Tuesday, June 23, 2009

SPT Challenge June 23



As per Lelly of Lelly's Musings, the self-portrait challenge for the month of June is as follows:

"your challenge for june is to find your way back. no matter what's been keeping you from blogging, each week you are going to find one small hurdle to overcome. one item to cross off of your to-do list. one pile to declutter. one meal to prepare. one (or ten) pounds to lose.

one thing each week that will bring you to your blog. too vague? don't worry. i have parameters!!

tuesday, june 9 meal-planning/preparations or other organized family time

tuesday, june 16 bringing the indoors outdoors for summer

tuesday, june 23 tackle a very unpleasant cleaning task

tuesday, june 30 i feel better already!"


Cleaning tasks, or cleaning in general, is what I consider a necessary evil in life. I don't like to live in filth, so I clean my house. Not as thoroughly or as often as other people might clean theirs, but enough that child protective services doesn't knock on our door to investigate rumors of squalid living conditions. Sometimes I've been known to invite people over for dinner just so I have motivation to clean, and if I get a hint of a whiff of news that company is about to drop in unexpectedly, I will hit the furniture with a Pledge wipe and fists of fury.

But overall ..... meh, its just something that has to be done. I feel no great sense of satisfaction or pride when the job is completed, and normally just want to have it done so I can move on to more fun things, like facebooking or scrapbooking or my guilty pleasure, watching Tim Hawkins videos on You Tube.

A few chores, however, that I *do* deem unpleasant:

Anything involving vomit, be it human or animal.

Anything involving poop, be it human or animal.

Anything involving blood, be it human or animal.

Anything involving bugs, period.

The past few weeks we have been victims of a particularly virulent ant infestation. Primarily located (but not limited to) the kitchen. Teeny tiny black sugar ants. (Is that what they're called? Sugar ants? Because that's where Blaine kept finding them.... in the sugar canister.) We've smacked, we've smooshed, we've drowned in the kitchen sink. Blaine has purchased bug spray and sprayed the kitchen enough times in the past month that we'll probably all grow a third foot or start to glow or something. And yet they return. And multiply.

The final straw came this week when we found them in our pantry. Specifically, in an open box of Corn Pops. And, crawling all over the bottom shelf.



I've drawn circles around all the little critters, to give you an appreciation for their number. And to give you an appreciation for the gasp of shock and outrage and disgust that spewed forth from my body when I discovered them. I mean, they're just ants, not those ginormous Amazon cockroaches or anything. But to find them in your food?? .... that you eat?? ..... with your own mouth?? ..... ewwwwwwwww.

And ps, I realize this is supposed to be a SELF-portrait, but you'll just have to imagine that you can actually *see* the shock and outrage and disgust, because that's the part of me that was oozing into the picture ....

Needless to say, the exterminator came yesterday.

But in the meantime, the unpleasant task of cleaning out the pantry .... fell to Blaine. Of course it did ..... would you expect any different?

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PS. Lelly announced a summer (?) hiatus on her blog today ..... selfishly, my first thought was, "How will I get my SPT Challenges if she's not updating?" Let's hope she continues to update at least weekly, or I'll have to think up my own SPT Challenges and you'll wind up with weekly pictures of me taking one relative or the other to the oncologist, because that's about all I do anymore.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Best ant control I have found, these Bait traps by Combat at Wallmart. Buy a couple boxes and put 7-8 of those suckers around the house. Works like magic, within a couple days. Whoever lived in this house before us had major ant issues and I got rid of them in less than a week.

Rita

Cheryl said...

Cinnamon! It is safe to have around the kids and pets, it smells good and it works wonderfully. I have even sprinkled it around the outside of the house. Try it!!

Cathy said...

white chalk. My mom swears by it although I haven't had to try it. She puts it on her window sill and around her door ways.

Missy said...

HA! These comments are making me picture the movie "Spiderwick" where the kids pour a circle of salt around the house to keep the little monsters out (I don't remember what the monsters were really called.)

Also: delurking to say I'm sorry about All The Cancer.

Alisa said...

oh those pesky ants. We had them when we moved back here to Oklahoma. I am trying to think what we used. It was all kitchen things. I think vinegar and then something else. But it sounds like you have already pulled out the big guns. Hope those pesky things have said good-bye!

Tracy said...

I've followed your blog for probably a year now and I finally have something to contribute! And if you already got rid of them, think of this for next time...
We tried everything for these ants...everything! But here's what has worked for us.
First, DON'T squish them!! They release a scent to the other ants and more come...I've done!
Second, go get some called Terro. It's in an orange box. You rip the little cards off the box and put terro on it. You leave it in an area close to the ants. Make sure the animals and kids can't get to it (so hide it behind stuff). It will look nasty (really nasty!) for a few days b/c there will be a huge mound of ants. After that, they will just disappear. You might have to "refill" the card, but that's fine. The ants take this back to their "nest" and it kills them off...until the next year at least...good luck!

Laura in Michigan said...

And here is my big contribution.... put everything that can get ants or bugs in it into a ziplock bag. So even if they do get into the closet, they won't get into the food.

Anonymous said...

I just had a little black ant cruising across my computer moniter. We have been invaded too. I hear cornmeal, if used for a few days, will kill them off because they take the cornmeal to the queen and eat it and cant digest it. But who the heck wants to pour cornmeal all over the place?
Suzy
Tanners mom (heart kid)
Rebeccas aunt (leukemia)