they would sign autographs and talk with us all one on one...............I was so stoked!..............I was shaking...............so we waited there and Jeffrey talked with us telling us what to expect..............he was a really cool guy.............he told us how we would get all the "picture taking" over with first.............each person got two professional pics taken with the band...............the pics would be super high quality for printing and blowing up...............he said that we would get an email notification to a link where all of our pictures would be......we could save them to disk right off the website.................that sounded great.............and very simple.............so we were just waiting some more when all of the sudden Peter Criss comes around the corner.............then Gene.......then Paul and Tommy Thayer ( Ace's replacement )...............Peter was all happy and laughing............he said "wow.............you guys paid a thousand bucks to see us?"................he seemed surprised that a fan would pay that to see them................then Gene had a mouth full of fruit juice that he spit on the floor towards us as he came in........they were all smiling and very relaxed................they didn't seem larger than life...........just normal people hanging out.........much smaller than I would have expected too..........and they were in full make-up and gear.............Gene was by far the tallest one..........so we went right into taking pictures as soon as the band settled .........George was second to pose with the band............I was third and Fatty was fifth............I get up there with the band and Gene took notice to my Kiss Shorts.............he reached down and asked me "what I had in there?"..........he touched my balls people!!........I swear to GOD!!.........I waited 30 years for that!!...............he was totally cool............I don't think he had seen these shorts before...............so then I asked him to choke me for the first picture...............he obliged....;)............I could feel the sweat and sticky blood on his hands as he put them around my throat................I was in pure heaven!!................Gene Simmons actually touched me!!!................the second shot, Gene took it upon himself to put his finger in my ear...............he was great!...............I was so pleased with the way they acted.........I was just totally "star struck" after the second pic...........but I was more relaxed too..........Fatty came up and got his pics taken...............then we we all waited and watched as everyone got their pics taken with the band...............just watching them pose and goof off with each person was great..............Gene changed his pose every pic...............he is the greatest!!!...............he had a towel that he was using to wipe his sweat, blow his nose and wipe all the excess blood from his chest............George was eyeing it up too..........:)..............so after everyone got their pics taken .................Jeffrey cut us loose and let us all mingle with the band ...............everyone had stuff to get autographed................and the band signed everything.............Fatty and I each got our T-shirts that we were wearing signed.............I got and extra pair of KISS shorts signed...........and my KISS comic book.............George got a bunch of rare KISS memorabilia signed................Fatty got a rare picture signed..............each member was outstanding ...........Tommy Thayer was very eager to sign stuff..............he wasn't very famous before replacing ACE.............it was a shame that ACE quit the band............he is George's Idol...............My favorite was Gene...............he was the best and I felt the most relaxed talking too...............then Peter...............George and I "pitched" to Peter that we want him to come and do the next Baltimore KISS convention...............he said we couldn't afford him, in a joking way................he said he wanted to do his own convention............we said we would pay him a lot of money..............he said " I already have a lot of money"............LOL.............but he was totally cool the whole time.............Paul seemed a little "distant".............almost shy............but he signed everything for us with a smile............these guys are PROS at autographs..........they are fast...............and each signature looks the same every time they sign.............I brought my own pens for them to use................I'm gonna have them framed...........along with everything else I got signed at the show............the time was way to short............it all lasted about an hour...............it would have been nice to talk with the band more............but everyone was hurrying around trying to get stuff signed ................I think the "meet and greet" would be better before the show..............I'm sure the band was tired after the show............after all............they are all old enough to be my pop!!.............so Jeffrey told us all that it was over............that's when I noticed that Peter had signed his name on my KISS shorts over Paul's face??..............they each sign according to where their face or body or what ever pertains to them on the merchandise................well Peter messed up and signed on Paul's face...........so I had two signatures on Paul's face and none on Peter's.............they were leaving and I asked Peter to please sign the shorts...........he said "I did"..............I said you did it in the wrong spot................he laughed and said "give me the pen"................then as Gene was leaving I asked him to hit me in the head for good luck...............he obliged again................WOW!!..............and just like that..............they were gone............a dream fulfilled people!!................I know a lot of you thinks KISS sucks.............but they have been my idols ever since I was in the fourth grade..............I looked up to them and have respected them my entire life................I like what they stand for..............and I love the way they promote themselves.................KISS RULES!!............it's a total way of life!!

Jeffrey gathered us all up and lead us back out to the arena..............we each got a signed tour guide for the show...............hand signed by all four band members.............we also got signed guitar picks.............so for a grand each...............we got a hell of a lot of stuff.............it was worth it just getting to see the band so close on stage and be back stage for me...............a moment in my life that is totally burned into my brain...............Life is good!!...............so after that we went out to the arena........Aerosmith was on stage singing "Toys in the Attic"..........we went back to our seats and watched them for a few minutes............we looked at each other and said " lets get outa here"....................we rolled out...............the whole drive home we were remembering things and saying" Aerosmith Who"..................LOL...............I like Aerosmith..............we were just ready to leave after that awesome experience!!...................Oh yeah.................that girl who pulled out her boobs.................she was back stage too...............and she got pics with the band................she didn't have a Platinum Pass?.................so I have no idea how she got back there.................but she got to do it all just like we did................it's good to have BOOBS!!..................I was watching as Paul signed her Boob...............he drew a star around her nip and then signed her Boob!!............what a night!!..............then George was talking with Gene and noticed that Gene threw his towel on the floor...............George asked Gene if he could have it............Gene said "sure"............so George had Gene sign that bloody, boggered up nasty towel........LMAO...............that towel is worth thousands now!!!................also...............nobody even thought to take any pics while we were back stage??...............It never crossed my mind until I got in the truck for the ride home..............the rules said no video cameras...............but nobody was taking pics?...........it would have been good to get a pic of George getting Gene to sign that nasty towel for authenticity purposes...........LOL...............we know it's Gene's towel George!!...........boggers and all!!

As far as today...........like you even care now after reading all this garbage about KISS..............my ears are ringing pretty bad..............Robbie is finishing up all the snake cleaning................Bob is out working on more landscaping for me..............I received the link to the KISS pics from last night...............they turned out awesome..............I saved them all to disk and printed Fatty's, George's and mine out using T's picture printer.............they look really good..............George stopped by today and gave me a present............he had a shot that he snapped of Gene last night blown up and framed for me.............what a guy!!..............I love it George!!.......Thanks!..........he had all the pics he snapped on that disposable camera put on a disk..........so I copied all the pics onto my PC so that I can put them in the journal...........you guys are going to see some great pics.......some from George............some from me..................and the professional quality ones from back stage.............Fatty stopped by after work ...........we printed out his two pics to take home.................I have to say that T's printer kicks ass!!...........I knew I should have kept that one and given her my old one........LOL........;P.................

Robbie noticed that my Paradox Albino male was breeding his mother today while he was cleaning ( man that sounded sick? )...............I'm also trying to breed him to his albino sister..............it sure would be great to prove out the "Paradox Gene"...............I wanted to snap a pic of it real quick and forgot..............I'll catch them next time..............this is the first time he has locked up with his mom since I started breeding..............he has been a slow starter..............I guess all that rain and wind got him horned up!!...............I'm way to far behind on my paper-work this week..............I had so much other stuff "come up" this week that I just got "swamped"..............it is 11:49 pm right now...............and I'm pretty close to being finished all the writing of the journal..........I got plenty of KISS pics to re-size and get in here..........I'm still a wreck just thinking about what we did..............it will be so much easier next time we go back stage....................right guys?.................:)

Now I'm going to cry like a big baby!!.................last night was one of the best nights in my life..............and I come home and it was also the worst ( kinda ).............I was so wired last night that I came home and posted a couple pics of KISS up on the RDR Forum before heading up to bed...............so I did that........then I went up to bed and couldn't sleep.............so I popped in the SURVIVOR tape.............I'm sick about the whole damn thing people!!................RUPERT is Gone!!...............he got voted off last night........I wanted him to win so damn bad............I knew he probably couldn't..............but I did expect him to get further than being the second member of the jury??.................It was a conspiracy!!.............Rupert was getting "cocky".............but not really to the other tribe members...........only to the camera..............and Burton!!..............he makes me sick!!..............he shouldn't even be on the show!!.............and that goes for Lil too!!..................Rupert got outsmarted big time last night..............I know he was surprised.............and so was Christa and Sandra.............Lil totally turned me off last night.......she stabbed Rupert in the back!!...........and Jon.............what a total LOSER!!!............how this man has stayed on the island this long is beyond me??..............every damn thing he says "happens"................he knew Rupert was going home.............I was shocked..........I expected Lil to be on Rupert's side...............she is going to get crapped on now............just watch.............Burton will kick her to the curb............I'm just totally shocked and pissed off............I get to meet KISS............come home wanting to see Rupert kick some ass...........and he gets voted off???..........that's OK though............shit happens!!...........Rupert will be the "All Star Survivor"................he will get his own survival show and make millions from all of this................I love ya RUPERT!!............you were just too damn strong for your won good BIG BOOYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEE!!.....

So there it is guys...........I swear this journal is getting longer and longer each month...........and I'm becoming one hell of a typer...............with only two fingers!!...............so copy this all you want BONERS!!,,,,,,,,,,,,,,why don't ya come up with something good that I can copy damn it!!..........we're all the same.............pics, lists of morphs and prices..............blah, blah, blah..............soon it will be pics, list of morphs, prices and journals...............LMAO..............what will Ralph come up with next?...........well don't you worry folks............it's already done.............ain't nobody gonna "out wit or out last" me......................Have A Great Weekend Everyone!!..............and when Gene Simmons touches your balls..............you better damn right appreciate it!!...........Rock On!!.................and thanks to everyone for welcoming the new forum..............

I got some good sleep last night finally................too much KISS on the brain!!..............I got up and got some stuff done in the snake room .............checked on the breeders............I have to move all the males around tomorrow .............I try to do that every two days........give them a "new girl" to visit................even if they have visited her before.............it's still "new" to them....;)..........Brooke had her "first confession" at Church today............so the family and I went there for that........all the kids did it as a group..............I remember having to go to "confession" as a kid.............I was always so scared to do it.............then I would want to lie about everything bad that I did once I got in front of the priest........LOL................I was usually pretty honest though..............it was always that I was being to mouthy towards my parents............."Imagine that".................after Church I went up to the rat barn to water the buckets on the rat holder bins............I seen that Mr. John and his son Michael were over at Mr. John's Mom's house doing some work.............so I stopped by to see what they were doing?..........Mr. John told me that two nice older ladies would be renting the house..............so he bought new appliances and a few new kitchen cabinets...........he and Mike were working on the kitchen cabinets when I showed up.............I helped them fasten down the counter top..............then I installed the dishwasher for them................and then Mr. John asked to to hang a new medicine cabinet for him.............I was only going to go check the rats and then get my but back home so I could finish the journal..............but that didn't happen...............I ended up helping them.....:)..............my Sea Doos are in the garage of the house that John is renting out..............so we hooked them up to Mike's four wheeler and moved them to another garage...............I worked with them a few hours...................then I rolled out and did some shopping for supplies, I was already late to finsih the journal..........I figured I would just be "good and late"..............so I replaced all the light fixtures in my Neodesha cages today............I keep my adult boas in the Neos..............by the time I got home and finished putting the light fixtures in and checking my mail, T called and said she would be home in fifteen minutes...............and for me to be ready to go out to eat!...............so I didn't get a damn thing down on the journal today like I wanted to..............I couldn't have you guys panicking on me.....;).............so we went and had dinner..............I'm at the computer right now at 8:33 pm............I have to finish today's entry and then I still have to size all the pics for the jouranl..............I may have this thing up on the net by midnight??................LOL..............T is upstairs doing her paper-work.............the kids are playing on their computer...........it's nice and quiet..........shhhhhhhhhhh..........I just ate a couple "munchkins" from Dunkin Doughnuts.............I'm fired up and ready to go!!.................so I'm gonna end it here.............looks like I'll be about a day and a half late with this week's entries ...............blame it all in KISS!!!...............

Check out these two links that one of the RDR Forum members did up last week............these are too funny!>>> Jungle >>> Boner Bash....................Great work Gary!!

Mom came by this morning to take the kids to church......T went shopping...............looks like we are going with a fake Xmas tree this year..............the cats will be depressed...........they love pissing all around the damn thing!!..........:).........after T is done shopping and Mom gets back from church with the kids they are all going to start making Xmas cookies down at my Mom's house...........they do it every year............they make a couple thousand "italian Xmas cookies"...............and boy are they good!!..............my Mom has been making them for as long as I can remember..........it's a tradition!..............I worked with the breeders most of the day............moving males around, I also set up some "groups"............2 males and 3 females in one tub...........T got some bad news today about her uncle Ricky.............he was down Big Rock cutting up some limbs with a chainsaw............the chainsaw kicked up and cut his pinky and ring finger on his left hand............he ended up with a bunch of stitches.............the doctor said that his wedding band helped save his fingers from coming off!!...................after I did all that I could do with the breeders, I did some office work............I filled out an application for CITES, filled out some rebates for all T's computer stuff I bought.................:)............I'll be keepin' those rebates too!........;P.......we are having dinner down at Mom's when they get done with all the cookies............I went to George's place for a couple hours to watch "Love Gun" practice.............they have a new " Gene"...............his name is Denny................he sounded really good.............I can't wait to see him in make-up...............they are practicing for a show that is coming up...............I made it to Mom's just as they were finishing up the cookies..............Thank God!!................I ate a dozen before dinner......;)..................we had a nice spaghetti dinner and relaxed afterwards..............then we all came back home.............I wanted to get home in time to watch The Spice Girls " Behind The Music"................yes I love the Spice Girls!!...............how could you not??...............it was an OK show.............but they only talked with Ginger and Sporty Spice.............you know when they don't talk with all the people in the group that there is "still" BIG Problems in the band..............looks like there won't be any "Spice Girls Reunion Tour".............according to Sporty Spice anyway..............maybe I'll get back-stage passes for that.........hmmmmmmmmm?.........

Rat barn today...............Robbie the Robot, Bob and me...............we got the place knocked out by 2:30...........we're getting quicker..............and boy are the rats kicking ass!!............I swear they breed and produce better when they know I'm around.....;)...........George stopped by after work and watered all the buckets for us..............it was weird to.............we had been using the water all day to clean up.............as soon as George got there the water stopped working?..........we found out that Mr. John hired a plumber to do some work on the house he is renting out.............so George had to wait a half hour before he could water the buckets..........we were almost done cleaning at that time anyway............so we just shot the poop for awhile............I had to thin out the holding bins anyway...............we have tons of small rats!!...........I came home and answered a bunch of emails today..............I kinda let a bunch stack up over the week-end...............business is really good................there is no "shortage" of interest in Ball Pythons.............that's for damn sure!!.............I got all my emails answered, then I went down to Mom's to pick up Brookie and Gump.............Fatty had been working at Mom's earlier today..............he replaced all the treads and risers on her carpeted steps with solid oak...............he did a really great job!!...............we replaced Mom's stair railings awhile back with oak and now we are doing the steps to match.............she said that's all she wanted for Xmas!!!................you reading this Mom?.....;).............so I brought the kiddies home..........T is working tonight............no volleyball because of school conferences............she worked today because of being off on Thanksgiving...........so the kiddies and I watched "Family Fear Factor"............and it was great!!..............the mother and daughter team that Brooke and I liked, won!!................they beat out a Marine dad and his daughter...............and an obnoxious Father / Son team..............Rock On Ladies!!............the show was an hour and a half.........no Las Vegas tonight?................then there was "Average Joe".................the beauty actually voted off one of the "studs" tonight!!..........I thought he was a weirdo when they had their little "date".............well obviously she though so too..............he's gone!!...........she also voted off one of the "Joes"..................so now we have two "Joes" and two "studs"................who's it gonna be??...........

Robbie is feeding the snakes today............Bob is out working in the yard................man it's great to have a "yard keeper"......LMAO!!...............not really.............but it sounded good..........I'm just keeping Bob busy during the cold months until he can get his Landscaping business started back up in the Spring...........so that means lots of new stuff planted in my yard!!............I separated all the breeding pairs first thing this morning so that we could feed them all...........there were a few pairs still "locked up" so I let them be............but everyone else got separated.........I had a lot of Construction work to do today............bidding work and making phone calls.................you guys don't hear much about the Construction Company..............it works like this............Fatty and his two helpers ( Rick and Dougie ) do all the work in the feild..............and I do all the work in the office.............I used to be in the field and the office..............as the reptile business picked up I need to be in the office and around the snakes more often...........and now that it has become so successful and is actually a "daily job", I rarely go out into the field unless it is to help Fatty stay on schedule.............it works out great ...........although it was a heck of a lot easier when I went to work every day with Fatty..........:)...............So I got my office work done, then I went out to get all my errands done............I went to the dump, got my spare tire put back on down at the tire place...............then I went up to the rat barn to set up a bunch of new mouse breeder groups................yepper..............the mice are doing so well that I can start new groups from the "wieners"..............George's wife Mel stopped by on here way home from work while I was working...........I think she has found her second home............"The rat barn"..........she just loves rats!!.............and it's all because George got that baby ball python from me ( Lester )..............if he wouldn't have done that, she would have never seen all my rats!!................once she seen the barn she was hooked...............I think she wants a job?..........LOL...............she hung out for awhile , then left.............I got all the mice set up, I packed an order for a guy who would be stopping by the house later,,,,,,,,and then cleaned up my mess................then I road across the lane to Mr. John's..............he was working on his Mom's place............he has people moving it to rent soon.............he was in the bathroom stripping glue off the floor with gasoline!!...............the house reeked of GAS.............damn farmers!!..............that's what I call "farmer mentality"............the gas did work.............but the house will probably need to be aired out for a week!!.........LOL.................I think I'm coming down with the flu????........

Robbie is here cleaning..........Bob is out working on all my shrubs............he is getting everything trimmed up and raking up all the leaves............:)..........I think I have a "bug" of some kind trying to invade my body??................I felt bad yesterday towards the end of the day.............I feel pretty bad today too.............it's in my stomach I think?............I just don't feel "myself"............I have no appetite and my head feels "wozzy"..............LOL.............that will go over BIG tomorrow..............:)..........I got some inventory and office work done today..........we have too many rats at the barn............so I called an old customer that doesn't get many rats from me anymore and asked him if he could take 300 smalls?..............he said he could use them...........so I met him out at the barn today at lunch time...........he took 300 rats.............I could have given him another 300 to make room!..................cold weather setting in must kick the rats into "breeding mode"...............but I think they are just happy to see me again on cleaning day.......;).........after that I went over to Mr. John's rental house and measured up for a new Bilco door...............these are the flat metal doors that you lift up to go down in the basement on some houses ( older ones )...........I'm going to order one for him and then install it..............he's going "all out" for the new tenants!!...............just think.............he wanted me to turn the house into a snake facility .......LOL...............I was considering it too!!.............feeling majorly BLAHHHHHHHH...........I stopped by the store and got something to eat.............I wasn't hungry though..........I haven't been sick in a very long time................years and years.............so now I'm a wuss!!.............MEN!!................I was on my way back home and Mel called me to see if she could get some rats for "Lester"...............so I turned around and met her back up at the barn...............she could have got the rats herself............but I wanted to meet her there and show her a few things about "checking the rat barn"...............she offered to help me keep an eye on the place when I go away..............so I figured I would start teaching her today....;).................she works just down the road from the barn.............she has to pass it every day............so this may work out nice................I showed her how to check for floods and what to do if you get a flood.........just stuff that needs to be checked every day...........I think she "got it".................:)............then I finally went home............Fatty stopped by..........I gave him my NIKON 5700 that has been in the repair shop twice!! ( I just got it back for the second time ).............I have two 5700's............we took a couple "test pics" with it.............it seems to be working OK.............so now Fatty has himself a 5700...........Fatty left and I crashed on the couch..............I feel like SHIT!!...........I don't want to do anything...............

I got up early and did all the "water work"..........that's cleaning all the turtle filters and topping off the ponds and tanks with fresh water........I got word today about a very dark Nicaraguan Boa that is in the country..........of all days too!!.............I asked for some pics to be emailed to me...............and sure enough it was a very dark black boa with black eyes too!!.............it is a female..........she was being raised overseas for awhile .........raised from a baby...........she looks to be a couple feet long now.............so I would say she is a year old...........I'm always looking for something new..............but I didn't think it would be a boa?...........so I bought her...........in the pics she looks to be a perfect example of a hyper melanistic boa............very interesting for sure...............I will post better pics of her when she arrives next week...............I'm pretty excited about it now...........I haven't really picked up any cool new boas lately................I do have a killer pair of Central American boas ( type 2 anery / striped )..............and a sweet looking Hypo Central American Boa............I've been broadening my boa collection a little at a time............I prefer working with the smaller boas............;)...........Yes I'm still feeling bad................I ate a couple times and crashed on the couch ALL DAY.............what a GOOB..........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...............I love to eat on the Holidays........this is depressing ..............I hope you all had a great day!!.................I'll live...............

Yes I'm a total big WUSS this week................the journal sucks!!...............This I know!!..........I'm pretty damn lucky when it comes to getting sick...............but not this time............I'm feeling about the same................not "pukie" or anything............just an upset stomach, tired and really weird in the head?? ( don't say it )..............probably typical "flu symptoms"...............but I wouldn't know..............I rarely ever get sick..........I'm alright though............I just ain't doing much!!.............I bet I got sick from meeting KISS!!.............yeah that's gotta be it?................LOL................it was worth it!!.............Robbie is back cleaning for a few hours............it's raining it's ass off, so Bob ain't around............T went shopping and I have the kiddies...........lucky me........:)..............I wrote some of the journal today and started feeling tired.............so I stopped..............I do have some great pics of the 03 "Platty Daddy" babies, 03 Butter, 03 Lesser, 03 Pastel Lesser and 03 Blonde Pastel Lesser............the "platty daddys" are looking awesome!!..................they may be better than Pop?...............I swear on my Grandmother! j/k!.................LMAO!!.............was SURVIVOR totally off the hook on Wednesday night or what?.................Jon has simply made history...........it's as simple as that..............hate him all you want folks ( I want to ring his neck ).......he is very "sly"...................the chance of him winning the million are zero if you ask me.........but he is still on the show??................how???.............I would have voted Burton off this week..........I think they want Jon on the show so that they CAN win the million .............anyone going up against Jon for the million is gonna win it..............the Jury won't award him the bucks!!.............they can't!!...........the girls should have voted Burton off.............that might have been their last chance to do it.............and Lil..............is Lil looking stupider every episode?.......a real CHICK BONER!!!............does this women have a brain?.............and Sandra dumping the fish in "Rupert's Honor"??.................then letting Christa take the heat??...............I like Sandra............but I think she should have fessed up right there.............I know she was just trying to save her own ass.............but that was worng............the show is getting damn interesting folks!!...............I wonder when the other tribe members will find out about Jon's lie?..............and for that matter..............what did Jon really get out of it??.................nothing at all...............he got to spend time alone at the Balboa camp??...........that reward sucked if you ask me??...........is he gay??...........it may have even been written in the script folks..............I hate to say it, but I wouldn't be surprised one bit, if some stuff we see is " written in" to spice it up.............and we will never know!!..............I think the penalty of blabbing about what goes on behind the scenes on SURVIVOR is DEATH!!..............anyway..............I'm sick.............the journal sucks..............I didn't do much of anything this week that amounted to crap!!.............have a GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!!..........don't catch the FLU!!...............I'm out!!.............

I slept until 11:00 am ..............I felt pretty good when I got up.............but as soon as I started walking around I felt bad again..............I'm gonna go see the doctor next week if it doesn't go away...............I figured it would be gone by now??..............give me a sign LORD!!.............well it could be worse I guess...............I could be puking and crappin' my ass off..............and that ain't happened yet.......LOL..................I just feel run down as all hell!!................but I'm still writing ain't I folks!!..............ROCK ON!!................buuuuuurrrpppppppppp!!..............;)..............I got showered and went down stairs.............I did some work with the snakes..............LMAO!!...............I put two pairs of snakes together................that's it!!..................whooooooowhooooooooo!!..........I almost broke my neck trying not to squash "Chester"..............he is a little deformed box turtle that runs around in the snake facility...............he has free run of the place...............well today he came out of nowhere .............I felt him with my foot as I stepped down...............so I shifted my weight and crash landed................I yelled at him for it................he just turned and walked away??..................pooping as he was walking away no less!!................damn CHESTER!!...............show me any other box turtle who has free run of a snake facility!!.............ungrateful!!...........I just recently let him do this.............he kept trying to get out of his cage..............and he was always acting restless..................so I figured he would like running around................and boy does he.............the kids get a kick out of coming down and trying to be the first to find him...............he's got his own "spots" now.............places he likes to hang out...............so he ain't too hard to find anymore.............so I set up two pairs of snakes and called it a day for "snake work".............then I went up to the rat barn to water the buckets and check for floods...............Chad met me up there to buy some rats..............then I loaded up a rodent order for the pet shop and headed down the road.............I'm home now finishing up the journal...............I ate a hot dog for lunch............it made me feel like shit all over again........that was a bad choice of food wasn't it?...............I "may" feel a "smidge" better right now...............not sure?..............I'm gonna get the pics added to the journal and upload it for you guys to fall asleep reading.................the pics are good anyway!!................

More from Gary..............check out the RDRtrooper Attack..................LMAO!!...........and the "Colonial"

After I got the journal done yesterday, I got off my ass and pulled all the breeder males out and set them up with the ladies, I'm going to keep the pairs together until next Tuesday morning ...........I ran my big barrel fan for 10 mins to pull some crisp air into the room form outside..........I love doing that!!......;).........we ordered some Chinese food for delivery..........then I decided to go over the Phil's last night and finish the last coat of drywall mud ( skim coat )..............after that we installed two new windows in his basement.................that "flu bug" has left my body!! ( I think? )..............maybe it's in Phil now........LOL

Today ( Sun ) I feel a lot better...............I got up early and cooked Brooke some eggs............then Mom got to my house to pick the kids up for Church..........I moved some males around this morning that weren't doing a damn thing...............I have some lazy boys here this year!!...........I've been taking it easy on them so far this season...............I'll crack down harder after the first of the year.....;).............I did catch a lot of pairs locked up............so I snapped some pics..............I'll get them in December's journal..................after that I sat down at the puter and answered some email.............I got two new pages done on the RDR Member Pics Page..............Al and Sarah...............Al is a buddy of mine from Canada..............and Sarah is a new member to RDR.............she is an artist................:).............I did all this while the kids were at Church..............after Church T and I went down to meet my parents with our kids at my Mom's house.................we are all going to a Christmas Expo.............zzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........:P

The Expo was pretty cool..................they had a bunch of vendors there selling Xmas stuff and crafts............the whole place was done up with Xmas trees and Xmas stuff..............you know the drill..............:)...............I snapped some pics of these really elaborate ginger bread houses...........they really were done well and were amazingly detailed.............they had a bunch on display that people had made................I think there was a contest?...............some of the houses had prices on them......I guess you could buy them?................The kids got to sit on Santa's lap...............and their Highlight of the day was getting their faces painted...............Brooke got her face all done up as a Tiger..................Gump got done up as Spider Man...............the lady doing the make-up always had a line of kids in front of her waiting to get painted................she never took a break!!............there were also wildlife rescue people there displaying their animals.............animals that were injured and could never be placed back in the wild...........they had owls, vultures, hawks ...............turtles and snakes too..........I loved the Turkey Vulture ..............I snapped some pics.....:)................so we checked the place out........we stayed a few hours................then we went home and had dinner at Mom's.............it is my father's Birthday today................so we had cake and sang to him too.................November 2003.................GONE!!!...............