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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Since both of us are exhausted...

I thought that bowel "Draino" was strong enough to peel paint off a wall. Evidently I was wrong. James had to go through the whole shebang again last night; needless to say, we are bung-eyed and tired today, but the colonoscopy came out clean.

(I wish I could say the same for the ants. Still caught two hanging around the door to the deck today. More vinegar. Put black pepper on the doorstep because someone said it repels them.)

The first stent is scheduled to go in tomorrow between noon and one ("with the help of God and a few policemen," as Mom always said) and they will keep him overnight. If all goes well, we should be at Kaiser with a handful of prescriptions on Tuesday.

Please God.

Labels: health, insects, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:12:00 PM

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At least this morning it didn't involve James.

As I drove home this morning, James called. He had talked to the surgeon. They are going to put a stent in the worst of the three heart arteries tomorrow. If he is okay on Saturday they will send him home for a week to decompress/give his kidneys a rest, then he will go in for the other two stents on the Monday after. Hopefully the stents will work, and if he later needs a bypass, the kidneys will be on better footing. Of course the kidneys may never get better. A creatintine score of 3.5 may be his "new normal."

So I was in a fairly good mood when I got in the house...until I looked down at Tucker's water bowl. There was an ant near it. No, not an ant. Ants. And ants near the garbage can, on the stool next to the refrigerator, and crawling up the side of the cupboards next to the sink.

I freaked. The exterminator usually takes care of this, but it's been very dry and they get in looking for water. I ran for the vinegar spray and spent several frantic minutes spraying the back door to the deck (and on the deck) and the baseboards and the corners of all the kitchen with vinegar to destroy the trails while simultaneously stepping on/poking out ants and calling Northwest Exterminating with frantic notes in my voice. They responded splendidly and said they'd send someone over between eleven and one, and he actually arrived about 11:15.

In the meanwhile I tried to contact someone to come help me clean up the kitchen. If they were on the counters I had to clean them off. John and Betty came to my rescue, helped me remove stuff and John even cleaned the top of the stove off. We got the long counter cleared at least by the time the exterminator showed up, and then they brought me lunch and let me weep all over them and I just wailed out my frustration. It's like the Seven Plagues of Egypt here.

Anyway, after the exterminator left, having sprayed inside and out at the deck (where they undoubtedly climbed up, although I never found an ant trail) and even at the front door because I was afraid they were going to come in there, and I vacuumed and refilled Tucker's cleaned food dish and his water dispenser, I was able to head back to the hospital.

Since then we have had several "what the hell?" moments. For instance, someone asked James, "Why didn't you tell them when you got to the hospital that you had kidney problems?" Why not? Because he didn't know! Every time they have done a kidney test James says he has gotten a report back from Kaiser that he is midrange in this ratings and nothing was marked "high" or "abnormal." Then they gave him a blood transfusion because they say he is anemic! Where did that come from? Did the Heparin cause it, or anything else intravenous? He had blood tests a few months ago and apparently his tests didn't say he was anemic then!

Oh, well, time to take a shower and walk the dog, and then go back.

Please pray for James or similar good wishes. Thank you to the people who have been reading my mad ramblings and sending me e-mails of encouragement.

Labels: friends, health, insects, sickness

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 9:03:00 PM

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Labels: food, games, insects

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:42:00 PM

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We were up at eight and had a busy, busy day today. First stop was the Farmer's Market, where we bought a cucumber, some sweet corn, two baking potatoes, and some cherry tomatoes, plus a barbecue pot pie, tamales for James, and some goat cheese for me. We were planning to get some apple and peach bread to take to Hair Day, but the vendor was not there. (They are from Ellijay, so I will bet they're at the second weekend of the Apple Festival.) We got bagels and cinnamon rolls from the Hoboken Bakery booth instead.

Had a good time at Hair Day. The lunch centerpiece was pizza bread, and we also had an olive tray and a fruit dish. We left before dessert to go relieve the dog, and then we finished the shopping, going to Costco for mushrooms and various other little things, and then to Publix for twofers. Since we got milk at Costco we didn't need to go to Kroger at all, which pleased me no end. Once we finished that we had a couple of hours to put everything away and then we both took a nap.

Tonight we had a nice dinner at Longhorn for a rather sad reason: Juanita's mom is starting to fail. She is having health problem after health problem, can't walk any longer, and is under hospice care, so Juanita and David are having nice things for her in the time she has left. Everyone gave her a hug or a kiss before and after dinner. She's been such a fighter; an inspiration to us all, but her body just can't fight back anymore. We had a good time in being together.

After dinner James and I went to the Barnes & Noble at West Cobb. He'd surprised me today by saying he got two coupons from them yesterday; I got none at all! I bought The Lincoln Conspiracy with the coupon he shared with me, a cross-stitch magazine, the Christmas issue of "Southern Lady," and the November issue of "Doctor Who Magazine," which has a smashing cover photo of Doctors four through eight. Sylvester McCoy always looks like a mischievous elf.

We came home to watch television, but mostly I wanted to fall asleep, and now I've just screamed and run away from the computer because a honkin' big palmetto bug was just crawling over my cross-stitch magazine on the tray next to me on the sofa. James almost got it but of course the rotter escaped under the sofa...eeeeeek!

Labels: books, food, friends, insects, magazines, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:58:00 PM

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Gah. Another Saturday of dancing between stores.

We bundled up as it wasn't really all that cold, but it was damp. Had breakfast at Douceur de France (nothing better on a cold morning than a warm baguette and butter), then went on to the Farmers Market. Willow needed cookies and we bought some chicken and wild rice soup for supper. A freight train roared by, but didn't delay us much.

On the way home I gave a yelp. There was a tiny brown spider crawling on my left hand! I tried to get it out the passenger window, but it scurried so quickly that I could never get it to blow away. It finally scrambled down my sleeve past my coat pocket and out of sight.

Next it was time for a trip to Costco to pick up some granola bars and other items on sale. I finally gave in and bought the two-volume Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries set. I have three of the five episodes and it would basically cost me as much as the set cost to get the other two. While I was looking at the DVDs, the little brown spider reappeared! I left it crawling on the DVD rack.

We also stopped at Bed, Bath & Beyond to get James a new cartridge for his Soda Stream and some Cola Free syrup, had an ice cream cone at Baskin-Robbins (we had a coupon) and I shared bits of the cone with the sparrows, and then stopped at Michaels. They didn't have what I wanted although I have seen projects using the object on Michaels' website. Looked around the dogs and cats they had for adoption at Petsmart; one cat had enormous, bright green eyes. It could have been Harry Potter as a cat!

By the time we got home James suggested we just finish the shopping so we'd have tomorrow clear. So we went to Publix for twofers and then to Kroger for gasoline and groceries. No news there.

So we had the soup for supper and watched three episodes of Elementary we had backed up on the DVR. I keep saying I'm not emotionally invested in the characters, but I still keep watching, so I guess I'm lying to myself. When James went downstairs to do some modeling, I put on The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, which I haven't seen in years. An inheritance rests on whether an elderly brother or sister died first, and was one of the first things I ever saw on television that addressed the affects of severe shell shock.

Emma and I chatted a bit later on, too.

I do hate spending almost the whole day in grocery stores!

Labels: food, insects, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:42:00 PM

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Woke to someone on NPR saying that Paula Ryan had been chosen to be Mitt Romney's vice presidential choice. Paula Ryan? Who's...

Never mind. Paul Ryan.

Thankfully, outdoors was much better than my hearing this morning. It was cloudy and only about 70 degrees; I don't think it's been that cool in the morning since...early spring. There was a slight, slight breeze, too.

The biweekly artists' market was this week, too, so we perused paintings and jewelry and hair decorations before proceeding across the street to the stalls. We bought sweet corn, more chicken salad, a piece of brown sugar pound cake for a dessert, some dog biscuits, and five nice hard, crisp peaches. On the way home we stopped at the bakery for dessert for two more nights, and also went to Publix for the twofers. We found a big table of clearance items and stocked up on some granulated bullion and four boxes of steel-cut oats, plus got more lamb "steaks."

Once these were put away, we went out to have a little more fun: we went to MicroCenter. :-) James was buying a keyboard and I was looking for more DVD cases for my incorporation project. The computer/laptop department was, expectedly, overflowing with parents and kids looking for tax-free goodies. The rest of the store was rather pleasant. I bought the cases and also found some thumb-drive holders with clips on them, and a packet of DVD-Rs so I could make copies for someone.

From there we went to the hobby shop, where I amused myself by reading Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog. This is set in the same universe as her Doomsday Book, Blackout and All Clear, but is a comedy based on Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat.. I tried reading it once before but wasn't able to get into it. Now I understand that all the confusion I had in the first chapter comes from the fact that the protagonist is exhausted from too much time travel.

Just for the heck of it, we went up to Books-a-Million. We stopped at the Petco next door and I bought a couple of new toys for Schuyler that I hope will alleviate her boredom. They were having pet adoptions and there were two of the cutest puppies. One was half chihuahua, half Italian greyhound, so bigger than a chihuahua, but smaller than the Italian greyhound, with big wide eyes. It saw us and ran to the crate bars, scratching and making happy noises. The other was part Labrador and part Welsh Corgi, and was small, with small paws, and Corgi-sized ears and a Lab-length tail. He was a beautiful wheat color, with an open, alert puppy face, and also very cute. There were several larger dogs, too, including a part Catahoula hound and one which was part Australian shepherd and a lovely merle color all over. Again, we have no idea how Willow would react to another dog.

And at this time of the year, it's just not conducive for adopting a puppy anyway.

Had a nice wander about Books-a-Million though there are no new autumn magazines out. They had some interesting sale books, including Alone in the World: Orphans and Orphanages, and the sequel to Our Own May Amelia. The orphan book was a buy one get one, so I got a small novel called Voyage about Jewish immigrants. I also found a neat book called Star Trek FAQ. Usually books with goofy names like this are cheap little trivia books with questions and answers at the back of the book. This is a history of the series, past experience of the actors, memorable episodes, and a bunch of other cool stuff.

We discovered that there was a Panera Bread across the parking lot, so we went there and picked up supper, but also stopped for a while just to have a treat. I had a plain bagel with garlic and herb cream cheese, and James had a chocolate chip bagel with honey walnut cheese. He wished they had peanut butter or Nutella to go with it.

Spent the rest of the evening comfortably at home watching The Big Bang Theory. Had our Panera for supper, recorded things off the BBC, blogged, and watched Schuyler give the evil eye to one of her new toys. It's a wooden tube with shredded twine at each end and some holes in the tube to access paper and string to shred. Hopefully she'll get used to it.

The first highlight of the evening was going down to the laundry room, pulling back the door and finding an untidy spider web behind it, with a great big daddy longlegs in the middle of it! By the time I asked James for a jar to try to take it outside with, it had scuttled behind the dryer in a great tangle of legs. I swept the web away—amazing! it wasn't there Tuesday when I did laundry.

The reason I was in the laundry room is that we had stripped the bed and I was washing sheets. If anyone asks us if we've had "vigorous physical exercise" this week, we can say "yes," because wrestling with our mattress is like putting the moves on a gorilla. It has baffles in it so we won't wake each other up with our restless sleeping, is heavy as you-know-what, and even though I dutifully measured the mattress and made sure the sheets I bought would fit it, the fitted bottom sheet always slips off. We have sheet "garters" to keep the corners on, but they are a stone-cold bitch to actually keep on on the sheets; the cloth always makes the knobs slip out of the metal. Just wicked annoying.

Labels: books, chores, dogs, food, insects, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:47:00 PM

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We ate in on Friday night, since we're suckers for Opening Ceremonies. I picked up soup and sandwich from Panera Bread and James treated himself to Jamaican.

The 2012 Summer Olympic opening ceremonies were fun. The two cappers had to be the Queen Elizabeth II/James Bond appearance (and am I glad I saved it since they pulled it off YouTube by the next day) and Rowan Atkinson's part in the "Chariots of Fire" sequence. The historical pageant would have been more interesting if the announcers hadn't been yapping all the time—seriously, are we perceived as that stupid that we have to be told this is the part when industrialization took over from agrarian society?—and there hadn't been so many horrible commercials. There used to be a time when a sponsor took pride in what they sponsored and would curtail the commercials for the sake of what they were sponsoring. Apparently pride has fallen by the wayside. Also kinda bummed by the fact that there was supposed to be a small salute to Doctor Who in the opening ceremony, but it was cut for time—when they let that awful rap music go on and on.

Had a turn around the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning, but the weather wasn't conducive to strolling. Ironically, there was a breeze in the shade, and there it wasn't so bad, but being in the sun was like drowning in paint stripper. It burned! Needless to say, we didn't shop very long, just enough to get cucumbers and tomatoes, sweet corn, James' chicken salad, some crisp peaches just the way I like them, and a piece of brown sugar pound cake for a dessert.

Eventually James went on his own to the hobby shop, since I couldn't stand the thought of going back out into the inferno. Read for a while, watched Olympic beach volleyball—well, phooey, the guys were wearing shirts!—and soccer (until the vuvuzelas started to bore into my brain) coverage, and then took a nap until it was time for a wonderful night out with friends: we celebrated Juanita's birthday at Longhorn Steakhouse. Despite several dinners being late, we had a great time talking and swapping stories. Came home and had another nice chat online with Jen, Mike, and Emma until one in the morning.

Had a nice sleep-in this morning, breakfast, and then a short trip to the supermarket. I needed to get gasoline and also wanted to look for the new fall issue of "Country Sampler," so first we went to Barnes & Noble. The cover of "Country Sampler" was like a beautiful breath of fresh air. Along with the "Autumn Cottage" I had found at Publix and the fall issue of "Small Room Decorating," it was a nice assortment of magazines. I also found two remainder books, General Sherman's Christmas (another Stanley Weintraub historical Christmas book) and The Mammoth Book of New Jules Verne Adventures. One appears to be a Phileas Fogg/Sherlock Holmes crossover. And just because, I got the new trade paper copy of The Story of Charlotte's Web.

We bought gasoline at Costco and then stopped at the new overstock place that is in place of the old Blockbuster. It's a motley combination of assorted foods, glass coffee tables, clothes, pillows, some DVDs and televisions, camping stuff, light bulbs and other assorted items. I bought some Kashi cereal and a new sunshade for my car.

Tonight we had chicken pot pie for supper along with wheatberry and fruit salad, with watermelon for dessert. We had sort of a Big Bang Theory festival, three episodes off Channel 17, and then six episodes from the season two DVD. We've finished first season anyway, and don't need to record the ones on Sunday anymore.

Only one thing marred the day: I went out on the deck this morning to fill the bird feeders. Well, what seed was left in the barrel was infested with those little sugar ants. I had to clean the barrel out and some ants got on me and I was freaked out. I remember how hard it was to get rid of them last time and I didn't want to bring any into the house. We upended the barrel to let it bake in the sun, and tonight after the sun went down I went outside with the Ortho to spray the edge of the deck where the barrel was and the part of the deck that intersected with the house. God, I hate ants! To think I deliberately picked a house with a kitchen on the second floor just to make it harder for the little bastards to get in the house and they are still threatening us.

Labels: books, food, friends, insects, Olympics, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:07:00 PM

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Dang. I did not mean us to stay up so late last night. But Leno had Gillian Anderson on and I had not seen her in ages, and they did the funniest segment: it was a film about American History comprised of "Jaywalking" segments, done in a pseudo-Ken-Burns style. From this film we learned John Wayne fought alongside Davey Crockett at the Alamo, George Washington gave the Gettysburg Address during World War II, the British rode on Paul Revere's ride, and other idiocy.

So I wasn't really happy to be woken this morning by the alarm clock. Nevertheless, we went to the Farmer's Market. The sky was perfectly clear, and even at 8:55 the sun was merciless. It was as if it had claws and dug its way into your skin. This was odd because there was a nice breeze and if you were in the shade it wasn't all that bad. So we squinted our way through the market, buying potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, a pot pie, and homemade cookies.

From the market we went to Kroger to pick up things for the week, including some bird seed to refresh the can for Schuyler's wild cousins. While James put the groceries up, I went outside on the porch to refill the feeders. I'm not going to buy seed at Kroger any longer; or at least that particular seed. First the black oil sunflower seeds are so big that they are jamming my small feeders. Also, I just noticed the seeds come with crasins and bits of fruit in it. No wonder I'm finding bees at the feeder!

We didn't stay home all that long, but got some coupons together and went back out. The cloudless sky was now scattered with big, white fluffy clouds that reminded me of bedtime.

James has been feeling discontented with his bank for some time, and has been researching credit unions. He made his decision last week and today we went to the LGE credit union (what was formerly the Lockheed Credit Union; it's now for anyone who's a resident of Cobb County) to open an account. After his direct deposit starts going there, he will close out his other account.

From there we went to the hobby shop, where I finished up A Discovery of Witches, and then we drove to BJs in Woodstock. We were within one serving of being out of beef and two away from being out of pork, and since we had coupons for other things, we decided to go.

Hadn't thought about lunch in the meantime and it turned out we didn't have to. BJs was having some sort of "Taste of" festival featuring neighboring food places. We had part of a ham sandwich from Atlanta Bread Company, some barbecue and sides from a barbecue place, their new breakfast oatmeal (steel cut oats!) from Chik-Fil-A, orange chicken from Panda Express, some fajita beef and chicken from a Hispanic market, salsa and chips, apple pie, and cake.

Plus we got some shopping done, too.

We emerged from BJs to find the sky boiling over with grey clouds. We didn't get caught in any hard rain, but a few big splats hit the windshield now and then as we came home with our booty. After a drink, we separated the sliced pork loin and the sliced bottom round and somehow wedged it all in the freezer along with the Jamaican meat patties.

To get the meat in, we had to dig out some leftovers, so we had some of the brown-sugar pork loin for supper, and strawberries over dessert shells with whipped cream for dessert.

I'm now traveling in time. I got a wild hare and ordered the first season of McMillan and Wife from Netflix; it includes the 1971 pilot movie. Hard to believe this is 40 years old.

Well, except when you see the 70s fashions! Most of Sally's clothes are still quite chic (well, there are those crazy-quilt pants she's wearing in the first episode), but oh, those men's fashions of the 1970s! In one sequence Mac is going to a party and wearing a tux. The tux has big round spots all over the jacket, shiny where the rest of the jacket was satin, plus he had a ruffled front on his shirt.

Notice this was co-written by Chester Krumholz, who later produced Dr. Simon Locke, co-starring Jack Albertson, who is also in the pilot film. I don't think Albertson was speaking to Krumholz after his year on Locke was over, though. :-)

(Oh, we did have some excitement this morning. Last night a fly and a wasp got into the house. We killed the fly, but the wasp disappeared. I was terrified James would get stung, even if his sting kit was nearby. And I've never been stung by a wasp or a bee; with my unpredictable allergy, anything could happen.

The wasp had not shown itself this morning, but after I took the bird seed out on the deck, when I came back in, there was the wasp on the doorknob. I shrieked for James, who rolled up the Noble Catalog that had come in the mail and dispatched the wasp with one smack.

I guess Harry Potter really is magic. LOL.)

Labels: DVDs, food, insects, shopping, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 4:33:00 PM

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Up much too late last night, first bantering back and forth on chat, discussing the Entertainment Weekly article that talks about "23 TV Shows We Want on DVD"—and mentions Remember WENN! (My gosh, they have taste!) I had no idea neither LA Law or China Beach weren't yet on DVD. They were both such big shows in their time.

I actually signed off chat earlier, but I had my Best of Dave Allen DVD on and couldn't resist watching it until the end. Miss Dave Allen. Talk about something I'd like on DVD: all of Dave Allen at Large. Not to mention my usual requests: He and She, My World and Welcome to It, Ellery Queen (ah...Amazon.com finally has a cover, and a release date...ouch on the price...supposedly is remastered with a special booklet—but widescreen? I don't think so unless they've done a hack job on the 4:3 original shooting ratio)...and where's the rest of St. Elsewhere and Night Court?

And season sets of Lassie, of course.

So we slept in until eleven. When I went to get breakfast I realized the only milk we had (sell-by date being today) was sour. I guess I'll have to suck it up; wasn't planning on going out today. Too nice and cool in here.

Saw a sparrow pecking disconsolately at the empty bird feeders and went out on the deck to rectify the problem. One of the bold little brown-headed nuthatches was sitting on one of the squirrel-proof feeders, looking down at the seed cup, then up at me, down at the seed cup, etc. I can just hear them talk: "This restaurant is terrible—the service is never consistent." "I'm sure not leaving that waitress a tip!" LOL.

Of course now that the feeders are full, nary a bird is in sight.

There is an odd insect outside: it looks like a big fly, about an inch long, at least, with moth-like wings that look as if they are upholstered black, and it buzzes like a bee. Have no idea what it is, but it was doing maneuvers over my head as I filled the feeders.

James has descended to the "Man Cave." Maybe I'll read American Connections. Or watch Johnny Tremain. Whatever.

Labels: birds, holidays, insects, movies, television

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 1:19:00 PM

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I'm in the office on a Thursday for the first time in over a year and it looks like the "Thursday afternoon slump" in computer response isn't confined totally to those of us teleworking. I booted up my computer after returning from class only to have it mosey indolently in view after about three minutes. Response time is lagged, keystrokes are jerky.

In case you were looking to get one of those "cushy jobs" as a Federal employee, you might want to look elsewhere. We walked into the building that the class was being held at and it smelled like sewage. This could have given low tide at the beach a run for its money. We were told two other buildings were in similar straits. The water fountains were all marked asking people not to drink the water. (Which begs the question: how about washing your hands and then eating something using your fingers, like a sandwich or a granola bar? I guess I'll find out, eh?) Class had barely started when a palmetto bug (that's Southern for "honkin' big roach"—this one resembled a small mouse in size) strolled across the floor. Someone stomped on it, but those suckers are strong; a little while later it disappeared and then was found ambling across the floor again before someone permanently ground it into the floor.

Labels: computers, insects, work

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 2:46:00 PM

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Going bike riding involves coming out the front door, taking a few steps to the garage, wheeling out the bikes, and zipping off to make circles of the neighborhood to the eventual tune of a couple of miles, stopping back in the driveway, wheeling the bikes back into the garage and going inside. At no time do I go on the lawn or under a tree or anywhere else "wildlife" could be lurking.

So will you tell me how when I get inside I end up having a honking big ant crawling on the shoulder of my shirt?

I swear they stalk me. :-)

Labels: bicycles, insects

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:28:00 PM

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We've taken an intermission after Twister—I've gathered the trash, swept the kitchen, put new towels in the bathroom (none on the floor yet since when I was sweeping in there earlier I spotted an ant; I immediately swabbed the floor down with white vinegar to destroy the scent trails, and splashed some on the doorstep to the deck as well, and have Northwest's phone number programmed into my phone for when they open tomorrow; they'll have to send Scott out early—probably an ant bed near the house foundation like there was last year). James has prepared the strawberries I bought for desserts for the rest of the week (he puts the overripe ones in the food processor with a little grape juice, then slices the rest and we will have them served plain, no shortcake, with a little whipped cream), started the dishwasher, and made tea and lunches.

And now we're having a tribute...raise a glass and toast Hedy...that's Hedley!...Lamarr!

Thanks for the laughs, Harvey.

Labels: DVDs, food, housework, insects

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:53:00 PM

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I'd say it was a useful day, if not exciting at all, except at one point.

We went to WalMart. The lines weren't too bad and we found the small low-carb whole wheat tortillas instead of the huge ones. I also found a pair of flip-flop slippers in my size that were blue instead of pink (they're always pink! I despise pink!).

We went to BJs. Since we'd done the herculean after-Christmas cleaning and survived, we bought some lobster ravioli for supper. Excellent stuff, and we have another portion that I think we'll save for Valentines Day.

We made a short stop at Kroger and couldn't find what we wanted, which was how we ended up at WalMart.

We found out the wi-fi on the Gadget works fine.

We finished the afternoon off reading the paper.

No, the "exciting" part came at the beginning of the day. We'd been planning on Sweet Tomatoes for breakfast, but since all our errands were in the Smyrna area we just ate at the Waffle House on South Cobb Drive near the Kroger.

My advice: don't, since I'm notifying someone at the health department about them tomorrow. It was so near lunch that I had pork chops and James had an omelet and we were both about done eating when a small roach waltzed out from under James' plate and wandered under the napkin holder. I wasn't very hungry after that. We left as soon as possible. In short: ugh!

Labels: computers, insects, restaurants, shopping

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 7:17:00 PM

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It's supposed to go down to 55°F tonight and is already cool outside, so we have the windows and the back door open and the fans going. High tomorrow said to be around 75°F! Compared to a few weeks ago, it sounds like Heaven! Ah, but it will creep up starting on Monday.

We had "Hair Day" this morning, then went to A Blue Ribbon Affair. Didn't buy much as the crafters fall into the "this is beautiful but we really don't need it" department. Someone had some lovely autumn wreaths; another fall and Christmas arrangements. I bought a miniature to go with the Christmas/winter shelf I bought last week at Yellow Daisy, we got the last of our yearly fudge, and we got a new hot pad. These are cloth and filled with rice and cinnamon oil. Our last one got dripped on so much that it no longer smells like cinnamon. Now the entire kitchen smells like simmering cinnamon sticks.

If I feel I need it I can go back tomorrow; it's only a dollar to get in and poor James will be off at work. His day off will be Thursday, which means he will get to meet Scott [our exterminator] at last. After a little over a month of not seeing the little buggers, they are appearing one at the time: one on top of the stove, one on the counter, and, most disturbingly, one tonight on one of the dining room chairs. I've only seen them once out of the kitchen. He needs to treat outside again early, too—I caught the ants making an advance approach on the front of the house last night. One was already inside the foyer and two more were in the doorframe. I grabbed the Ortho and did some perimeter spraying.

We saw the first two episodes of Torchwood tonight and I'm already enjoying it (and it's not just John Barrowman...LOL). Also saw "Blink," a Doctor Who episode I have heard about since it was first broadcast in England. Wow. Couldn't take my eyes off the screen. (However, I did blink. <g>)

Labels: crafts, insects, television, weather

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 11:18:00 PM

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Scott showed up early with a new gel for roaches. Ironically, I had just been reading about it on DoItYourselfPestControl.com. It's called Avert, or something like that, and comes out like a thin thread of Neosporin, only it's dark brown. He put it everywhere there was a crack he could get it in, like at the doors to the pantry and under some of the baseboard. Apparently it's very effective.

He also treated a fire ant bed in the side yard, and sprayed something called "Wasp Freeze" over the yellow jacket nest in the trees. James had warned me there was a yellow jacket nest at the foot of one of the trees weeks ago and I had been careful when walking Willow. After he sprayed, Scott said that we should not walk her back there because the yellow jackets, coming back to their nest tonight, would be angry, but that the spray should work.

This was a little after noon. After he left I took my lunch early and drove out to the Perimeter Mall Borders to get our Harry Potter wristbands. They started giving them out at nine, so by the time I got there the first, orange ones, were out and they had started on silver. I also stopped at Michael's.

It was spoiling for rain when I left Border's and by the time I left Michael's it was pouring. It made me late in getting home so that I had to work later than I wanted. I intended to go for six, but at a little after 5:30 ICE locked up on me completely. Sigh.

It was pouring at three, and perfectly sunny at four, when the lawn folks showed up. I had asked Scott if it was okay if they mowed the back yard and he said yes, that the yellow jackets would just swarm around the nest. So I didn't pay much attention as they mowed, trimmed, and cleaned up and when the knock on the door came, I just brought down the money, asked how he'd been, some more chit-chat, and went back to work.

I had slept very badly Thursday night and so when work was over and everything tidied up, I stretched out on the sofa to nurse a headache. Next thing I knew James was home. I had already warned him about the yard, so he took Willow out with care. He returned to tell me that they had been in the woods and mowed down all the brush! He'd also approached the yellow jacket nest carefully and said it looked quiet. I guess the Wasp Freeze worked. Wow. I hope no one got stung and didn't say anything!

So we headed out to Perimeter, had supper at Fuddruckers, dropped briefly in at the Container Store, and then went to Barnes & Noble where the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company was doing readings from the Potter books, interspersed with trivia contests. We listened to some of the reading, but they had the folks shoved in a corner which was filled with kids, so mostly we walked about, examined the books, and schmoozed with Kim and Sue and Amy and Sarah and other friends. We had to leave early because the clerk at Border's had said they were not going to let people in much after midnight.

Borders was packed and warm, but going in the afternoon had paid off; we were out of there by 12:20. Once we got into the house we changed to comfy clothing and commenced reading; we both gave up about 2:30, showered, read some more in bed, then drifted off to sleep.

I must have been really tired, because by the time I woke up at noon James had already finished the book; this is the first time he's finished one before me. I continued reading through lunch and finished it at the hobby shop.

Without spoiling anything:

Very sad about departed characters, especially one non-human one.
Neville: Attaboy! I've been cheering for Neville the last few books.
Hermione: Quite touched by what she did to protect her parents.
Mrs. Weasley: You GO, girl!
Percy: Yes!

Labels: Harry Potter, insects, shopping, work

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 7:51:00 PM

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...but I can't open attachments in e-mail or anything that had embedded images, which means I couldn't see the information of the source that our small business liaison sent, nor could I e-mail the purchase orders I had scanned.

Nor can I build an order in ICE, which is how the PO is generated in the first place.

So I'm back at someone else's desk again. The keyboard is on a high level and the mouse on a low one, which I find very awkward. The chair has arms, which gets in the way of my arm reaching for the mouse, and is tilted forward. But I'm not going to mess with her things.

Scott can't come until Friday (they can't spray within 10 days, which I understand, but—joy...).

And if the clouds are forming as usual, it will be raining by rush hour.

Ah well, at least the children don't all have dysentery, little Tom turning blue... :-)

Labels: insects, weather, work

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 3:32:00 PM

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We could have brought these home from Unicoi instead of roaches.

Labels: insects

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:30:00 AM

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Been quite a morning so far.

Go to pack my lunch and there's tiny livestock wandering the kitchen floor. Aieeeee!

Get to work and my computer will not boot up. I tried it twice, then called the helpdesk. They sent over a technician. Apparently no security scripts will run. The tech cannot even make it work in administrator mode because they've made Windows so secure there's no way to access it. [eyes roll] So to get my computer going again they will have to reformat my hard drive. (Yes, you heard that right. Even the tech thinks it's absurd.) So presently I'm working at a co-worker's desk while she is in class.

I called the exterminator and their computers were down, so they can't schedule me for anything until they're working again. Gah.

Oh, and I was assigned ten more orders over the weekend.

Geez, and it's only ten o'clock...

Labels: frustration, insects, work

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:23:00 AM

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James had to work today, so I slept until nine, had some breakfast, then got the rest of the groceries at BJs. Yow! One of the reasons we belong to the wholesale clubs is that the difference between the price of a gallon of milk there and at the supermarket pays for our membership for the year (the rest of the stuff is gravy). But their milk has gone up to $3.00, according to their sign, because of a big rise in the price of milk. Has it gone up that much at the grocery store, too?

It's always puzzling to me that everything that is good for you that you should eat and drink (chicken breast, milk, organic greens, baked snacks, etc.) are expensive, and junk like cola and fried chips and fatty hamburger are cheap. It's not a big incentive to eat in a healthy manner if you don't have a lot of money.

I spent the rest of the day alternating housework with a short game on the computer or a chapter in a book. In this way I did a load of clothes, cleaned out the master bathroom and swapped out the towels, made the bed, folded the laundry and got my clothes ready for work, vacuumed the entire upstairs, swept the stairs and the foyer, cleaned out the pedestal under the washer (detergent had dripped in it), and cleaned most of the kitchen, which is still suffering from "little visitors." I killed four this morning and missed two more, and when James helped me finish up tonight we killed at least a half-dozen more. I don't know if that warrants another call or not. What on earth is Scott going to do? He's dusted, baited, and sprayed. Lots. And there's been no food hanging around, and now even the smallest crumb is gone.

Finally watched Friday's Doctor Who ("The Shakespeare Code") and "Mr. Monk and His Biggest Fan." (I think offing Marcy would have been justifiable homicide...) Loved the Harry Potter jokes in "Shakespeare." It wasn't great art as an episode, but was a lot of fun.

Labels: chores, insects, television, work

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:16:00 PM

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