This has been a very tough couple of weeks for me and Sarah.
Walter, my mom’s repair man, has been running in and out of the house for days and days. He keeps making stinky painting smells and banging on things. Sarah and I have been trying to keep up with all our barking and monitoring of the situation, but frankly, it’s EXHAUSTING. We have practically run our short little legs to nubins keeping up with it all.
Now, with everyone gone, Mom and I (oh, and Sarah) are enjoying the quiet. Mom is also recuperating from a bit of a strange situation today.
See, coming back from the gym after lunch, she was driving past the Catholic church in our little town. Out front a woman was jumping up and down and waving her arms, looking frantic. My mom pulled over to see what the emergency was. Surely there must be a fire, a heart attack or some such emergency that required assistance, right?
As mom stopped and began to fumble for the window button in my dad’s unfamiliar car, THE WOMAN JUMPED INTO THE CAR!
“Thanks for the ride! I really appreciate it!”
What?!? Mom doesn’t pick up hitchhikers! In fact, this woman wasn’t a hitchhiker. She was someone signaling an emergency. Or so Mom thought anyway.
Well, the woman strapped herself in and proceeded to tell Mom that she needed to go to the apartment complex about a mile up the road, all the while thanking her profusely for kindly stopping to pick her up.
Mom said that the woman was too drunk to do any real harm aside from gassing up the car. And since she was hardly wearing any clothes she couldn’t be concealing a weapon. So Mom went ahead and took her there, figuring it would just be faster than trying to convince the woman that she was only stopping for a fire or heart attack, not to give anyone a ride.
It has taken all afternoon for the boozy smell to wear out of Dad’s car. I noticed that Mom also spent some time figuring out how to work the locks and windows on Dad’s car too so it doesn’t happen again.
By the way, I just took a look at Mom’s To-Do list for the weekend. Some of the items:
- Make goat cheese
- Make parmesan cheese
- Mow the lawn
- Clear tomatoes and store Texas tomato cages
- Spread manure
- Turn compost pile
- Rake leaves
- Cut back wisteria vine
- Plant 1,000 bulbs
- Transplant bushes
- Repot some houseplants
- Finish re-organizing kitchen cabinets
- Make coming home dinner for Dad and Ben
I have a pool going on how many of these items she gets done. Email me if you want in.
Arf Arf!
–Sophie (Bumblebee’s Dog)
Robin
Who needs to go out to dinner when you can make delicious home made pizza at home?
Especially when SOMEONE ELSE is making the pizza! See, at our house, pizza making is a family affair and both of my guys into the act topping their pizzas with their own personal concoctions. My sole contribution is the home made pizza dough that I make in the bread machine. Total time effort on my part? About 5 minutes.
After that, I sit back, relax and enjoy the show.
I’m not sure where I got the recipe, but it’s a total hit here.
Robin
I don’t generally air my vermin and pest control problems in public, but in this case, I will consider it a public service.
We have been besieged this fall by fruit flies. They are EVERYWHERE. They particularly come out in the evenings, for some reason.
When I was a kid in the South, we called them gnats. Now that I’m all sophisticated, I call them fruit flies just like all my sophisticated friends.
It’s not the first time this particular plague has visited. But some years just seem to be worse than others. I recall one year—before I figured out all the ways to avoid and trap fruit flies—I resorted to sitting on the couch to read armed with the vacuum cleaner, which I had to turn on from time to time to suck up the fruit flies that had congregated near me. It was really ridiculous.
Since then, I have tried water-starving my plants (which they do not like). I have also tried the paper cone trap, the wine trap, the potato in the plants trap and, as mentioned, the high-tech vacuum cleaner trap. If you are similarly besieged and favor home-grown solutions, here’s a handy roundup of gnat, errr, fruit fly traps you can make yourself:
Get Rid of Fruit Flies
Frankly, the best option I have found is not a home-grown trap at all. Although they are marginally effective, the BEST traps are from Gardener’s Supply. They are natural fruit fly traps. You can also buy these lovely, decorator soapstone trap holders that I am sure you will want to keep on view year-round, even after fruit fly season.
Even as I write, I have a glass of wine at my desk. Also on my desk is one of these traps in a lovely soapstone holder. Instead of going for my wine, they are flocking to the trap. Sweet!
So where have I been?
I have been absolutely immersed in home repairs. Now that I can take some time from work to look around the house, I see how much has been neglected. Walter, my handy home repair guy has been here from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for two weeks straight fixing, painting and sprucing things up. You would think I lived in a hovel of desperate proportions with all he has had to do. And when I’m not spotting him on a high ladder, answering questions, peering at paint colors, fetching supplies or doing my own home improvement projects, I have, in fact, been working at my real job.
The guys are going for a college visit to Harry’s alma mater, The Citadel, this weekend, so for me this weekend is garden cleanup time. I might finally get those bulbs in the ground too.
Ciao!
Robin
