nekosensei

* I shouldn't kill spiders in my house, but I do because I am terrified of them. If they're outside, I have no problems. If I find them inside though? SPLAT they go! The same goes for centipedes. If I catch them crawling on a wall, they end up on the bottom of my shoe in no time flat. I hate centipedes the most of all, and I don't even want to get close enough to them to catch them with a wadded up piece of tissue or toilet paper!!! So...under the shoe they go.

Any critter with more than six legs gives me the creeps, and the more legs they have, the worse I hate them.

* Dan wasn't too happy with me earlier this afternoon. I stretched while reading a book and knocked over a lamp. The lamp itself is fine, but the bulb inside it broke. Worse, I didn't realize that the bulb contained mercury until after I picked up the broken pieces with my bare hands. So...if I start acting a little nutty, you'll know why. (Me being nutty is a little par for the course, so in reality, nothing will really change much).

Oh...I also have to replace a cat bed and some cat toys because the lamp fell on them. I could have probably gotten away with cleaning the cat bed really well, but I didn't want to take any chances. Besides, Cosette already has random kidney issues. The last thing we need is for her to come down with any more problems.

* Weeded and turned over my vegetable garden today. I'm planning on growing eggplant, pepper, and squash so I probably won't plant anything until May. I was thinking about growing tomatoes as well, but now I'm not so sure. According to the farmer's almanac, it's supposed to be rainy and cool again this summer. Last year, my tomato plants didn't do so well because it didn't get hot enough.

* After I cleared my veggie garden, I rested for a bit and then started working on weeding and clearing one of my flower beds. I still have to work on the bed next to the garage though, but I think I'll leave that until tomorrow. I also want to do some weeding in the way back. As for big projects, I'd like to put some more cedar chips out in the beds out front and in the way back. I think I'll leave that for when I have a little bit more time, probably in late May. I'm also going to need to borrow a wheelbarrow and a bigger shovel. Lastly, I'd also like to buy a Japanese maple for that one spot I've been meaning to fill for ages. I take it that I should probably wait until May to plant a tree though, huh?

* Man Receives Ticket While Walking From Car To Parking Meter -- Ninja police officer! (Swiped from popfiend)

* Watched Episode 2 of Doctor Who with doomsey and judygs. ( Click here for minor spoilers )

When I make an appointment for someone to come out to take care of the wasps' nest on Friday between nine and twelve, I expect someone to, you know, actually come out...not to blow me off and, when I call at two in the afternoon to ask when they're coming, tell me that I don't have an appointment today. And to make matters worse, don't read back the note in my file saying that I had an appointment today and then tell me that the reason no one is coming out is because I talked to someone in Memphis. Another sure fire way to piss me off is to not explain why I'm not getting service because "I talked to someone in Memphis" when I say that I don't understand. And if that did matter, why wasn't I transfered to the Illinois offices? I gave them my zip code at the beginning of the phone call. Your computers transferred me there. Oh...and you could also apologize. This is obviously your communication fuck up and not mine...so don't give me excuses and *definitely* don't treat me like it's my fault. That is a fine example of bad customer service. Bad bad bad bad bad.

Fortunately, my contract with these bozos has a money back guarantee. All they have to do is pull this shit a few more times and I'm going to ask for my money back...

Oh...the only reason they're coming in an hour is because I chewed someone out. I told them, "I'm upset because I waited around all day today because...duh...'somebody in Memphis' told me that I had an appointment today betweeen nine and eleven".

[ETA: Sheesh. They sent someone out who doesn't have a ladder. They have to come back tomorrow].

[Another update: I talked to the person they sent out. Apparently Memphis is *notorious* for setting up appointments and then not bothering to tell the local office].

Dear cosettemonster,

I know you really like to chase bugs, and that's nice. I really do appreciate it when you reduce the bug population in our house. However, today you were being particularly annoying. You kept pouncing on the screen door this evening in a futile attempt to chase the moths that were outside. Obviously could not get at them through the closed screen door. While you were doing this, I was catching and killing quite a few carpenter ants that had managed to make their way into our bathroom. This should be your job since I'm not a cat and I don't like playing with or eating bugs. Can you please focus more on chasing the bugs you can catch rather than the ones that are outside and you can't? Thank you.

Now that it's summertime, a lot more bugs have been getting into the house. Fortunately, it seems like we're getting less carpenter ants in the house since I sprayed around the foundation a few days ago. I've been killing less of them lately. The occasional winged insect, which the cats love of course, will get through the door though.

arwenmonster seems to think I need to work on my hunting / bug catching skills more. Or maybe she's think that, between doomsey and me, I'm the bug hunter because I tend to kill more of them...mostly the stray carpenter ant here and there. Another theory is that she's trying to plot my death...or other forms of unpleasantness. Last night, I was sitting reading about the massive amounts of drama and angst that's been occurring on LJ this past week, when arwenmonster thought it would be cute to chase a bug-- a wingled black and red beetle of some sort-- in my general direction. It ended up crawling on my arm. And she was sitting on the floor looking at me with those cold, calculating eyes of hers..the little shit. It mustn't have been too entertaining because I flicked it off of me and continued reading.

That reminded me of something not so cute that cosettemonster did to me when she was a kitten. I was working on the computer in my basement when she chased a centipede up my pant leg. I felt something tickling my leg, and for a second I thought it was my jeans or the cat doing something bizarre. I could hear her doing something underneath the desk. She was a kitten after all, and most kittens are synonymous with trouble. At some point, it got annoying, so I started shaking my leg. I looked down to see a centipede crawl out of my pant leg. Of course, I screamed, scaring the shit out of the cat in the process. She never did THAT again...

doomsey and I walked downtown to pick up a card for the wedding we're going to today. They have a *ton* of cicadas out that way. You could see them on plants and trees while shells and dead bugs were littering the ground. You couldn't help but step on them. Also...the noise they made sounded like the ants from an old horro movie called Them. Fortunately, we don't seem to have that many out by us yet. I walked around my yard, and I only saw one or two shells on my front tree. That's it.

So...I wonder if we're not going to get them as bad as some places...or if they don't come out until later here...

In an hour, it will be May 22nd, which is otherwise known as Emergence Day. Allegedly, this is the day that the seventeen year cicadas will come up from the ground. Time to invest in a new pair of earplugs...