When Boston Ivy goes bad.

LUCIANA's INSECT PICTURES (see below):

1. Failed attempt at getting an ant. Her cute little toes snuck in, though, so I had to post this.

2. Japanese beetle on a hollyhock leaf.

3. Bumble bee enjoying some monarda nectar.

The biggest news in my life is that after an entire day of weeding (ending just in time to read to L and get her to bed), the North-side garden is reclaimed! I cleared out all the weeds and volunteer trees that have flourished during the bunnies' stay. It was a nightmare. The Boston Ivy that I so love to look at climbing up my chimney (especially in the fall when it turns firey red), sucks. It tried to take over the whole garden! I spent a lot of time wrestling with it--literally. My back is screaming in pain! Not only did I get it all cleared out, but I got the last of our plants put in the ground, too. I was sad to see that I lost several heucheras from my collection. I'm not sure what happened to them, unless the damn ivy choked them out. Now the outside of the house is in order for vacation, so that means tomorrow will be spent getting the inside ready.

Luciana played in the sprinkler with Hunter for quite a while this afternoon. When he went home, she took advantage of the nice lighting of dusk to photograph insects, which, she informed me, were the photography subject of the day. She said that she will pick themes each day and take a lot of pictures of those--today was insects. She learned that no matter what you do, you can't get a good tight zoom on an ant. They're very tiny and never stop moving--not a good combo for photography. She then decided that she wanted to research centipedes, after asking me several questions to which I gave the usual answer: "I don't know. We'll have to look it up." She didn't want to wait for me, so she enlisted Mark to help her research centipedes. From the looks of her printouts and computer screen, she is typing up her research to make a paper (?) about centipedes. Not quite sure, but I love her aggressive efforts to gain knowledge!

Dej also made me happy tonight. After a day at work, she saw Grandma and Gmas sisters out at the mall (it's their sister weekend, so they are hanging out together all weekend), and volunteered to walk around with them. Yes, in public! I was shocked, too. Then, she came home and got ready to go out for dinner and a movie with Grandpa. My dad's a little bored without the wife this weekend. They saw the new Harry Potter movie. She returned home in a good mood. She also wants to go to Cozumel again tomorrow, because there's a really hot waiter who works there. If he's the same hot one who used to work there, he really is hot, but probably a bit old for her. A girl can dream though (and do a lot of looking). ;)

A woman came over to meet my little boy kitten today. She would like him, but doesn't feel that she could take any more than one, due to her other animals. I'm sure she will be a wonderful home for him when he's ready to go, but I still really want to place the kittens together.

My mom and her sisters stopped by for a little bit this afternoon. That gave me a little, much-needed break from weeding. It was great to see my aunts (as always). They must be having a hell of a weekend, because poor Bobbie kept dozing off. Or maybe it was just the sound of my voice, which my husband claims is unusually soothing and restful, thus causing people to uncontrollably drift off to sleep. I would feel flattered, but I'm guessing that's a gift that most wives have.

Tomorrow will be very full, with cleaning the house, typing up very long and detailed instructions for my mom the petsitter and plantsitter, shopping for camping food, a bunch of miscellaneous other stuff, and a meeting for WAEN. Oh, and the meeting is here, so I have until 1:00 tomorrow to get my house clean or at least get it a little less disgusting! M. surprised me by doing dishes while I was in the shower tonight. It was a pleasant surprise, because I always feel crabby when I have unwashed dishes. It's not the DOING of dishes that makes me crabby, it's just that I loathe looking at dirty dishes in my sink. Ick! Anyway, I'm trying to not get my pre-vacation freak out. Too much to do, too little time! I get sick to my stomach whenever I think about leaving, because I HATE leaving my babies! Hate it! Hate it! That's the only really bad thing about vacation.