ants

We've been here in our house a long time. Luckily we moved in about a month before Ferris was born - so its always easy to remember how long we have been here.

Here we are on the day we moved in, all twenty-something and naive.
You can't really tell from this picture, but my round-wife is very pregnant. Doncha just love the flash-dance leggings and socks.

See the aluminum awning. My very-pregnant-nesting-wife made me take it down that very afternoon. We also ended up pretty much ripping off the front room and re-doing it.
Not to mention we have moved almost every window and door in the house over all these years...there's new siding, new roof, new furnace, new... don't even get me started on how my wife moves shrubs like they are folding chairs.

Ah.... I digress.

Being in one place for such a long time gives you the opportunity to see trends.
Over the years I have noticed that each summer season there is a plant and insect and and animal that seem to swell in numbers.

Last year we had this most pervasive weed ... It was easy enough to eradicate from the lawn and gardens, but I feared for the wildflowers and grasses out in our meadow. Remarkably, this year its practically non-existent.
Then there was the year we had so many so many slugs there was slug slime everywhere.
We put out cups and cups of beer that year. Oddly, Free Dog also put on about 5 pounds that summer. They too have all but disappeared.
huh.

This year, it ants. They are everywhere. I was sweeping the front walk and the next thing I knew my leg was swarmed. I was cutting the side lawn and noticed it looked like the ground was moving there was so many of them.
ick.

So ...while I may shepperd a single bug out of the house on scrap of paper or toss them one out the bathroom window in a cup... somehow I make peace with the mass genocide of the hose end sprayer.
go figure.

It was the 80's

I went to college in the 80's. The early 80's.
Sometime last winter my college roommate got in touch with me when she was going to be driving through the area. She suggested we meet for a drink on her way by.

I met her and her college age daughter and a restaurant just off the highway and we fell into familiar conversations as if we left our dorm rooms only recently.

She came armed with a photo album. I had no idea there were pictures...

She sent me a couple recently.

This is me and my roommate. I am guessing this is Spring Weekend -since we are drinking out of plastic cups. They rolled in trucks of beer with spigots on the side so you could basically refill all day long.
And yes, I am smoking. I was never without a Marlboro (and a Michelob... and a bag of weed).



Here I am with my favorite pals. Notice the black concert T. Key wardrobe essential for young lesbians.

I hear there is even a picture of the goldfish I bathed in the bathroom sink after he 'accidentally' fell into a bong.
Hmm, I wonder if there are pictures of our elevator keg party?