A Buggy Tale

I posted this story on our Ravelry group and because not everyone is on Ravelry (poor souls), I'm posting it here too. We were discussing bugs and all their virtues (HA!) at knitting on Tuesday, then this happened:

After last nights conversation (and much laughter) about bugs and how they REALLY bug me, I had to tell you what happened last night when I got home.

Rox was the driver last night, and fine job she did too. I got out of the car to a dark porch which isn’t a bad thing because it does keep the bug population down (you know how they love that light). So I scrambled to get the door unlocked and open because you KNOW there are bugs just waiting for me!

No worries…got inside unharmed (and un-crawled-upon).

Fast foward to “getting ready for bed” time: I’m in the bathroom, sitting on the toilet (tmi?) and I see a bug in the shower which is directly in front of me. After closer inspection I think it’s some kind of large ant (yeah, I say to myself, another weird Maryland bug) so I leave it alone, knowing Mike will be upstairs any minute to rescue me. If he weren’t home I would have got a shoe (biggest and baddest I could find) and squashed it pronto. So I turn my bad to the shower (first mistake) and start brushing my teeth. Here comes the bug, flying at me! Ok, so maybe not AT me but pretty darn close! Not only can it fly but I’m pretty sure it had a yellow and black striped butt in the fraction of a second I saw it before flying out the bathroom door, slamming the door behind me. (second mistake) Whew…escaped death!

I finish brushing my teeth in the hall bath and proceed to wait for Mike to return from walking Gracie. It took a while, Gracie’s tummy has been disagreeable the last couple days, but he finally shows up and I point to the bathroom door and say, “BUG! Maybe a BEE!” He is very calm. He opens the door, walks in and closes the door behind him. Brave man I married. A few minutes later he comes out and says, “I can’t find it.” I say, “I can’t sleep with a bee!”

More looking…“I just don’t see it.”

“I can’t sleep with a BEE!”

More looking…”I’ve looked everywhere.”

“I can’t SLEEP with a BEE!”

“OK”, he says, “Let’s read for a while and I’ll look again.”

You can imagine…I had visions of this bee flying into the bedroom at night stalking me…or with the bathroom door closed, crawling under the door…you who don’t like bugs either can imagine the many, many ways in which bugs plot to GET us. Well, I can.

Scratching at the bedroom door…it’s Gracie who wants out again (tummy troubles). So after another walk, Mike tries to find the bug again.

There is a happy ending (and sleep for me); the bee flies out and Mike catches him and gives him a nice swim in the bathroom pool…otherwise known as the toilet. Whew!

So the answer to the questions posed to me last night… 
Yes, I confess, I am a bug-a-phobe. But out in the world I shall go, heart beating faster, in fear of other bug-attacks…until the weather turns too cold for those darn creepy crawlers (and flyers)!

(And thanks by the way…for the listen!)

School Start & Birthday

Here's the first day of school photo of Justine and her girlfriend.  The freshman went alone on Monday, then everyone joined them on Tuesday.  Very sensible I think.  

(You can't really see it, but on Justine's shirt are a bunch of Scottie dogs...which is very cool for me because that was our mascot at my high school...Go Scotties!)

So here we are on Tuesday morning and Joey, who is a senior is joining her.  Can you tell he is totally annoyed with me for making him take a picture?  Well, it's my last chance...his LAST first day. 

Justine go-carting with her friends at her birthday party!  

Best idea ever:  Have your teenager have her slumber-birthday party on the first Friday night after school starts.  It was amazing how quiet they were!  haha

Eek!

This is the time of year that the lovely State of Maryland starts to get spiders.  Now, don't get me wrong, I'm sure there are spiders year round in our lovely state but this time of year they are extremely visible...and so are their webs...and they are HUGE. To clarify: huge webs and huge spiders.

Yesterday I was walking Gracie so she could visit the toilet, known to you and I as the world.  It was early so apparently some other walker hadn't swept the sidewalks of spider webs and I walked directly into one.  And as I'm pulling web from my face and arms, I look down and there is a spider on my shirt...A HUGE SPIDER....ON.   MY.   SHIRT! No doubt my screeching could be heard across the river at the Naval Academy possibly as far as Florida. The spider, of course, jumped right off and scurried away as fast as he could, probably more scared than I was.

 Here's what it looked like:

Here's what it felt like:

Summer 2013: Cunningham Falls State Park

We visited Cunningham Falls in the Catoctin Mountains this summer. It's about an hour or so, north of us. The Falls weren't that full but it was fun to hike there, about 1/2 mile from the parking lot.  It is a 78 foot water fall, but the trees are so overgrown, we couldn't get a photo of it.  It's a lot like our beloved Green Valley Falls in San Diego (but bigger).

 Joey, the rock climber.

 Mike, the rock jumper.

 All kinds of interesting things in the forest.

 Aren't photos of people eating weird?  

 That's not a bug on my nose...it was still healing from my surgery. 

Sandy Point State Park

We are lucky enough to live a mile or two from one of Maryland's State Parks.  It's a great bike ride from the house over to the park and in the afternoon/evenings in the Fall we can always see herds of deer hanging out. The beach isn't sandy (like the name might lead you think) but rather dirty.  Yes, dirt. It's an interesting color too, like the color of baby sh**.  And it's rough on your feet, full of rocks and shells...ouch!

So after our picnic one evening, while the guys were playing Frisbee, Justine and I took a walk on the beach. 

It has wonderful view of the Bay Bridge, too.

I should also mention that while eating our sandwiches, we saw the BIGGEST  wasp in the whole, wide world!!!  No joke it was about 2 inches long and looked so scary.  I did my best not to freak out.  

Exciting Stuff of Late

 I finished a sweater...first of three.  It's called Troian.  

 I went to a Wine and Canvas with my knitting friends!  We drank wine, ate dinner and painted a painting!  It's a spin off of Monet's Waterlilies.  Very fun!

 Justine is getting to know the mascot of her new school...the Bruin of Broadneck!  Bruin=Bear

 Then a wonderful surprise came in the mail!  PomPom magazine...all the way from the UK.  It was wrapped in tissue paper with a hand written sticker.  I bought it mostly because of a sweater pattern PicnicKnits has in the issue, but I love most of the patterns.  I thought it would be more like a magazine but it's like a pattern book instead.

So that's some exciting stuff going on around here.

Summer 2013: Visit to Rosaryville State Park

 Hmmm...which way do we go?

 Veronica hiking...

 Padre hiking...

Me, um, well you get the idea.

 Beautiful day!

 HI YA!!

And a little Frisbee in the parking lot before heading out!

Justine took all these photos. The weather was so nice and the trail was nice an shady.  This State Park is about a half hour from our home.  The trail is for hikers and bikers.  So nice to have this beautiful forest so close to home.