Happy Meowloween, Everyone! :D

Horror Movies for Pets:

MORE BUGS?!? *sigh*...

OK, I will admit that there seems to be a disturbing pattern developing here with bugs.  SORRY.

Today we went with Lilly's Brownie Troop on a field trip to the Experiment Station to learn about (what else) -- bugs.  Note:  Lilly's troop is working toward earning their "bug badges".

Here they are "in the field" collecting specimens to study:

{Please note that the little boy excitedly clutching a milkweed beetle is *not* a Brownie Scout; he is apparently a tagalong (no pun intended -- HA HA) brother of one of the legit Brownie Scouts}.

After collecting several more species of specimens, we went inside to inspect them with magnifying glasses, and learn more.

Eventually they unveiled for us cases of specimens for our viewing pleasure.

The most amusing specimen, I thought, was this one:

This particular moth is of the subspecies gene-us simmons-us.  LOL, just kidding, I have no idea what kind it is, but it's hilarious.

Another interesting batch of insect specimens was the "Good Bugs vs. Bad Bugs".  I will sum it up for you as follows:

KILL THEM.  BURN THEM WITH FIRE:

and these:

Pet them and love them and call them George:

Very interesting to see how you could be easily tricked into thinking that the "good" bugs are "bad" -- JUST LOOK AT THAT 2-INCH BEE IN THE UPPER RIGHT CORNER!!!  O__o  And the "bad" bugs seem all innocent and unassuming -- a grasshopper?  And a cute, sweet lil' ol' butterfly?  Come on, now...

(Hmm...kinda like in real life)...who would you trust...

Crazy Uncle Charlie, Ph.D:

(good bug; good, sweet, honest bug)

~or~

BEWARE!  SOME RANDOM SERIAL KILLER!:

(BAD BUG!  EVIL!  BAD!  KILL IT WITH FIRE)!

Remember, folks, things usually aren't what they seem, and 
PERCEPTION IS NOT REALITY.

NOT EVER.

But, I digress.  *ahem*  Back to the bugs.

So as I began blogging this, my husband asked me if, during the course of the bug field trip, if I happened find out what kind of bug was on the top of our curtain that day.

Remember me?:

O__o  BRRRRR!

So I looked closer at the photos I took of the cases of specimens, and LO AND BEHOLD, lookie what I spotted (in the "Good Bug" section, no less (whew...thank God))!:

It's called a "Wheel Bug".  Who knew?

♪...It's a small world after all...♪

Anyhow, when we got home from the field trip, I noticed that my hibiscus put out what may very well be its last bloom of the season, so I walked down the driveway and took a picture of it:

...aah...so purty...

And as I was walking back up the driveway, what do I see, but a poor, huge, dead, praying mantis.  Apparently it had inadvertently been run over by one of our cars, or stepped on by one of our galoot dogs.  So, just like always, what did I do?  I yelled for Lilly to come check it out.  She carried it up to the porch, and slung it on the bench for safekeeping.  'Cause, you know, she's gonna play with it tomorrow.

*sigh*

What next?  This better be the end of bugs for a WHILE...!

LOL!

Wooly Sez...

Well, Fall is here, so that means Winter is just around the corner.  So here to tell us precisely what the Winter weather has in store for us is no other than...

That's right.  The good ol' Wooly Worm.

I had seen several of them speedily attempting to cross the highway as I was driving along recently, and just so happened to spot this excellent specimen speedily attempting to cross my very own driveway just this past weekend.

Lilly was in the house at the time of my discovery, so naturally I lifted up the leaf that it was on, it fearfully stood completely still, and I proudly marched into the house with it in tow.  After Lilly's brief and deadpan acknowledgement of "cool", I proceeded to happily march it back outside to return it to nature, when the unthinkable happened.  Unbeknownst to me, it had resumed crawling, started making its way off the leaf, and lightly brushed my finger for 1/10th of a second.  So of course I let out a bloodcurdling scream whilst flailing my arms like Grover on Sesame Street, and if memory serves, simultaneously performing some type of snappy little dance with my feet and legs.  During this dance (which I shall henceforth christen The GETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFF), I inadvertently must have slung the poor creature into next week.

However, upon reviewing the photographic evidence, Wooly clearly foretells with its black rings that this Winter most assuredly will have an early cold beginning, and then a late cold spell towards the end.  (Do NOT say "duh")!  LOL!

As an interesting side note, a couple of days later, I spotted yet another Wooly Worm (except this one was just inside the threshold of a building, curled up like a cheezy poof (mmmmm...cheezy poofs...),*ahem* and presumably dead -- someone else must have GETITOFF'ed it into the following week --, but this particular Wooly Worm had NO STRIPES WHATSOEVER.  It was completely just plain ol' solid brown.  So does that mean a mild Winter?  Let's hope so (but I seriously doubt it...after all, how could you possibly trust a swivelled-up ol' cheezy poof-of-a-worm that had been trapped up inside a building for who knows how long)...hmph!

As for me, I'm trusting the forecast of the Wooly that was cheerfully crossing my own driveway.  (Poor thing...I probably slung it all the way to Punxsutawney Phil's)...*sigh*  :/

Funnies From The Mailbox, Volume 2

Well, today THIS was coyly waiting for me in the mailbox:

WHAT IS THIS I DON'T EVEN...

(the fine print):

Step 1) WHAT...HOW...WHY?!?  (What a rip-off...I thought my insanity was perpetually concealed...now the mailman KNOWS)...!  >:P

Step 2) What if the company unknowingly mailed this type of thing to an *actual* asylum, and they did NOT find it amusing WHATSOEVER...

~or~

Step 3) What if the company unknowingly mailed this type of thing to a person who was just released from an actual asylum, and they got so freaked out and paranoid that it caused them to have to be re-admitted...

:/

It's like my mailbox is some kind of magic portal for random crazy, hilarious circulars!

Well played, wacky mailbox.  Well played, yet again.  I look forward to your next submission with great anticipation.  In the meantime, I guess I better ask for design #A231. 

;D

Ho Ho NOOOOO

So last night after Lilly got out of the bathtub, we were in her room, and she was buck naked; just about to get dressed.  Suddenly, something dawns on her, and she whirls around to worriedly ask me, "does Santa turn off his cameras when you're naked"?

After I finished horse-laughing, I explained to her that no, Santa doesn't have cameras, and that he only sees you when you're sleeping & knows when you're awake & if you've been bad or good (so you better be good, for goodness sake).  She was like WHEW and proceeded to get dressed.

LOL!

You can call me Al...

So I get the mail out of the mailbox today, and one of the envelopes allegedly has *IMPORTANT INFORMATION INSIDE* and instructs me to *Open Immediately*:

Waitaminit.  Did you see what I saw?

So of course I immediately think this:

And now for the past 4 hours, I CAN'T STOP THINKING this:

Oh, the *IMPORTANT INFORMATION* that was inside?

Apparently, I could be saving a bundle on my car insurance by switching to Geico.

Thanks a lot, Geico.  Thanks a lot.

♪Doo doo da doo...doo doo da doo ♪

Crap.

OH. MY. LORDY.

So I was just sitting on the couch having a quick breakfast between chores, my eyes wandering around the room, when something caught my eye.  Something on top of the curtain.    Something brown.  Assuming (and hoping) it was just a simple moth, I strolled over to have a look-see.  And this is what I saw:

OH. MY. LORD.  How does this happen?  And why does it always seem to happen to ME?  UHH!

So I stood there staring at it with my hands on my hips, pondering what to do.  First I considered waiting for Jamie to get home and forcing him to "take care" of it.  But then I had visions of the thing buzzing off and hiding somewhere else in the house, only to appear later, in a horrible place, such as under my bed covers.  So I knew what had to be done.  I went to the closet and retrieved a bucket, a towel, and my trusty purple fuzzy-duster-on-a-stick that we use more often to crush spiders and retrieve bugs from weird places than we do to actually dust.

I didn't know if the thing would fly off if I messed with it (and of course I had a horror of it getting stuck in my hair, or basically touching me in any way).  So first I gingerly maneuvered the purple fuzzy-duster towards the monster:

The thing FREAKED.  It was like "WTH"?!?  And all the while, my arms were literally like this:

I thought maybe I could gently rake it down off the curtain and sweep it into the bucket, put the towel over the top of it so it couldn't escape, and fling it outside.  But I was afraid.  It was kind of slowly attacking the purple fuzzy-duster.  I didn't want to just swat it down, because I was afraid it would go behind or under some furniture, to only appear later, and scare the living bejesus out of me.  So for what seemed like an eternity, I kept gingerly scraping at it with the purple fuzzy-duster until finally, FINALLY, it slowly crawled on, and I was able to set it out onto the porch:

CRISIS AVERTED.  WHEW!!!

I left it out there on the porch, and a little while later, I checked, and the thing was nowhere to be seen.  So I retrieved my trusty purple fuzzy-duster from the porch and stored it away for the next random psycho monstrosity of a bug that somehow manages to find its way into the house (I still can't figure out how this happens)!

I'm sure the thing is probably stuck on my back right now.  I have a feeling I'm gonna have the willies for the rest of the day.

***SHUDDER***

O__o

Crittur Luv

Well, yesterday morning, our kitty we've had for over 12 years, Bay-Bay, didn't show up for her breakfast.  I had a bad feeling that she was gone.  When Jamie came back from town, I mentioned it to him, and he immediately went to look for her in her favorite mouse-hunting spot. There he found her soft, fuzzy little gray body.  I was really glad that we were able to find and bury her, and know for sure that she wasn't off suffering somewhere.  We don't really know exactly what happened to her.  I suppose it's possible that she could have been hit by a car, but highly unlikely, since she always quickly ran away to a safe place the moment she heard one coming.  She had been getting skinnier and skinnier, and I had noticed her drinking more and more water lately, so I think she went the way of most kitties that live that long -- their kidneys inevitably end up failing them.  She was around 13 years old.  She didn't act sick, or like she felt bad in the least.  So I suppose if it had to happen, it happened the best way it could.  Needless to say, we're all going to miss her terribly.  :'(

On a lighter note, thankfully, Lilly deals with pet death extremely well.  Almost too well.  This morning she suggested that we make a pair of mittens out of Bay-Bay's pelt.  O__o  Oh, well, at least she's not upset!  :/

Lilly is definitely one-of-a-kind.  I'm glad she's not a prissy girly-girl who doesn't like to get her hands dirty.  In fact, she played around with walnuts a week ago, and her hands STILL look like they've been in a coal mine!  It's almost embarrassing.  All week long I kept dreading for a note to come home from school, scolding me for not cleaning my kid.  Thank goodness one never came.  I figured if they tried to clean her hands up at school, they would see that they were stained beyond help, and it was just gonna have to wear off, so I didn't worry about it too much.  :)

Back on the subject of pets (and speaking of crazy Lilly), this morning Lilly announced that she has 2 pets in her room; a bunny (presumably one of her 9 trillion stuffed animals), and a mosquito.  Yes, a real live mosquito, folks.  And it's apparently Lilly's "pet" now.  It must have flown into the house several days ago, because I noticed it buzzing the ceiling in her room the other night when we were reading a bedtime story.  There were actually 2 pets mosquitos to begin with, but I was able to swat one of them when it paused to attempt to suck my pants leg.

A little while after Lilly introduced us to her new "pet" mosquito, she proudly showed us this:

Oh, a cute little toy car, you say?

NOPE.  It's the storage facility for the creepy shed skin shell of a cicada that we discovered laying in the birdbath the other day, and she INSISTED on keeping.  (I must admit that the weirdo doesn't fall far from the weirdo tree, however; I myself collected hundreds of these things in big jars when I was little)!  O__o

(Here's a closeup picture of what those things look like, if you've never had the good fortune to find one yourself):

(I know, AAAAHHHH!!!...OH JESUS... OH LORDY!!!)  Let us take this moment to state that we will not be held responsible for any nightmares that you may have for the next week or so!

Yes, I'm glad that Lilly isn't too squeamish (although she did freak out and scream her head off when I brought a huge frog home in a box one day.  And she screamed just as hard when I drug in a baby snapping turtle too).  (OK, so maybe it's Mama who is the real weirdo here, LOL)!

The point is, in this family, we all really love our pets, and even the critters that happen to momentarily hop, fly, or slither into our lives.  Over the years, we've had over 10 cats, several dogs, goldfish, and the occasional visiting possums, coons, deer, wild hogs, turkeys, foxes, coyotes, birds, squirrels, frogs, turtles, snakes, bears...well, you name it.  And we love 'em all.

Here are a few pics of our current pets:

Domino:

Lucky & Maddie:

(Maddie lovin' on Daddy):

Maddie & Lucky with Mama:

Goldie the Goldfish:

and Mossie the Mosquito 

(givin' Mama a kissie/havin' a snack):

JUST KIDDING.  

BLEH!

I mean, we love our critters & all, but you gotta draw the line somewhere!  LOL!