It didn't look like a very auspicious day at first. I got up, walked Tucker, ate my breakfast, washed the kitchen floor, and then went to give Tucker his breakfast. He had two bits of dog food left from last night, and I picked up one and then...what was that black spot moving on the other?

Ants! Son of a bitch!

I shrieked and began killing ants under the dog's dishes and on the baseboard headed for the door (there couldn't have been more than a dozen; I think I caught the scouting party). Once that was done I raced for the closet panting "Don't panic! Don't panic!" and refilled my vinegar bottle, and then proceeded to drench the baseboards near the deck door and the deck door and the deck doorstep and then outside against the house and around the door. I dumped out Tucker's water, took his food outside (because it had been sprayed with vinegar) in a bag, and washed both the water dispenser and the food bowls and then wiped them off at the bottom with vinegar and wiped the clear plastic tray under the dishes off with the vinegar as well.

Once I finished up I called Northwest Exterminators and got them to send someone out on Tuesday. [Later 7/3: He came. The ants had a nest under the plastic storage container on the deck! Opportunists!]

And then because I didn't trust the vinegar to do the whole job, I went out to the garage and got the Ortho and sprayed outside, and then did another pass inside with the vinegar.

::glare:: Ants! I hate ants.

On top of this we had to go to Kaiser this afternoon to see the gastroenterologist. James was wary about this appointment because he was afraid they were going to ask him to have another colonoscopy. He had one two years ago—which came out clear—that drove his creatitine levels to hell. But the consultation was not what he feared. They are still trying to track down the cause of his anemia, and problems in the GI tract are a primary cause of that. But in this case the doctor is still pretty sure it is his kidneys, and does not want him to have another colonoscopy. So we left there pretty well relieved.

We drove home through Kennesaw Battlefield Park and downtown Marietta. I said, "You know, if we could find a parking space, we could stop at The Corner Shop [the British store]." Lo, a car pulled out of a parking space! So we had a nice visit there and we bought James some lemon cookies.

It was about 3:20 and James said idly, "But what are we going to have for supper?" Then "Hey, we can go to Golden Corral!' It took us a bit to get there, but we were able to indulge in the Senior Early Bird special, which we got skunked out of on Saturday, which is a meal and a drink for $8. The trick is that they don't put steak on the buffet until four. Oh, they have popcorn shrimp, fish, roast and fried chicken, meat loaf, pot roast, bourbon chicken, sliders, barbecue pork, burgers, fixings for tortillas, lots of salad fixings, fruit, and other things, plus dessert, but no steak before four. So we just had appetizers at first—the chicken soup was surprisingly low in salt and the roast chicken is almost as good as the old Old Country Buffet that used to be on Buford Highway—and then at four lined up for our steaks. Their blueberry pie was good, too. I had that with one chocolate chip cookie and a marshmallow dipped in the ubiquitous Chocolate Fountain.

We got home to hear a helicopter hovering somewhere west of our house. We turned on the news to see that indeed it was just up the road. A man had come home from work and found armed robbers inside his apartment! There was a standoff, but the guy is okay, thank God! They had two of the robbers and were looking for a third.

Had to take Tucker out before dark tonight; someone was shooting off Roman candles last night and gave the poor dog the shakes. We are giving him a Petco-recommended valerian/melatonin "cookie," but it's really no help when the boomers start going off. Just one scared him tonight, even though there were nothing but poppers going off and fireflies flashing when we walked.

Labels: food, health, insects, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:09:00 PM

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