Because this one should be committed to posterity.
The rest of the evening:
For the majority of you, you may have already read the Papillon parts of this evening's adventures. Here are the rest.
The lawn must be mowed each week no later than Tuesday, because yard inspections are on Wednesday. I wanted to do it earlier in the day when Caelan was napping, but discovered I was out of gas for the mower and couldn't go get any while she was sleeping. I discovered around then, also, that being outside in that much heat and humidity made me actually feel sick and faint. Thus decided to mow the lawn when it was a bit cooler out, around 6pm. I let Ryan know that I would be mowing the lawn and to keep an eye on Caelan. I sneaked out so Caelan wouldn't see me go and be upset.
Starting the lawnmower: Lost my grip on the cord, which recoiled back at my hunched body, snapped hard across my boob, and left a red welt. Painful.
Mowing: Had finished approximately 2 1/2 laps of the front lawn when I felt something small crawling up the back of my legs. Stopped the mower because I knew that feeling all too well. Fire ants. Nasty, horrid, biting creatures. They're tiny, but their bites STING and leave blisters. Suddenly I started feeling the stinging on my (ummm...) butt, and it HURT. I was trying to brush them off as quickly as possible, but they kept biting. People driving by had to have been looking at me like I was insane, and wondering why on earth I was grabbing my own ass. Finally ran inside as the pain was killing me. Ran to my bathroom and made sure I got them all off. However, Caelan saw me come in, and was NOT happy when I had to go out again.
Had just barely started mowing again when Caelan comes wandering out, followed by Ryan explaining that Caelan was sad and wanted to see me, followed by Papillon at high speed. I told Ryan to take Caelan back inside while I rounded up Papillon. Caught her within a very short time, just two houses away. Brought her back inside with implicit instructions that no one was to open the door again.
Had just barely started mowing AGAIN when Papillon tears out of the house again. Looked around the corner to find Christian standing there saying he wanted to come outside to play. Put him back inside with dire threats to his life, grabbed Papillon's leash, and went off again. This time she wasn't playing around. She took off across the street, into the wide open area between the houses and the church, and didn't stop there. Every time I got close to her she took off running again. It is NOT good to have a dog running loose on base. I could get in trouble, or worse JEFF could get in trouble. I ran and ran and ran after her for at least 20 minutes, breaking down into absolute sobs because I was so upset that I couldn't catch her, the kids were far away home alone, I was tramping through bushes and trees and houses being demolished because they have asbestos in them, and seething every foul word I could think of toward my dog. Finally she just got tired of running and let me hook her up to the leash. I was not very nice to her on the walk back.
Once I got Papillon firmly locked away in her porch I STILL had to finish mowing the damn lawn. I went inside to make sure the kids were all right (Caelan was crying profusely). I calmed her down, and went to bring her to my neighbor to take care of so I could finish mowing. Neighbor was at church, so returned her to the care of her brother. I saw her come stand at the window by the front door, and she was able to watch me mowing, so that helped.
Finished mowing the lawn, came in, made supper for everybody, ate supper, gave the kids a bath, put them to bed, took a loooong shower myself.
Sat down to watch a little tv, and was pleased to find that both GG and VM were on at the same time on channels next to each other, making it very easy to switch back and forth between the two.
Decided I wanted a nice cup of hot tea to cap off my day, so I grabbed the teapot that I use quite frequently (not only for myself, but I discovered that it holds the exact right amount for filling up Papillon's water dish). As a matter of fact, I had just a few minutes before used it TO fill up Papillon's water dish. I picked up the kettle to fill up, heard a distinct skittering, and dropped it like a hot potato. Folks, not one, but TWO HUGE cockroaches were in my kettle. One of them fell out and I grabbed an empty cereal box and squished it. I grabbed the lid for the kettle, capped it, and ran hot water down the spout. Shook it up, ran to the bathroom, dumped it, flushed. Grabbed the nearest bottle of cleaning fluid (Scrubbing Bubbles), and emptied about half the can into my toilet, flushed five or six more times, and went back to the kitchen to sterilize my teapot.
This one's predictable, but, yeah. Pumped three shots of foaming dishsoap into my kettle, added water, and put it on to boil. Decided to sit down for a minute, and a very short time later realized I was hearing an odd sound from the kitchen. The sound, of course, was my closed tea kettle arcing a two foot high fountain of soapy water all over my kitchen through the steam whistle hole. That's about when I decided my day was officially done. I give up. I got nothin' left, but to come in here and update my journal. And that is all.
For the majority of you, you may have already read the Papillon parts of this evening's adventures. Here are the rest.
The lawn must be mowed each week no later than Tuesday, because yard inspections are on Wednesday. I wanted to do it earlier in the day when Caelan was napping, but discovered I was out of gas for the mower and couldn't go get any while she was sleeping. I discovered around then, also, that being outside in that much heat and humidity made me actually feel sick and faint. Thus decided to mow the lawn when it was a bit cooler out, around 6pm. I let Ryan know that I would be mowing the lawn and to keep an eye on Caelan. I sneaked out so Caelan wouldn't see me go and be upset.
Starting the lawnmower: Lost my grip on the cord, which recoiled back at my hunched body, snapped hard across my boob, and left a red welt. Painful.
Mowing: Had finished approximately 2 1/2 laps of the front lawn when I felt something small crawling up the back of my legs. Stopped the mower because I knew that feeling all too well. Fire ants. Nasty, horrid, biting creatures. They're tiny, but their bites STING and leave blisters. Suddenly I started feeling the stinging on my (ummm...) butt, and it HURT. I was trying to brush them off as quickly as possible, but they kept biting. People driving by had to have been looking at me like I was insane, and wondering why on earth I was grabbing my own ass. Finally ran inside as the pain was killing me. Ran to my bathroom and made sure I got them all off. However, Caelan saw me come in, and was NOT happy when I had to go out again.
Had just barely started mowing again when Caelan comes wandering out, followed by Ryan explaining that Caelan was sad and wanted to see me, followed by Papillon at high speed. I told Ryan to take Caelan back inside while I rounded up Papillon. Caught her within a very short time, just two houses away. Brought her back inside with implicit instructions that no one was to open the door again.
Had just barely started mowing AGAIN when Papillon tears out of the house again. Looked around the corner to find Christian standing there saying he wanted to come outside to play. Put him back inside with dire threats to his life, grabbed Papillon's leash, and went off again. This time she wasn't playing around. She took off across the street, into the wide open area between the houses and the church, and didn't stop there. Every time I got close to her she took off running again. It is NOT good to have a dog running loose on base. I could get in trouble, or worse JEFF could get in trouble. I ran and ran and ran after her for at least 20 minutes, breaking down into absolute sobs because I was so upset that I couldn't catch her, the kids were far away home alone, I was tramping through bushes and trees and houses being demolished because they have asbestos in them, and seething every foul word I could think of toward my dog. Finally she just got tired of running and let me hook her up to the leash. I was not very nice to her on the walk back.
Once I got Papillon firmly locked away in her porch I STILL had to finish mowing the damn lawn. I went inside to make sure the kids were all right (Caelan was crying profusely). I calmed her down, and went to bring her to my neighbor to take care of so I could finish mowing. Neighbor was at church, so returned her to the care of her brother. I saw her come stand at the window by the front door, and she was able to watch me mowing, so that helped.
Finished mowing the lawn, came in, made supper for everybody, ate supper, gave the kids a bath, put them to bed, took a loooong shower myself.
Sat down to watch a little tv, and was pleased to find that both GG and VM were on at the same time on channels next to each other, making it very easy to switch back and forth between the two.
Decided I wanted a nice cup of hot tea to cap off my day, so I grabbed the teapot that I use quite frequently (not only for myself, but I discovered that it holds the exact right amount for filling up Papillon's water dish). As a matter of fact, I had just a few minutes before used it TO fill up Papillon's water dish. I picked up the kettle to fill up, heard a distinct skittering, and dropped it like a hot potato. Folks, not one, but TWO HUGE cockroaches were in my kettle. One of them fell out and I grabbed an empty cereal box and squished it. I grabbed the lid for the kettle, capped it, and ran hot water down the spout. Shook it up, ran to the bathroom, dumped it, flushed. Grabbed the nearest bottle of cleaning fluid (Scrubbing Bubbles), and emptied about half the can into my toilet, flushed five or six more times, and went back to the kitchen to sterilize my teapot.
This one's predictable, but, yeah. Pumped three shots of foaming dishsoap into my kettle, added water, and put it on to boil. Decided to sit down for a minute, and a very short time later realized I was hearing an odd sound from the kitchen. The sound, of course, was my closed tea kettle arcing a two foot high fountain of soapy water all over my kitchen through the steam whistle hole. That's about when I decided my day was officially done. I give up. I got nothin' left, but to come in here and update my journal. And that is all.