I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack..... !

Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else. ~Will Rogers

At least I hope I am!

To say that the last ten days or so were crazy would be a huge understatement. The worst part was when I lost internet for THREE DAYS. I thought I'd lose my mind. Day One, DH wouldn't let me tether my new phone to the computer (he wasn't sure how secure it was). Day Two, he got it set up, but STILL didn't like the security and strongly warned me to not use it except under desperate need. At the end of Day Two, I called the internet provider's customer service to find out when a repairman would be here, and the lady said, "We ran a test and show you have internet, so we canceled the ticket."

Um, yeah ... I was ready to murder someone.

Day Three, a repairman came by. Turns out that another worker had "piggy-backed" someone ELSE's internet on our port so it showed the port was working, it just wasn't making it to our house. So, he had to go check the three places it could have been done.

Finally, FINALLY three days and about two hours later, I had juice again! I'm fairly certain that my cheering could be heard for miles (Maria, did you hear it in Texas?).

However ... this put me SO far behind on LASR / WC / Goddess Fish work that I may never dig out.

Still, I miss you guys (and that would be one of the reasons why I didn't visit your blogs), so I'm trying to take some time and say "HI!!" to everyone. I haven't made it to all the blogs I love (my Google Reader was downright scary ... still is), but I'm trying!

We've also been busy getting my mom all set up for her place -- she moves in tomorrow. She's left behind much of her furniture (or hadn't had any to start with), so we've be scouring consignment stores, etc., to find decent pieces. Not an easy task -- there just isn't much out there. We've been visiting the dog park daily as well. Even though her dog, Bonny, is old and cranky she really LOVES going to the park and wandering around, sniffing and peeing and whatnot. In fact, in the mornings if we don't get going quickly enough, she'll go to the door and whine, and if we open the door, she runs to the car! It's funny.

I'd posted this picture on Facebook when it happened, but we stumbled across the most amazing moth a week or so ago. I'd pulled into this little parking area to cut through to the street where DD's new school is and I saw something huge fall to the ground. When I looked, it was moving! I jumped out of the car (yes, really ... wait until I tell you about the mouse) and scooped it up. Poor thing! It's nocturnal, and doesn't fly well in the day -- we took it to DD's school and put it in a tree to wait (safely) for night.


He's in the silk moth family (he's a Antheraea polyphemus) and was enormous -- probably 6" wide. I say "he" because the males have the super feathery antennae (and his were incredible). They're apparently decreasing in number pretty dramatically, but when I looked online to see about raising them indoors (there's a wasp that lays its eggs on the pillars, apparently squirrels like to snack on them, and the tree pruning is a huge issue), I couldn't find anything. I DID find information about raising Luna Moths indoors and I may have to give that a try someday.

Re: the mouse I mentioned, above. A few days ago, I was stopping at a stop sign when I saw something moving in the road. I stopped, put on my hazards and got out (yeah... I do that a lot). It was a mouse! He was running in tight circles and clearly afraid but he wouldn't run straight. I don't know if he was sick or injured or just confused, but I didn't want to leave him there, so I grabbed my ice scraper thing and "escorted" him off the road.

A lady sitting on her front steps was laughing at me, but even rodents need a little TLC, right?

Yes, I'm probably going to end up like the guy who got killed trying to get baby ducks off the highway.

As a side note, we still haven't found any pillars this year. It's the strangest thing! We've NEVER had this problem before, and I have to say it makes me a little sad and uneasy. DD is distraught.

OH... and here's an update on the field that Cigna owns. Do you remember I'd mentioned talking to a woman who works there who spoke to the man who arranges the mowing, and HE said they wouldn't mow until first frost? Well... a week ago, I walked out of the library (which is across the street) and they were MOWING!! In a way, if they were going to do it, now is a good time (before the monarchs are here), but even so, I'm furious. So, I guess trying to work locally isn't good enough. Time to start my email campaign...

I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but that's it from here for now. Hope everyone is well. Update me on your lives, would you? I'm so behind and feel a little lost!

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You Are a Fantasy Book

You can't help but see the world as how you want it to be. You are an idealist. You don't put bounds or limitations on your thoughts. You are a down to earth daydreamer. You can picture whole other worlds and lives. You have a very vivid imagination. You're the type of person who would like to believe anything is possible. You believe there's so much more to this world than what we see.

What Type of Book Are You?

That's about right :-)

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