I've gotten the upper hand in the battle of Afton vs. Vermin.  I've probably killed about 30 more spiders between my last entry and now, but on Tuesday I think I figured out where they were hiding...they might have been behind the top of my window blinds.  So I opened a can of whoop-ass (okay, so it was a can of Raid) and sprayed the top of the blinds where there's kind of a hollow bar thing, and aside from one or two stragglers, I haven't seen a baby spider since.

I've seen a couple adults lurking in corners, though, so of course they met with a speedy demise.   And I am still VERY glad that this is like the one type of spider that doesn't send me into a state of freak-out when I see it.  I'm rather surprised I'm not creeped out more, actually.  But as much of a pain that this is, I actually prefer dealing with this instead of the two or three bees I had to deal with in my old building.  Spiders are gross and I hate them, but anything bee-like sends me into a panic.  Cold sweat and everything.

In other news:  FOUR DAY WEEKEND!!  Wahoo!  Today is my usual day off, as you may remember...and we're closed tomorrow...and I just happened to be lucky enough that my Saturday off fell on the 5th.   I'll be running around like crazy today, getting errands and my weekly cleaning done before the fam comes to visit tomorrow.  And although I'm off, I actually do need to stop by the clinic and take care of a few things, or else I'll never be able to get my mind off work this weekend.

I feel kind of guilty having this many days off in a row, because this week has been pretty brutal for everyone.  I stayed 3 hours late yesterday, came home and fell asleep on the couch before I got up enough motivation to make dinner.  But hey, it had to happen to somebody, so I might as well run with it.

Off I go!  I shall be a cleaning ninja!

Had fun at the lake on Sunday! (Of course.)  Got a little cold and rainy near the end of the day, but we still had a good time.   It's not Florida, but I'd been pining for the beach, so I'll take anything.

This morning I turned the lamp on in my living room and thought, "Hm.  There is a tiny spider on my lampshade."  Then I thought, "Hm.  There is another tiny spider."  Then I looked up at the ceiling and thought, "#$&*%!!!!".

SO not cool.  And I keep my apartment clean!  It's not like there are piles of clutter for vermin to hide in...

I found two adult spiders in addition to the babies.  It was a massacre, I tell you.  Must have been at least 25 of them.   Fortunately, they're not the kind of spiders I'm afraid of.  They're small anyway, and mostly they just sit there, so I didn't have any trouble killing them.   I found two more little ones when I got home from work, but I think that's most of them.  I'll still be searching my apartment daily for weeks, though.

It's a good thing I don't really believe in karma, because I'd probably have a doozy of a cosmic smackdown coming.

After a sort of crazy day at work yesterday, I met up with a friend for dinner and a movie.  We went to see "Wall-E", which was actually pretty cute!  Much better than I thought it was going to be, and highly enjoyable. And obviously made by tree-huggers.

Am rather hoping Bravenet doesn't eat this entry, because it happened twice yesterday night before I threw up my hands in defeat and went to bed...

Today is a day trip to a nearby lake with the youth group, which I'm hoping will be fun.  It should be - I'm just stressed since it still feels like so much is up in the air (and I'm a planner, don't ya know...), and besides that, I suddenly have a bunch of research I need to do before work tomorrow.  Fortunately I'm a morning person so I think I've gotten what I need together, but again...that planner thing...

But oh well.  If I can't relax and enjoy a day at the beach, then something ain't right.  It was raining when I woke up this morning, but it's not now and it looks like the sun is thinking about coming out, so I'm thinking it'll be a good day.

...of my keyboard.  I knocked a glass of water over last night and the QWERTY side of the keyboard got a little soggy.  But I'm happy to report that all systems are go this morning.  I still haven't learned my lesson, though, because I've got my banana, cereal, milk, and coffee with me right now.  And yes, the cereal is from the very bottom of the box.

You know, I really like David Cook's first release, but I'm so waiting for him to rock out.  I'd love for him to do a full version of "Billy Jean" - because I've never really liked that song in more than a "wow, this is a fun '80's song!" kind of way, but I just happened to be watching when he sang it and he rocked my socks off.  Oooh, loved it!  He won't do it, but I can imagine.

Haha...Jeanie, if someone brought me a sick crab, I think the end result would be crab legs.  But I'd certainly try.  And I'd probably have someone start humming something by The Fray in the background to add to the poignant drama.

Speaking of work, I was sort of rendered speechless yesterday.  I saw a wonderful young dog that I've seen since his first puppy visit - he came in limping and needed some x-rays.  It's usually a father and son that come to see me, and I've really liked them a lot.  The kid is my brother's age and I've enjoyed getting to know them a little.  Anyway, the son knows the most about the dog, but he wasn't with his dad when the dog was dropped off so - making a long story short - I decided that I wanted to take another x-ray of another part of the leg based on what the son told me when they came to pick their dog up.  So I told them I wouldn't charge them for the additional x-ray because if I'd been able to talk to the son earlier, I would have changed my area of focus.

And then the kid goes, "That's good, because those x-rays are f***ing expensive."

...Uh......WHAT now??  I was shocked!  And then I was pretty pissed off, because if my 17-year-old brother spoke to me that way, I would kick his butt.  But I couldn't stay mad for too long because it's probably just the kid trying to...I don't know, show off or something.  And there's a lot more stuff for me to get worked up over.  Besides, judging from Dad's reaction, I'm wondering if the kid got an earful on the way home.

I actually put my phone on silent last night so I wouldn't be interrupted while watching "Deadliest Catch".  I don't think I've ever done that before.  I am so addicted.  But, PHIL!!  Oh my gosh, dude!  "She told me I had to get to the emergency room right away, but I think I just need to talk to a different hospital."  Ack!    I keep telling myself I can't get too worked up because, hello, he obviously gets through the season just fine because he's been on those fantastic little "After the Catch" interviews...but still!  Coughing up blood and still smoking like a chimney.  That was so not cool.  And this isn't just some TV character, this is a real person...I'm worried.  Makes me wonder how he's doing now.

On a side note, may I just say that I really like Edgar Hansen? 

...And, yeah, I'd talk about my life, but it really hasn't been as exciting as fishing for crabs.   I'll do something fun soon, I promise.

So last night was VH1's debut of "I love the new millenium".  Uh...okay.  Seems a little early to be remeniscing, don't ya think?  I watched of course, because the commentators are hilarious and the show is basically a ginormous inside joke for the entire country at large (and there's nothing funnier than an inside joke) but it does strike me as kind of odd.  The ones about the 80's are the best, I think.  As far as I know, they've made 3 rounds through that decade.  But I suppose the "new millenium" ones are more of a "live in the moment" type thing vs. remeniscing, so I can get behind that.

Besides, I guess I should be eternally grateful that they chose THAT show to air and not another steaming pile of radioactive crap like "Flavor of Love".  So...well, yay!

Changing gears a bit, I've decided that I enjoy my cereal more as I get near the bottom of the box.  I like the special K vanilla almond cereal, and the closer you get to the bottom of the box, the more little almondy bits have settled.  So it just seems yummier.  I don't eat my cereal with milk, though.  Never have - especially flake cereals, because flakes get so creepy when they're soggy.  The only cereal I put milk on is cheerios.

And now you know something else that's weird about me.

I think I almost got pooped on during my run this morning.  I was running by a big tree, and the sidewalk in that area was spattered with bird poo.  Just as I passed under the tree, I heard this big wet SPLOT! right next to me.  I didn't stop to see what it was, but odds are I had a narrow escape.

That being said, the weather has been just gorgeous.  It's been warm, but I haven't had to turn my AC on for nearly a week...and that's saying something, because Afton does not have high heat tolerance.  But it's been so nice having fresh air come in all the time.  Except one night where I DID have to close the windows and turn on the AC, because the air coming in had a distinct skunky quality to it and it was making me sick.   Ahh, the beauty of nature.

Something happened yesterday that really made me regret the "no punching clients" rule at work.   Cra-HA-zy person.  Who apparently knows more about medicine than me, of course.  Oy.  Oh, well.  Good news is they'll probably never want to see me again, so...bonus!

In other news, happened to make a detour through the movie section at Target when I was shopping (always a rather dangerous thing for me to do) when I stumbled across a DVD set of the old BBC "Chronicles of Narnia" movies.  As far as I know, they covered the first four books.  I remember watching "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" as a kid and I really liked it, and since it was a really great price, I picked them up.

The special effects are rather...um, "special", and the talking animals are REALLY big because they're adults scooting around in beaver suits, and the battle scenes are more than a little cheeseball, but it's actually really funny, and I really enjoy them because they took everything directly out of the books.  The first movie is an excellent adaption, and I really enjoyed "Prince Caspian".  It's considerably shorter than "Lion/Witch" and they did cut a lot out, but I don't mind because what they DID include is directly out of Lewis.  The essential parts of the story are there.  Now I'm in the middle of watching "Dawn Treader" and it's kind of the same situation - a shorter, condensed movie - but I'm still loving it!   I've never seen "Dawn Treader" or "The Silver Chair", so I'm excited to watch that one, too.

I'll admit, I've had a literary crush on Caspian for years, so I take it personally if his character is messed with.  Or if he starts channeling Inigo Montoya.

Now I'm off to work, and I'm taking my anti-crazy spray with me.

I was fiddling around with my phone the other day and decided to look at the "my pictures" folder, which should be nearly empty because, hello, it's a phone and I don't use it as a camera. (I am NOT a Luddite!)   Anyway, what I saw made me laugh out loud.

See, the camera button is on the side of the phone, meaning it can be easily pressed.  Which means that my phone can very easily take pictures.  Which means I have almost 30 pictures of the pitch-black inside of my purse.   Bahaha!  Oh, it's funny.  And the best part is, I have one or two candid shots of my very perplexed face staring into the camera lens as I retrieve my phone from my purse and accidentally photograph myself wondering why the viewscreen on my phone looks so strange. Heeheehee...

You know, I'm starting to be bugged by something that's probably pretty stupid.  I am finding it unusually aggravating when I hear people talking about how to "go green".  Don't get me wrong, I'm all for recycling and saving the planet, and I always recycle whenever I can, turn out lights, whatever, but all the buzzwords flying around are, to borrow from the Dr. Cox dictionary, very "hirritating".  Whenever I hear someone droning on about how "green" they are, it kind of makes me want to thumb my nose and throw away something plastic.

My brain picks the weirdest things to get torked over.

Now that opilio crab season is underway on "Deadliest Catch",  I'm excited that pretty much all the boats are actually doing well as far as actually catching biggish numbers, but...those little opis aren't really all that impressive.  I keep expecting the big honkin' king crab, but all of them are so dinky.  I guess that's part of being "King" crab, though...you're the biggest, and you know a lot about the average flying speed of a laden swallow.

I'm almost done with "The Bourne Identity" - gonna have to go back to the library tomorrow to see if they have the next book.  To my credit, I DID start "Wuthering Heights"...I've been taking it to work with me to read on my lunch hour, but I'll be progressing a little slowly through that one just because I can't often take the full hour.  But I'm already intrigued, so it's looking good that I'll actually read it.

In other news: I'm 26 today!   Yay!  (Especially yay because I have leftover cake...)