The ants go marching one by one

I haven't disappeared or been eaten by the ants that seem to have made themselves at home in my kitchen.

(What are they doing? I found one a foot from the ceiling this morning. What did he think he was going to find up there?)

It's not a crazy infestation, but I seem to kill about 3 a day.  Even with the ant poison.  I assume they're feeding the spiders.So I can't kill the spiders, because they're eating the ants. I'm starting to feel like the old lady who swallowed a fly.

The weird spring we've had (cold/cold/cold/hot/warm/hot/rain) means my garden is planted, but the mulch is still in bags. The BBQ is out, but I haven't used it. The ants ... well, I've already mentioned the ants.  (I think some of them came in on the blue box.)

Things are starting to wind down for summer.  I have 3 boxing classes left, and am looking forward to the break. Pathfinders is over, with the exception of camp next weekend.

I'm ready for the lazy days of summer.

Except that I have tons of plans already, and thus I'm not sure how lazy they will be.

I'm going to Chicago for a weekend, my sister is coming here for a week or so, then my mom & my niece are coming to visit. I also want to get canoe-trip certified, so that's a week somewhere in there.


And, of course, there's lying in the back yard reading a book and going for a bike ride, and walking down by the canal at lunch.

I can't wait.

Adventures in laundry

A few months ago, I started using vinegar instead of fabric softener.

I haven't really noticed a difference.

I wasn't sure how well it would work after it got nice enough to hang clothes outside, but I've hung them outside for the last few weeks, and it's not a problem.  The clothes get stiff, but no worse than when I wash them with fabric softener.

(The exception was the summer that I lost the cap for the fabric softener - man, my clothes were soft that summer.)

A bottle of fabric softener lasts a long time, and I was afraid I'd go through vinegar a lot quicker, but I'm still on my first bottle. I haven't done the math to see which is cheaper, but I suspect it's vinegar. It's also a lot fewer weird chemicals, which is really my motivation. 

I'm glad I tried it.

Missing: One Spring

Three weeks ago, Ottawa was preparing for a winter storm.

Twenty days ago, school buses were cancelled and many people stayed home (or worked from home) to avoid the snow.

Yesterday, I sat in the change room at the gym. I listened to the others talk about how glad they were not to have to put socks on, and thought to myself, "Why am I the only sucker still wearing socks?"

I didn't wear socks today.

And clearly the weeks (months?) I spent looking for shoes to wear between boot season and sandal season were well spent.

Finally

I hung my laundry outside today.

It's possible that it's actually spring - although it was still plenty chilly when I brought the laundry in.

The rabbits seemed to agree, since two of them spent quite a while chasing each other around the back yard - with frequent breaks to nibble on the lawn.

I haven't gotten around to picking up all the trash that accumulates over the winter yet, but let's face it, sometimes that doesn't happen until July.

Last Saturday, the local Scouts delivered some mulch and compost I'd ordered, and they had to trudge through slushy snow to do so, so we've made a lot of progress in the last week.

It's about time.

I'm lucky enough to be able to work from home, so when I came down with a cold on Monday, I took advantage of it. I stayed home until Wednesday, but yesterday I really needed to go on - In part so that I actually got tired enough to sleep.

I left early to avoid traffic, and then finished my day from home.

So this morning when I woke to ice falling from the sky*, I thought I'd stay home again.

Then I realized that the odds of me going grocery shopping after work were really low if I hadn't left the house yet, and if I went to work, I could go out for lunch, so I went in to work.

It took me a while to chip the ice ** off the car, but it actually was a faster drive than usual. Driving home was fast, too.

That would be the silver lining to the "snow in the middle of April" cloud.

* not freezing rain - ice pellets.

** the freezing rain was before the ice pellets

Wanda's beautiful nails

Not How I Like To Start My Mornings

Yesterday morning, I went out to the car and put my boxing bag and laptop bag in the car. (My gym bag was already at work since I didn't make it to the gym on Tuesday.)

I got in the car and, turned the key, and ... nothing happened.

I tried again. Still nothing. Basically, it was acting like the battery was very dead.

I popped the hood and examined the battery. It was still there.

I went in the house and called CAA, then I called work to tell my manager I wouldn't be in for a while. I couldn't work from home, because I'd left my laptop at work.

I called the garage to see if they could fit my car in. I consulted OC Transpo to see how to get from the garage to work.

I ate jelly beans and mentally rearranged my plans for the day.

After about twenty minutes, I got a call that CAA was five minutes away, so I went back out to the car.

It started.

CAA arrived and I told them it was going. I called my garage back and they suggested it might have been ever so slightly out of gear.

I went to work.

It has started without a hitch every time since then.

But I still bring my laptop home every day.