I just had my second long weekend in a row, courtesy of working in one country and living in another. The whiny result is a lack of work-related motivation today. But that will work itself out, probably in a fit of evening haste.
The big story of the weekend, though, was flies. Big ones. Huge, black flies. All found in the upstairs bathroom or our office, which is next to it. (Anti-whine: none in the bedrooms, also right there.) When we saw the first one or two, on Saturday afternoon, I quickly accepted blame because I left the screen slider wide open when I went in with muddy hands to make lunch for the Assistant Gardener who was within moments of perishing from hunger. (Really! She was going to die!)
My Love is handy with a rolled up magazine, so he dispatched a couple, and I managed to shoo one out the little bathroom window. But they kept appearing -- there were several more on Sunday, and then on Monday, three more near the office window. Luckily they were really dumb flies and easy to bash.
I hatched a theory that they were coming in through the unfinished light fixture in the bathroom which presumably connects to the crawl space, which we suspect contains dead mice. My Love finally taped a plastic bag over it yesterday afternoon and we saw no more, but none in the bag either. So the jury is still out.
Did you have little critters whining on your parade this weekend?
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42 comments:
Feel exhausted by my walks to and from the cafeteria.
Feel disgusted with CA's judiciary.
For the pixies who don't check comments obsessively and missed it:
Antiwhine: there will be no more fertility whines, because I am pregnant! The follow-up bloodwork today showed the hormones increasing at the appropriate rate.
There will be pregnancy whines, I'm sure.
And there will definitely be moving whines. Like, the first sonogram, to check for the wee little heartbeat? Scheduled for two days after we move. Further away from the clinic. Oh boy. But A/W: at least it's when we're in the "temporary house" and there's no unpacking to be done yet.
Liz, hope you get some energy soon, and Madeleine, hope the weird flies disappear for good.
We were at my parent's lake cabin, and there were thousands of teeny tiny flies for us - so small screened windows couldn't be safely opened because they can still get through. Luckily there is air conditioning, because the sun baked the house despite it never really being warm all weekend. Luckily the mini-bugs are only plentiful in May, so by the time we go back in a few weeks we should be able to open the windows.
Yay esperanza!
Still doing the happy dance for you, Esperanza.
Congrats, Esperanza!!
Whine: too much work, too little motivation.
Anti-whine: conference the rest of the week gives me good excuse for not doing other work.
Adding to previous whine that I have been back at work a little over six hours and have gotten, "Wow did you lose weight?" from at least 10 people.
Finally, I worked out an answer (reposted from my blog) and said with a rueful smile:
"Yes, I probably DID lose some weight. Six days of non-stop diahhrea will do that. It's not a weight-loss method I recommend."
Seriously, these people KNOW I was in the hospital for 2 days WHAT THE FIREPLACE?
JenR, definitely a tossup between lots of tiny flies and a few really big ones!
Esperanza, more happy happy! And bring on the whines of pregnancy.
Liz, sending smooches. Could someone in your office be dispatched to bring back food for you? On the one hand, you need good food to get your strength back, but on the other hand -- you need to sit still!
One of my co-workers had knee surgery and found that driving to work plus walking from the garage to the building was enough to wipe him out. I suggested he request a temporary handicapped spot in a closer garage -- he's on crutches for pete's sake.
Liz, I gather that is an admiring tone and not a concerned one that comes with their question? Because a concerned "Wow, did you lose weight??" would be more appropriate.
liz, hope you are feeling better, and can snag a buddy into making the trek to the cafeteria for you!
hugs and mazel tov to esperanza!
got nothing to say about flies but: yuck.
sooo -- my cousin was married on sunday and it was a great party and everyone was happy!
but he made me the "wedding coordinator" just a few days earlier, and there were a LOT of things not exactly planned, and the usual selection of small emergencies* and OMG! i was so tired and achy afterwards that i could hardly stand up.
high points: many! my sister loves that the mothers of the bride and groom escorted them down the aisle. my son's girlfriend cried 4 times, such was the sweetness. mother of the groom, the stepmother who replaced her, and various other women in the family rocking out to a musical selection of the sister of the groom, "brick house." long-divorced mother and father of the bride, dancing and laughing together. all the sweet little girls blowing bubbles. at least a dozen passionate toasts. and so on.
* i won't whine about the small emergencies, but my cousin seriously owes me.
liz gets some kind of prize for clueless co-workers. i'll be glad to head the posse.
Definitely admiring tone rather than concerned.
People are fireplacing idiots.
Hey, this is cool. I just got a phone call asking if I would be a complainant for a do-not-call violation. The gov't is actually trying to prosecute those fireplacers who disturb the peace at my house! Yay.
go, madeleine! i work at home and hatehatehate those robocalls. which happen all the time.
back to one of liz's original whines -- i'm very encouraged by the cal supremes leaving existing marriages intact, and very disappointed that they apparently ducked the big fairness question, this time around. the main focus of this round was on the initiative process -- and i personally have real issues with how initiatives work to make terrible law in CA.
I just don't get how they didn't think it was a major revision. But am very happy that people who got married get to stay married.
Yay Esperanza! I am sending you virtual preggie pop drops.
My whine is that I threw out my back and am hobbling around like a ninety year old woman.
My anti whine is, considering I've had a bad back since I was six (due to gym class injury), it is a freakin' miracle that I made it through a twin pregnancy and fifteen months of motherhood without this happening until now.
Oh, and I second the pixies who are feeling peeved at CA's Supreme Court. 1) Major revision. 2) Unfair. 3) The proposition process just seems to dig us into deeper and deeper holes. Why is it supposed to be a good thing?
W: Influenza A in my sweet little boy
AW: apparently (knock wood) a mild case, and he has been fever free for over 24 hrs (knock again, please!)
W: However, we are still "grounded" for seven days due to possible continuing contagion as per CDC
AW He is a seriously sweet little boy to be stuck inside with
W: yesterday I was feeling not so great
AW better today and have not had fever>100 so I am not house-bound, except by having to stay with him
AW rented Dinotopia, which so far, except a few scary scenes, is 4 hours (!) of vegging out for my dinosaur-obsessed boy
W hope the questionable scenes don't keep him up at night because....see whine #1 above
ok, think i'm done for now.
oh yeah....supposed to have a gazillion lesson plans done for summer science and don't, and trying to apply for jobs which require GPAs and semester hours separately for classes in my major.....I was in college 20 years ago, people, it's lucky I can *remember* my major!!!
That's all.
--Neighbor Lady
p.s. hugs to all who need them, congrats Esperanza, and glad you're feeling better, Liz, and can we get you any particular virtual food (delivered, of course)?
FlyWatch update: middle of the kitchen floor, nowhere near previous sightings, 3:30 pm Tuesday. Slow as molasses. Squashed it with a paper towel on my first try. What are these weird mutant creatures?
Aw Liz, I'm sorry you're still feeling the bleh. Hope it eases up soon.
Double happy-dances for esperanza!!! SO exciting!
Madeleine - I know what you mean about the black flies. They are our national bird around here. Really, if you're not careful, they'll pick you clean down to the bones. Black flies *spits*
NL - hope the little guy is feeling better soon. Influenza is nasty business.
Whine: Miserable Church Conference weekend from Thursday to Sunday. When I say Miserable, I mean "Please, someone stick pins in my eyes just to make this day interesting" kind of miserable. It was perfectly awful. All that, plus we drove 8 hours each way to get there. Surely the Geneva Convention covers that kind of cruel and unusual punishment.
Whine 2: Teh Headache made a lovely appearance for the entire weekend. Bad one.
Anti-whine: My physio saw me this morning. I still hurt (5-ish out of 10) but not as bad as it was.
Anti-whine: Referral to local doc who will do a sub-occipital trigger point injection is pending. It can't happen soon enough for me. I'm SO not enjoying the return of Teh Headache.
Bleh.
Congrats Esperanza!
Ditto whine of the CA Supreme Court.
Whine the usual: my 7 year old will not sleep. She is having problems falling asleep. Staying asleep. She is worried. And scared. Of what? Everything. To top it off, she is whiny. And not listening. And I am finding it hard to be the caring mother and not the screaming one.
Whine the scary: A good friend's 3 year old had two seizures Monday (his first ever). I am so worried for them. And it makes me think I better hug my healthy frustrating daughter.
Whine: D told us at dinner that the bad thing about his day is that he thinks we hate him and he hates us (because I told him he had to taste a cm^2 piece of shrimp if he wanted to make himself a peanut butter sandwich for dinner).
Antiwhine: By bedtime he was back to wanting hugs and kisses.
Whine: he slipped climbing into his bunkbed and bashed his leg into a table. I don't think he broke anything but he's going to have a heck of a bruise.
Oh dear, we have a run of sick kids and sad kids and injured kids. Love and patience to all the parents! Quick healing to all the sickies!
Elizabeth, the only thing that helps me with those extreme "I hate you!" moods is that I know they are too extreme to be meaningful. I think the kids who really hate their parents are much quieter about it.
Sarah, we've had several rounds of that not-sleeping worrying stuff. Never fun. We sometimes have luck with a little bit of meditation at bedtime (focus on your breathing for 2 or 3 minutes, or something like that).
FlyWatch update: none since yesterday afternoon.
Sarah, we've been brushing the bad dreams out of MM's hair right before we leave the room. We scrub all over his head with our fingers like we're doing a shampoo and then lightly dust off his nose, ears, and pillow to make sure they're all gone.
Silly, soothing, and it works for him.
uccellina -- 2 toddlers + bad back doesn't sound very fun. sending healing thoughts!
neighbor lady -- hope you and the dino-lover are better soon.
nominate sue for mullet, for describing the black flies as "the national bird."
sue, the conference sounds awful and the headache even worse. crossing fingers the treatment fixes you right back up.
oh, sarah -- poor girl and poor you! and how scary about your young friend and the seizures. xoxo
elizabeth -- oy, the "i hate you" meltdowns! glad it passed quickly; but ouchie on the bunk bed accident.
Yay to Esperanza!! Go right ahead with the moving whines. I'd rather do unmedicated childbirth again and again than pack and move.
My whine: I hate the last month of the school year. I hate the parade of "events" that require casseroles and card signing. I hate the increasing levels of tension from my son, who gets freaked out by all this "ooh, the end is nigh" crap. I just want them to soldier on, keeping the routine, until the last day, when they say "Okay, here's some cookies. We'll see you in September."
Whine: Our friend, the wife of hubby's former co-worker, who also had MS (like hubby) fell down her basement stairs this morning and died of massive head injuries. She was only 50. It's just so sad.
Hubby called me at work to tell me and he was really hurting. I would love to go home and be with him, but I have a meeting in twenty minutes. Crap.
Anti-whine: Our present home couldn't possibly be more safe for hubby, but it's still scary to think that one fall can change everything.
MS sucks.
(((Sue)))
(((( sue )))) oh, how awful. i am so sorry.
((sue)))
Ok, I've got a critter story to share.
Over the weekend, we went camping. When we cleaned N off afterwards, we found a tick in his armpit. We pulled it out and stuck it in a ziplock bag. We were pretty sure it was a dog tick not a deer tick, but wanted to make sure.
Today I'm getting ready for work and select a peach for my lunch. It's a bit bruised, so I decide I should put it in a baggie so it doesn't leak all over my bag. I'm sitting at my meeting, eating it, and I notice something crawling across my lap. Yup, I grabbed *that* ziplock bag.
The antiwhine is it was just crawling across my lap and hadn't attacked anyone.
all the wedding foo-fah has worn off, and i'm simmering into a mess of worries. the check i expected on the 6th finally came today, which is a W/AW. but it's a small one, and i'm so broke, and i'm freaking out about all the work for the next month, which i don't think i can totally get done and much of which won't get paid for a while. or longer -- we might be having yet another budget rodeo in my state.
and now my sweet daughter is emailing about plane tickets to japan for the fall, which is a whole different kind of freak-out, but it is sparking a chain-reaction with the money and work and daughter away for a year worries. wahhh!
omg elizabeth! yeeeks! ticks win.
Oh Sue, that's just terrible. So sorry for her family and all those she touched, especially you and hubby.
Elizabeth, that is appalling. Ticks are squicky enough, but near your food? on your lap? AAAH. Yuck.
*shudders* Ticks. So extremely icky.
Sorry for your worries kathy a. - after all that hard wedding work, you deserve a pampering week, not a worried one.
I meant to Anti-whine earlier, but then we got the news about our friend's death.
I have a HUGE Anti-Whine (what a week of extremes around here...): On Friday evening I have the privilege of conducting a marriage ceremony for two lovely young women in our church. It will be my first equal marriage despite our having been an Affirming ministry for three years.
Turns out that most GLBT's have been so harmed by the church that they don't usually consider a church wedding - they mostly go to city hall. This couple did not want to exclude their faith from their marriage ceremony, so they came to our church. I'm pretty excited about it - we've put together a beautiful service for them.
Sue, that's lovely. I'm sure you'll conduct a wonderful ceremony. Good luck staying calm amidst the emotional rollercoaster.
Elizabeth -- ticks. Ick. I plead no contest.
Kathy a., so sorry this week is full of worries. I am wishing hard that the powers that be get their act together and avoid the rodeo this year.
Wow, what a week! Yay for the good stuff! (Baby! Weddings! And more! Oh my!) Boo for the yucky stuff! (Bugs, more bugs, and still with the bugs already!)
This feels a little ridiculous, but here it is anyway. I'm sitting in a pile of grief, and I'm having a hard time digging my way out of it. It is mostly for things that are one or two steps away from me, yet I'm feeling it more acutely.
Most notably, my friend recently announced she was pregnant, right as I was getting ready to get rid of all my baby stuff. I was so excited to be able to pass it to her, and a week later she went in to the OB for an ultrasound only to discover that the hearts were no longer beating. It was twins. She had to have a D&C. I'm just so sad for her, but there is so little I can do for her since she lives 8 hours away.
Right about the same time, an old friend from my childhood found me through Facebook. What a joy! A week ago, he uploaded some old pictures from high school, and in several was another friend of mine (K) I'd lost touch with and have wondered about over the years. It was my friend's sad job to tell me about K's untimely and mysterious death a few years ago. Somehow, I thought I'd be older than 36 when I entered the "Oh hey, did you hear So-and-So from school died?" stage of my life.
Also, my birthday was yesterday, and for some reason 36 is unexpectedly kicking my ass. I don't feel old, but I feel old. I can't explain it. I think I just liked 35 a whole lot better.
oh, amy. xoxo it is terrible to find out that a long-lost friend is now gone, and so young. and i'm so sorry about your friend losing her babies.
sue -- a million hearts are behind this wedding! many blessings to everyone involved.
amy, is there a takeout taxi near your friend that can deliver a meal from a nice restaurant?
If you were geographically closer, you'd be bringing her a meal, right?
And many hugs.
(((sue)) and ((amy)) I'm so sorry.
Esperanza, yay!
Whine: My 8yo, who was diagnosed as being "on the OCD spectrum" a few weeks ago, seems to be doing her best to confirm the other comments the psychiatrist made, like "inflexible brain", "difficulty with change and transitions," "wanting everything to be exactly the way she thinks it should be," and "low frustration tolerance". And especially the "wants to get other people to do things the way she thinks they should be done" part.
One thing that I found encouraging was that, whenever someone asked us if she picked at herself enough to cause injury or anything like that, we were able to say "Oh, no, she doesn't do anything like that. Whew. Glad we don't have to deal with that one."
Except that, today, when I was brushing her hair, I realized that she has bleeding/scabbing wounds on her head. Multiple little open wounds. She's been brushing her own hair most of the time lately, so I hadn't noticed.
I asked her if her head has been itching. She said, "Not really. I just pick at it when I'm bored."
I said, "But, honey, you're making your head bleed. That's not good for your scalp."
She said, "Oh! THAT must be what that wet, oily stuff I was feeling was. Interesting."
Still trying to get up the nerve to blog about this whole thing. Slowly telling friends and family, church leadership, etc.
Worrying about how telling people may affect their opinions of her, of us, their interactions with her, and her future. Will it impact her future if we tell people that she's on the OCD spectrum? If I blog about it? That it's in her medical and mental health records now?
Still trying to decide on a therapist. I think we're just going to go to the one the psychiatrist recommended.
This is hard. Getting my head around the "No, you're not imagining things or worrying needlessly. No, you're not crazy to be concerned. No, this is not normal. Yes, we're in for the long haul."
It's not going to just go away. And it's not easy.
Can't Tell, remember that your family is not married to the first therapist you pick. If your daughter and the therapist don't click, you can try a different therapist! Which means that you don't have to add extra pressure on yourself to pick the perfect therapist the first time out.
Also, as your daughter gets older, you'll probably switch to one that works better with adolescents, etc.
Sending many hugs and supportive thoughts.
(((((amy))))) I'm so sorry. And a belated Happy Birthday to you.
(((can't tell)))
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