ANTS IN MY COFFEE, NOT MY PANTS

I hopped out of bed this morning like an english muffin from a hot toaster port... ready for the day. I am one of those sick individuals who wake happy and ready to go. Most days. I have had a few slow goes. Today my morning began with getting a great email and that's always a good start. Big smile!

So I go into my kitchen and make myself a nice hot cup of chai tea, shake a bit of powdered creamer in it, give it a stir... and there in the middle of my froth and foam twirls a little ant. I gave him my morning salute, which includes several words I can't even find a cute way to put in my post. I don't just hate ants, I loath them, incinerate them with my brain waves, smash them, kill them with Windex... which works remarkably well, by the way... and even blow them away with a hot hair dryer whenever possible. There is something very satisfying in smiting ants with super heated air. ;-)

Ant seasn is here and what that silly little swimmer didn't know was that he sparked the begining of this year's war with the ants. It is an annual event that has no clear begining or end because it all depends on how tennatious they are and how crazed I get. You will be warned... many ant rants are likely to follow. If you have any idea how to get rid of ants, please feel free to share. In fact... I beg you!

I have had some interesting options offered to me over the years. One friend swore by cinnamon. "It really works..." she said and went on to explain that "All you have to do is lay a line of cinnamon around the edges of your counters. They don't like it", she went on, "It gets on their feet and they can't stand it." Desperation drives me to try these things. My ants liked it. My ants thought that I'd done such a super nice thing to provide some lovely smelling cinnamon... that they invited all their ant relations to come and party hearty. I really hate ants.



The cup of coffee up there isn't the chai with the ant jimmie. This cup was from a nice evening yesterday. I met my friend in the town to the left. We had coffee and then walked to the museum, where some of our students had work on display. I took my photos of the event, including some for the school newsletter of the girls with their work. They did an impressive job. Much better than my crappy photos.





It made for a nice evening. I do not socialize much. I'm more of a hermit. But this was a good change. I really liked sitting on the veranda and people watching. This town is full of old folk like me. They are a funny group. I found myself thinking that I might like to move there. Maybe sit here on a regular basis and people watch.

I am not good in social situations generally speaking. I tend to freeze up and go stupid. No words pop into my head beyond ah, um, er , and ehem. Yet in a work environment I can yak and have a great time. I was okay once we got to books. I can talk books all day long and into tomorrow. So I had fun after all.



I took this photo as I was leaving. Not a great work of art to be sure. No. It's my toilet. Well, one that looks exactly like my toilet at home. I have to ask... have you ever seen such an ugly piece of porcelin? Think of it as not having a batch of flora to give it grace. Who would want an avacado green toilet? There are some things from the 70s that I have not managed to forgive. Avacado and Harvest Gold are two of them.


So here are a couple of questions for you...

What past abomination, such as stupid colored toilets bugging me, do you wish were never created?

Do you know a solution for ants?

Well, I hope you have a great weekend. I see through my window that we have rain after several days of stunning sunshine. So it goes.