Spoke Too Soon - April 29, 2002

That thing I said yesterday about a successful stinkbug de-bugging?  Yeah, scratch that.

When I came home yesterday, the stinkbugs were back, crawling all over the screens inside the porch.  

Yesterday was a day full of mishaps and weirdness.  

I'd planned my afternoon tasks right down to the minute: (1) pick up the grocery order for the cookout, (2) pick up the meat for the cookout, (3) mow the lawn, and (4) take The Husband to dinner for his birthday.  

The first indication of trouble came when the grocery store e-mailed a list of substitutions.  One of the substitutions was a bag of frozen mixed berries instead of the strawberries I'd ordered.  The strawberries were for home-made ice cream at the cookout; mixed berries would not do.  This added another stop (or two) to look for strawberries.

Next, I went to pick up the meat.  I ordered this meat and 18 eggs from a local farm that raises cattle and chickens.  The farm is located in an area that surrounds a very big state park.  The roads around this park are a labyrinth; roads will suddenly end, and then pick up elsewhere.  I have never driven through this area without getting lost.  But yesterday I had my GPS for directions and drove straight to the farm, no problem.  On the way, I recognized a road with which I am familiar (or so I thought) and decided to take it on the way home without using the GPS.  Big mistake.  I ended up back at the farm.  Short on time (and gas), I did not need this complication.

About those eggs?  I'd ordered eggs from the grocery store but had cancelled them when I found out I could buy them from the farm.  When I picked up the grocery order, the nice clerk handed me a bag and asked, "Do you want these eggs up front?"  Since I was in a rush, I did not want to go through the process of trying to return them, so I took them.  When I got to the farm, I intended to cut my egg order back to 12, but the farmer's wife brought me 2 dozen eggs and insisted that I take the extra for free because their chickens were egging them to death.  This brought the egg total in my car to 42, plus the 8 or 10 in the refrigerator at home.  

I gave the store-bought eggs to Nanny, once I found my way out of the forest.

The extra stops and extra mileage had cut into the allotted mowing time.  By this time, I was mildly irked about all the complications in my plans.  Would I have time to shower and change clothes before my dinner date?  I decided to put off the mowing for a day since The Boss had given me a day off to prepare for the cookout.  I came home, intending to take a breather on the porch until it was time to get ready for dinner.  That's when I discovered that stinkbugs had invaded the porch again.  A big, fat bumblebee had joined the party and was buzzing all over the place, desperate to get out.  I tried to shoo him out the door, but he would not go.  Finally, I trapped his ass in a mason jar and turned him loose in the yard.

Dinner was good.  The drive home was nice, with the windows down and a ukulele CD (which The Husband had bought at last week's ukulele fest) in the dashboard player.  

It appears that Sunday's bug-a-thon was a success.  We haven't seen a stinkbug since.

Now I have to turn my attention to the yard and other duties for a cookout we are having this weekend (a belated birthday party).  We have not mowed our yard this spring, and the weeds and grass are tall.  This was a deliberate delay on my part, as the bees and butterflies have been enjoying the weed blooms.  But we'll be having rug-rats running all over the yard this weekend, so it's time to mow.

There's food shopping to do, and house-cleaning.  The grocery list is ready.  The living room has been dusted, but there's more to do.  I hope I have time to finish it all before Saturday afternoon!

De-Bugging - April 24, 2022

By this time of night, my brain is usually too mushy to type a coherent sentence.  But today's doings necessitated a shower before bed (explanation to follow), and now I've caught a second wind.

It's been a busy day, thanks to the stinkbugs.

I came out to the porch with my first cup of coffee.  The porch screens were once again crawling with stinkbugs.  They nearly drove me nuts buzzing my head.  I went back inside, cooked breakfast, and came back out after we ate, determined to kill the bugs with a flyswatter.  When they were all dead (or so I thought), the floor was littered with carcasses.  I swept them up with a broom, dumped them in a trash bag, sealed it up tight, and took it outside to the garbage can.  

The sweeping led to a general porch-cleaning and reorganization.  By the time I was finished, the porch screens were once again crawling with stinkbugs.  I went inside and got the vacuum cleaner, and came out and sucked up every bug I could find.  Having the vacuum cleaner handy led to cleaning things I'd missed the first go-'round.  This, in turn, led to me griping about the screen door that didn't fit properly and the ceiling fan that has quit working.  I cajoled The Husband into going to the hardware store for a new door and a new fan.

When we got home, the stinkbugs were back on the screens.  I vacuumed them again.  We hung the new door.  I vacuumed more bugs.  Jesus Christ, where are these things coming from?  

It occurred to me that they might have somehow escaped from the vacuum cleaner.  There were dozens and dozens of live ones crawling around in the canister.  I was planning to leave them in there until they starved to death, but . . . .  Maybe I should drown them.  I mixed up a bucket of soapy water and emptied the canister into it.  When I went back to check on it a few minutes later, I could see antennae moving among the suds like a bunch of mini-snorkels, and one bug was trying to crawl up the side of the bucket.  Oh, HELL NO!  A good cupful of Clorox put a stop to that action.

Tired of the de-bugging, I went inside to fix us some supper.  After we ate, I settled in to watch the season finale of Sanditon.  And the whole time, through dinner and the tv show, I could smell stinkbug stink.  It permeated my clothes and my hair.  Hence the shower.

I'm on the porch now.  There's another stinkbug in here.  I hear him buzzing.

He's gonna get it tomorrow.

Babysitting - April 24, 2022

Son #1 called yesterday around lunchtime and asked if I was up for a little bit of babysitting.  He didn't have to ask twice.  An hour later, Granddaughters #3 and #4 (the LRB) arrived.

We sat on the back porch for a little while.  When the parents were ready to leave, I took the girls inside to get a cookie while the parents escaped.  It wasn't long before the LRB pointed to the back door.  I knew what she was thinking; she was looking for her mama.  It seemed kind of mean to let her continue to think her parents were on the porch, so I opened the kitchen door and let her go out to the porch, bracing myself for the fit she would pitch upon discovering that her parents were missing.  But she just trotted out, looked around, and picked up a toy.  Whew!

We had a big time.  Big Sister spent time crafting in the sewing room.  She played dress-up, and she made a water-color landscape painting.  When the LRB saw the water-color pallet, she rubbed her finger on the colors and then rubbed her eyelids and cheeks, thinking the water-colors were makeup.  Fifteen months old, and already a glamour girl.  

We read multiple books.  We ate multiple snacks.  We played a lot of peek-a-boo.  We swung on the swingset.  It was a good day.  :)

Sitting this one out - April 23, 2022

The ukulele festival is proceeding just fine without me.

I went with The Husband to the opening night doin's.  It was crowded!  Although the organizers knew how many people had signed up for the festival, apparently they didn't expect ALL of  the ticket holders to show up the first night.  The room barely held us all.  It was hot and stuffy.  But it was a roomful of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet, and a lot of talented musicians.  They had "open mic night," and a few groups performed.  Still, I was ready to leave before it was over.

The Husband had bought me a ticket for all three days of the festival, which included workshops.  The Boss would have let me off for the day, but I opted to go to work because there was a rather "sticky" case on the docket and I figured I would be needed.  Alas, the case was continued, and The Boss turned me loose just after lunch.

It was a beautiful day, so I came home and set up my laptop on the porch to do some digitizing.  There were dozens of stinkbug-looking bugs crawling on the inside of the porch screens, and they kept buzzing my head and landing on me until I could not concentrate on my work.  I found a can of bug spray and dosed them good.  They basically laughed at me and went on about their business.  I found another can of bug spray - the foamy type that shoots about 20 feet - and dosed them again.  This knocked a bunch of them off the screens, but it wasn't long until they'd crawled back up.  I thought, Good grief, what's it going to take . . . . "  As the sun went down and it got dark, the light from my laptop screen drew them, and I finally had to give up and go inside.  But this morning it looks like most of them eventually succumbed to the 1-2 bug spray punch.

Public Service Announcement - CleverFlora French Crochet Kit - April 20, 2022

Several weeks ago, I ordered a "French Crochet Kit" from a web site called CleverFlora.  I don't know where I found out about it - probably Pinterest.  The technique looked really cool and was a craft I had not tried.

The kit came yesterday.  It barely resembles the kit on the CleverFlora web site.  I did receive embroidery floss, embroidery hoops, and some fabric, but there was no hook.  Instead, there was a pack of regular sewing/embroidery needles.  Although I have never done "french crochet" (which I believe is actually called "tambour"), it seems to me that the hook is an essential part of the process! 

Here's a picture of what I got:

See the booklet at the top of the picture?  It appears to be a booklet of patterns.  All of the writing is in Chinese.  

I would not advise buying this kit.

My tomato seeds ("Hossinator," I think) came in the mail Monday.  I planted them yesterday in a plastic greenhouse tray left over from last year, using dollar store "all-purpose" dirt that doesn't want to soak up the water I sprinkled on it.  It may be a miracle if they sprout.

Last year, I sprouted our tomato plants indoors, under a florescent light.  Even though the light was positioned just an inch from the tops of the plants, they grew leggy.  When they were about an inch tall, we had to go out of town for a few days, and I asked Uncle Jack (who has a tiny greenhouse) if he would babysit the tomatoes while we were gone.  He agreed, and when I got back, the tomatoes had grown magnificently under his care.  They were sturdy, and deep green. 

This year, I shall attempt to sprout the seeds (and grow the seedlings) outdoors, in the sunshine.  Once the seeds sprout, I'll take the lid off the mini-greenhouse tray so the wind can blow across the plants (which will help make the stems stronger).  

And I will probably kill them and go to the greenhouse for plants.

* * * * * * * * 

The Husband has signed us both up for a ukulele festival/workshop scheduled to happen this weekend.  I have not learned to play the ukulele, but I shall give it a try.  This workshop will last 3 days, but I'll have to work for 2 of the 3 days, unless The Boss gets wind of it, in which case she will probably tell me to go play.  She might get wind of it this morning while we are on our way to court.  ;)