June 19
[ Taken June 13, 2008 | Shawna | Centerville, OH ]
Today is a nice day...mid 70s, sunny, and very little humidity. Which is a nice change from how it has been for a while, which is oppressively hot and humid days alternating with days of torrential downpours. At least the lawn and garden will be happy, I suppose.
With summer comes... the ant invasions. Honestly, up until now, we have had it pretty easy. We would get a couple of ants trying to sneak in under the back porch door, but that has been it. Now though... now the ants are everywhere, and the worst thing is that we can't figure out how the hell they are getting inside the house. We blocked them at the back door - easy, just lay down a line of raid on the badk porch step outside. We blocked them whewn they tried to come in through the AC vent on the family room floor - we put some ant traps in the vent itself and laid down boric acid around the foundations under the back deck, which seems to have worked. Now they are turning up in the dishwasher. Not under the sink, not under the oven (that we can tell), not under the fridge (again, that we can tell), or in any of the "standard" kitchen areas. How the freaking hell are they getting into the dishwasher?! It is not like we can easily pull the dishwasher out and put down a bunch of boric acid under and behind it... we would have to take the whole counter up (which, granted, would be an excellent excuse to get a marble composite countertop and an under-counter mounted sink...) in order to shift it that much. We have not yet decided what is the best course of action...
Oye.
I just gotta keep telling myself, it could be worse... it is just little black yard ants. It could be worse...
June 4
[ Taken April 11, 2008 | Monkey Fountain | Bobolli Gardens, Florence, IT ]
I got an email the other day that it is almost (scant weeks away) time for my 10-year college reunion. (Accompanied of course by the usual call to Donate! to your beloved alma mater.) Ouch. Way to get smacked in the face by the fact that you are now OLD. Before you know it, I suppose, it will be time for my 10-year grad school reunion. Even worse.
In case you are interested... no, I am not planning on going. I am in touch with only a few people from my college graduation year still (most of my friends were a year or two on either side of me anyway) and as far as I know, none of them are going either. It is just... odd. Reunions are always made out to be such a big deal, and yet... I honestly don't personally know anyone who ever went to any of their school reunions.
It is pouring rain right now. Monsoon season. Torrents and sheets of rain. The past couple of days have been great as far as storms go - torrents of rain, sheet lightning, forked lightning, booming thunder, tornados, the works. This morning there was a river running through the backyard where no river had ever been before. Many of the streets were actually curb-to-curb puddles. I love this weather. Actually, I think that I love all eXtreme weather. I predict that in the next day or so we will start hearing about flooding in the valley.
Percival seems not to mind the storms at all.
Merlin, on the other hand, I have not seen in a couple of days. She is too busy hiding from the thunder in the basement.