OK, in general, I don’t mind that we live in the country, amidst all sorts of wildlife. At night the sounds of crickets and frogs and owls have stopped irritating me and during the day, it’s nice that the birds and squirrels entertain the animals.

On the other hand, if said wildlife gets too close to me, it is NOT GOOD.

That attached itself to the doorframe the other night when Chop let Reggie out to pee. Now as a general rule, I am not scared of frogs, thank you very much, but Chop stepped back, said “Oh my god” in a way that made me think GIANT MAN-EATING SPIDERS and I looked up prepared to shriek. Being across the room, all I saw was a large black blob on the doorframe and him stepping back from the door. This, to me, indicated GIANT MAN-EATING SPIDER and my heart rate didn’t slow until the next morning.

Damn frog.

We have bees. Lots and lots of bees… and wasps. Where, you might ask? Excellent question. EVERYWHERE.

But mainly right at the front and back doors, which means I am not a happy camper when I have to leave the house.

Chop checked for nests, and it appears we have a few under the eaves (emailing the landlords…), but those appear to be wasp nests. So where the heck are the giant (seriously, the biggest freaking bees I’ve ever seen), coming from?

Could it be they are attracted to the daffodils planted around the house? Or perhaps the giant bush of something yellow in the yard? Or the flowering pink tree, which is either a cherry tree or a dogwood tree?

I do not know, but I do not like it!

When we moved the first time last year (haha), I sold our big air conditioner as the first house had two.

This place has two fans, but no air conditioning, and while so far that’s been OK, today the high was 70Ëš degrees outside and 78Ëš upstairs. Downstairs it didn’t get over 70Ëš, but since I’m sure that’s not far away, it’s time we start looking for a new air conditioner.

One problem. The windows in the living room? Totally oddly shaped. There are 11, but they are tall and skinny (probably less than six inches across), and I have NO idea where to find an air conditioner that would fit.

Anyone have any ideas? I’ve found a couple, but they are all over $300. I have my limits, lol.

Somehow, after months have passed, I always forget that I really don’t like being away from home, particularly when it’s for just a couple of days, I end up on a sofa bed (made of nails) and the fellow travelers are stressful.

In other words, I am sitting at the airport waiting to go home after spending two and a half days with my parents in Philly, and wondering why I thought this trip was a good idea in the first place, lol.

The only thing that is keeping me sane at this moment is knowing I will be at home and in my bed, in less than three hours.

So in case you’re wondering, the TSA considers peanut butter a liquid and won’t let you carry it on a plane.

Jam? Totally fine.

WTF

I’m leaving on Thursday to go hang out with my parents while my dad’s at a conference in Philly. While we’re there, my mom and I will be traveling to her hometown, putting flowers on the graves of my grandparents and visiting my Nana’s best friend Emma… who is in her 90s and still kicking.

I was trying to think of something we could do, or bring, this amazing woman who lives alone in the middle of nowhere, and I remembered a conversation I once had with my grandmother.

Every time she came to visit, she made cinnamon rolls from scratch, and I am telling you, they are the greatest things in the world. She’d get up early, mix up a batch of dough, let it rise for a few hours, then roll it out, spread the different ingredients on, roll it up and let it rise again for another few hours before she baked them in a brown sugar-butter syrup. One of my fondest memories of when I was young was eating the “ends” off the raw cinnamon-sugar-butter dough roll-ups before she placed them in the pan to rise and bake. She always made six pans (oh the deliciousness, normally two were gone on day one!), and I asked her what she did with them when she was at home (she had lived alone for over 20 years).

Oh I give them away, she said. The neighbors, your aunt comes and gets a pan and then I always give one to Emma. She loves my rolls.

So yesterday I shopped, and today I got up early and made the dough. And this dough? Not easy. For some unknown reason my mom and I have horrible luck with yeast, LOL. It’s either old, or our water is too hot, or the bowl is too cold, etc., but yeast is the bane of my baking existence. Amazingly, the yeast worked this time… granted, I bought it fresh yesterday, heated the bowl and used a thermometer to measure the water, but I was still stunned.

Now I’m waiting for it to rise and missing my Nana.

Update: Finished product!

I know I shouldn’t post this… but I must.

They’re back. And can I say, all three on the left are looking kinda hot. 🙂

Um, also, this is more for my sister than me, I swear!

I’ve been waiting for awhile to talk to my boss about getting a raise. My performance review was today, and I was planning to say, OK, this is what I need. And if they said no, I was going to start looking for a new job.

I flipped open my review and to my utter shock, saw my raise was going to be in the double digits, without me even asking.

I pushed for what I wanted (a difference of a couple thousand) and while they can’t go as high as I wanted, I’m still getting a huge raise and have plans to review adding to it after the summer.

Woot!

I recently taught my mom (again) how to instant message. Now, every afternoon at noonish, she IMs me good morning honey! and proceeds to tell me what she’s planning to do during the day.

And honestly? I LOVE it. Granted, one reason is that she doesn’t call me as much anymore lol, but it’s also nice to know she’s comfortable enough with the non-work computer to log in every day and chat.

Now if only I can get her to understand the shorthand without asking me to type it all out… 😉