"Muffin Top"?

Nubbins (on the AeroGarden) and the unnamed gecko (on the wall), about to freak out because I just walked in the door and caught them basking in the fluorescent glow of the AeroGarden grow lights.

So you may be wondering how our AeroGarden and geckos are doing. You know, the grip of geckos we got to perform the function of eradicating any pests in our home. Well, either they are extremely successful or the problem worked itself out or both, because we haven't seen any more unwanted insects in the house. As for the AeroGarden, we are done growing lettuce, and as you can see, we now have a little herb AeroGarden started.

Last night, Neil was talking about the geckos, and said something about "Muffin Top." "Muffin Top??" I repeated. "Yeah, you know, Nubbin Top ..." "Nubbins?" I asked. "Yeah."

I don't know where he got that, but it cracked me up. It's even funnier to me since I introduced my exceptionally trim husband (can men have muffin top, or is it only women?) to the scourge that is "muffin top" -- he'd never heard of it until a couple months ago. I think he's slightly fascinated by the phenomenon.

We originally had one gecko, "Nubbins," affectionately named because he had a nub for a tail. Then I got him a gecko friend, "The Big Guy" (he's bigger than Nubbins). Then, unbeknownst to me, Neil got TWO MORE geckos. They were all released in the house. One promptly got a good grip on the wall behind the couch, where we found him there a week later, dead, still clinging to the wall. Amazing.

Nubbins, The Big Guy and the unnamed gecko are thriving: After being totally cool and amusing us by roaming the walls and ceilings, The Big Guy found a home under the refrigerator and will only come out when we toss mealworms in front of the fridge; and then he only darts out to grab the grub and dash back to the warmth and comfort under the fridge. Boring.

I hope he's not lonely; Nubbins and the other one hang out together all the time. I guess geckos like dark, warm, confined spaces -- ours have been found in various places, but one favorite is under the wireless router, a small box with about 1/2" of space under its electrically generated warmth. They LOVE it under there. They also venture behind the dresser and under the AeroGarden, another tight, warm space they love. As mentioned, I feed them mealworms to supplement any other prey they may or may not be finding around our apt. and I leave a dish of water in front of the fridge and beside the AeroGarden for "our babies" as we sometimes call them. I guess they've become more like pets than the work-for-their keep animals we originally purchased them as.

Nubbins is quite aggressive to his unnamed gecko friend and despite his nub of a tail and being smaller than his gecko friend, he is quite a bully. He also didn't stop at growing back one tail. In a totally disgusting turn of events, Nubbins grew TWO TAILS!!!! I kid you not. Geckos are notoriously aloof, and he is quite skittish, so it's been hard for me to capture a picture of this, but I finally caught him on my cameraphone right after I got home. SO gross!