curiouser and curiouser

You know that time-consuming Good Deed I mentioned a while back? About the kid I was helping get to college? Long story short, he wasn't planning to attend until his two baseball coaches pulled strings and encouraged him. But it was June and he had only filled out a fraction of the paper work. He's a first generation college student and totally clueless--didn't even have an email account or housing arranged. Well, I spent hours talking on the phone with this community college in Alabama, researching online figuring out what was required of him, filling out forms with him and explaining the loopholes and hoops of registration, financial aid and student services. I thought for certain this thing would blow up in my face and he wouldn't even get down to Alabama. Well, he texted Mr. D last night from his Alabama college where his is getting started at last. I feel such relief! And I mentally ticked that item off my "to-do" list.

Speaking of jumping around, I have pulled so many frogs out of our pool that I keep looking over my shoulder for this guy:

Think frogs are bad? Wait until I send the locusts!

They're not plague-like, but they are everywhere. Heck, I even found a dead one in our bedroom. Yes, you read that right. In. Our. Bedroom. WTF?

But the really unusual thing around here are the dragonflies. I do admire dragonflies--their iridescent colors, their fragile wings, their gentle manner. They are swooping and swirling all over our yard in big swarms--devouring mosquitoes like crazy. Usually I see a few dragonflies, never 50 at a time. It's fascinating to watch them swarming around in such huge numbers.

And speaking of mosquito-eating bugs, I also came nose to nose with a huge spider in the shower the other day. My reaction was something like this:


After regaining my composure, I squashed it viciously with the shower curtain and then made sure every bit of its 8 legs made it down the drain. Normally I wouldn't be so violent, but it startled me and I was feeling pretty vulnerable, being naked and all.

Now I'm wondering what it was eating to grow so big in my shower like that ...

Posted in: because we're all carnivores, but her instincts were strong