NEWS FLASH!!!

SHE GOT IT!!!

Yes fans, bug girl now is promised a walking stick bug!

Owen Cousino is the hero. He gets $5 and lots of smooches (ok - maybe not the smooches).
He should post his own account of the happy incident...but I understand it just fell out of a tree right in front of him!

Maryn is overjoyed.

If anyone out there finds another - I'm sure Maryn will pay up. They would be excellent trade material for fleas, cockroaches and other such nasties.

Beetles everywhere

Freud would be very interested to know that I actually dreamt I found a walking stick bug for Maryn! I myself was so astonished (either at the discovery or at the fact I was dreaming about a BUG) that I woke up. Incroyable. Sadly for Maryn, that dream did not come true.

What probably precipitated that dream (besides the bugs in my freezer) was an amazing discover y of perhaps the most disgusting bug ever. Vast quantities of them. Sorry Donal, I've got your Japanese beetles beat hands down - just ask Fiona. We were at the Cousino domicile (the house with "nature written all over it" as Michael says) dropping off a boat cover. We were wandering around "the grounds" looking at all of the new developments. (Fiona doesn't like the tunnel idea.) I had previously mentioned on a phone message that there was now a $5 bounty for a walking stick bug in good frozen shape. Lo and behold, we looked down, and there was a praying mantis. It was injured and thus rejected for Maryn's collection, but then we found another one. Hurray! Into a jar it went. We were walking around the back of the house and up the hill when I spied a moving black thing in the grass. Then another. Fiona started pointing them out too. Everywhere! About an inch long. Great big bulbous segmented back ends. Madly munching mouthparts. Some mating going on too. (For Lindsey's benefit - I'm sure.) Mrs. C. kindly proferred a freezer bag and we collected 11 of the grotesque awful things. So, I now had a freezer bag of writhing, scratching, maniacal unknown disgusting things in a freezer bag! The most awful part was that you COULD HEAR THEM SCRATCHING through the bag. Really, really, really awful. What if they escaped? Could they grab hold of the bag and chew through it? I drove home pretty fast. Actually I drove to Maryn's because I did NOT want those things around me for very much longer. Seriously. Stephen King would have loved it! Upon presenting them to Maryn, she said, "Awesome! What are they?" I have no idea, bug girl! But they are yours!

At first glance Maryn thought they were rove beetles - a harmless insect eating bug. Then she told me that in fact they are blister beetles. Yes, they CAN and DO make a human's skin erupt in huge awful looking blisters. No thanks. I am not touching those behinds. Good thing Maryn froze them dead before inspecting them or letting them crawl on her. Yuck. She did say as she felt them through the freezer bag, "Oh look, they have somewhat soft leathery feeling butts." Gross. Gross. Gross.

Yes, give me pig dissections in my kitchen any day over a bag full of blister beetles!

That's the news from bugland. The bounty for the walking stick bug still stands! Be on the lookout.....

NTM: Name That Movie

Wow! I am positively prolific! Thanks Lindsey for declaring me and Dad weird in a nerdy cute sort of way. Whatever that means. Hmm...what does that make you? Donal? Maryn? Lauren?

Quick: "I AM THAT HERO"
NTM (yup, name that movie)

Why am I that hero? Because I FOUND A SILVERFISH! Whoohoo ! I even managed to capture it and preserve it for posterity and Maryn in our freezer. Oh Happy Day!

Now for a walking stick bug...

Nicole?

A change in the theme...

This week's theme is "weird things people do in Church".

Yesterday's church cleaning yielded interesting tidbits...

The grape flavored "Laffy Taffy" was a special treat to clean up off the tile. Thank God it wasn't on the carpet. When I first came across it, I thought it was purple candle wax. There was a funeral sandwiched in my cleaning time, so I decided to wait to deal with it until after the funeral just in case I got in over my head. Daniel came and rescued me by helping mop the entire huge worship space. What a literal pain. My arm still hurts. Sigh. The only good thing about the candy on the floor is that it made the mop bucket smell better than usual!

Pepperidge Farm goldfish were popular this week. As were Cheerios.

I do believe I have mentioned before that "RAISINS ARE FROM THE DEVIL". Seriously, they make an absolute mess! Especially when someone steps on them, grinding them into the tile then smearing them onto even more tile with every step they take - think sticky raisin gunk scuff marks. If your kid makes a mess on the floor at Church, why don't you clean it up?!

Daniel told me that he saw someone text messaging during the Lifeteen Mass. Apparently he kept at it almost the entire time. Hmmm...somebody's Daddy is paying for an expensive service. Of course, he MUST have been texting the key points of the Homily, right? Last time I checked, God doesn't answer emails, at least not directly.

Our neighbors moved yesterday. Boo hoo. Hope the new ones are as friendly.

Today, MPM turns 6. Who'da thunk? Time really does fly.

TTFN