1) I can take a long, hot bath in the middle of the night.

2) I can take a long, hot shower in the middle of the night.

3) I can do whatever I want in the morning and take my sweet time.

4) I can use up all the hot water.

5) I can have people over whenever I want.

6) No one moves my stuff except me.

7) No one takes my fancy bath products.

I can let the music on my alarm clock play in the morning.

9) I can leave the dirty dishes and do them when I’m ready.

10) It’s quiet when I want it to be and loud when I want it to be.

11) I can use cleaning products I’m comfortable with.

Yay living on my own!

Gorgeous weather, time to read, time to write, delicious ice cream, and the one perk my landlord didn’t mention: on nice summer nights, a bunch of guys get together next door with fiddles and banjos, playing and singing until dark. They’re really good, too. It brings a really nice feeling to the whole place.

Ah!

Last week on my business trip I had a cold. I figured it would be gone by now, but no. Now I have clogged sinuses, productive coughing, and I am still a mess. I’m supposed to go out of town again Tuesday but I may have to cancel. I’m calling the doctor tomorrow. This is miserable.

To make matters worse, my apartment was desperately dirty so even though I don’t feel like it I just cleaned everything. Ugh. It’s miserable.

The ants are nearly all dead. I still see a scout every now and then. Hoping this will all be over soon. I noticed some ants not following the proper pathway to death (hence the cleaning frenzy) and I redirected their inappropriate behavior by squashing their ant guts.

This sickness sucks!

It’s summer. It’s ant time. They’ve invaded my kitchen. They’re coming out of the wall by the cabinets. They invaded a cabinet. I hate them all!

I found out some things that don’t work for ants:

1) Leaving dirty dishes in the sink. Which I did. For like three days. Oops.

2) F-bombs. And believe me, I tried. There was no response to my foul language.

3) Raid. Sure, it works for a little while, but then the little bastards come back. Not to mention that I’m not buying the “Country Fresh” scent thing. I know Raid is full of chemicals I probably shouldn’t breathe or eat. So I’m reluctant to use it in the kitchen.

I bought some Terro today. Walked up to Walgreens to get that, CLR for work, and some picture hangers. Terro is like liquid ant armageddon. You put some on a piece of cardboard by the places you see ants. The ants congregate and check it out, cause it’s sugar water. They gleefully return the sugar water to the nest only to find it’s been spiked with Borax, which causes DEATH. Takes longer to really work than Raid, but I’m hoping it will last longer and not expose me to nasty pesticide fumes. I’ve got one “bait” spot by the sink, I think I will put out another, and maybe one in an inconspicuous spot on the floor.

Die, ants, die! I’m sure there are people who love ants. I love ants. But not in my house.

Thank God for Sundays. I think if I didn’t have them I’d just die. This week was like some sort of wretched roller coaster. Up and down and up and down. I’m not fond of that sort of thing. Nice interview Monday, annoying work meeting. Nice day Tuesday, then Tuesday night a water pipe broke in the upstairs neighbor’s bathroom and I came home to rain in my bathroom. Most of that is dried out and the landlord responded quickly to shut off the water, but my linen closet ceiling is trashed and I’ll probably have to clean out the closet until repairs can be made. Fortunately it hasn’t seemed to effect other ceilings… I’m hoping for the best.

Wednesday I felt generally blah. I left work early and went to the farmers’ market. That lifted my spirits. They had tomatoes, squash, and pumpernickel bread. Happy times.

Saturday was day of crappy work junk. Sometimes I hate being floor super on Saturdays cause everything goes wrong and no one else is there. Grr. However, all those were solved.

Today my pastor’s preaching cut straight to my heart. I gave him a little trouble (”Stop preaching directly to me like that! It’s scary!”), but I like that he really hears the Holy Spirit and preaches in a way that has an impact on people. It was all about looking for a spouse. I got some prayer, too. Really, really needed it. I cleared up some things with a friend and I feel better overall.

I have lots of wonderful books to read as I hide inside during this awful heat! I’ve also been playing FFXII. Doing lots of leveling and entering areas I didn’t dare to tread (aka The Zertinian Caverns) on a much lower level than I thought possible.

I also have use of the washer and dryer back! I did two weeks worth of laundry and, since my gas bill is low and should stay that way, have been rack drying my clothes again. It takes longer (about 24 hours per load), but is worth it.

Going to a Cards game tomorrow! I have tons to do in the morning, including cleaning the linen closet, copying my keys, and getting something with which to hang things on the wall. Also dropping books off at the library. But the rest of the day will be a fun day!