Written on Tuesday, January 16, 2007 by Jessica
Thank goodness we're finally getting some actual cold. Thus far, we've had very little snow, and the lakes haven't even frozen yet. (No ice on the lakes in January? Unheard of!) Rumor has it that desperate ice fishermen have been rigging their tip-ups to float and then using a boat to put them out on the water. Not exactly sure how that would work, but I don't ice fish, nor am I an angler in any sense, so I guess I don't really care.
But finally some cold, which is a relief. As many of you know, I hate bugs, and the cold weather now will help keep bugs in check this spring. I've never been so hung up on cold winters before, but I've never lived in such a buggy house before. Not to mention the fact that cold winters were always a given, so I didn't have to worry about warm winters begetting plagues of earwigs.
Posted in
Fear and loathing in the blogosphere,
Our house
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Written on Tuesday, October 03, 2006 by Jessica
Seth and I stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's last night. It wasn't the original plan, though. Sitting on the couch last night, I noticed spots on the wall. What the heck? I walked over and saw I was infested with ladybugs. Not the real ones, which are unlucky to kill, but some lookalikes that have been infesting houses in the area for the past several years.
I've already discussed my phobia with bugs, especially ones that fly or hop erratically, but the big thing about phobias is that they are irrational. Ladybugs don't bother me. I went to sit back down on the couch when I saw a cricket running across right where I'd been sitting! The horror! Oh, how dearly I hate crickets. How to kill it??
First, I ran to get a glass to trap it, but I simply could not get close enough to trap it. Then I ran for a flyswatter, but when I returned, it was gone. I called my in-laws to ask if they had a minivac, but no such luck. I told her about the cricket. "What am I going to do?? I can't sit on the couch! Not 'til I kill it. But it's gone."
As I was bemoaning the lost cricket, I saw something on the carpet by the loveseat. It looked like some fuzzy lint, but as I approached. "Dear god, it's a stinkbug!" My mother-in-law asked if I wanted to stay there that night. Yes, very much.
I stomped on the stinkbug but couldn't bear to leave the cricket running loose, so pulled the couch away from the wall. Gone. So I gathered up my things and my baby and prepared to run away from the buggy house. That's when I spotted the cricket near the couch. He looked a little smaller, which made me wonder if it was yet another, but I banished the horrific thought, grabbed the flyswatter, and beat on it about ten times. Dead.
I began to consider staying in the house, even though I knew I would dream all night that crickets and stinkbugs were crawling on the baby. (I had similar dreams in the face of the minor earwig population.) But then I looked over, and under the baby's swing, was another cricket. Another beating with the flyswatter, and I was out the door.
I really wish my husband would come back home.
Posted in
Fear and loathing in the blogosphere,
Our house
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Written on Monday, October 02, 2006 by Jessica
One day in tenth grade biology, we had to dissect a giant grasshopper. Thank god it was already dead. I asked the teacher, whose name I can no longer remember, where these hideous creatures came from. North Carolina. That's when I decided I could never live in North Carolina.
Thanks to Ms. Zee and beloved Mr. Hop, I've also crossed Southern California off the list. (Actually, though, it was already off the list due to the San Andreas fault.)
I'm beginning to wonder if I should cross Michigan off the list. My new home, while not exactly infested with earwigs, has its share of the creatures. I hate bugs. I suppose it could be worse. At least I can kill* earwigs. I'm too terrified of grasshoppers and water crickets to get near enough to kill them unless I have a can of WD-40, which works wonders against water crickets. I don't know about grasshoppers, though.
*I can kill most earwigs. I completey mangled one the other day, though, and even though I was sure it was dead, it crawled off when I left the room. Hopefully it crawled off to die.
Posted in
Fear and loathing in the blogosphere,
Our house
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Written on Thursday, August 24, 2006 by Jessica
Yesterday we packed, today me moved, tomorrow we move in. I've promised to post photos before now, but I've never done it. I really need to post photos, but geez, dial-up is such a pain.
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Our house
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