Literary Quote Month: Day 4

"Balls to that."

-Julie Powell, Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously

Yeah, I know, that's not much in the way of a literary quote. But, in my defense, my using that particular quote as my one for today should be acceptable because I used it within the context Powell herself does. Whenever something would go a little wrong with one of her recipes, or if one of the Julia Child's instructions was just too much, Powell would say "Balls to that." And so did I today when, after the farmers' market and additional stops at a grocery store and Target, I arrived home only to discover that I still didn't have all the necessary ingredients to make pesto.

I knew I should've bought that garlic. Balls to that.

Amy versus the Outsiders, Part III

I was about to go out to my porch to spray the window and door perimeters this morning, I really was. But then I saw more wasps, hovering right on the other side of the screen door and flying in and out of the hole where the porch light should be fit tightly against the siding. Silly me, putting the can of Raid in the porch storage closet so that I can't get to it without having to go past this new wasp hang out.

It's going to be all I can do to bring myself to continue to water my basil plant, because I really don't know how a short person like me can adequately combat wasps in the wall when the hole is reasonably high up, even with a can of Raid than can shoot over 20 feet. The angles just don't match.

Fortunately, though, my parents are visiting next weekend. Dad, I have a job for you...

Literary Quote Month: Day 3

"You can't show your bosom before three o'clock."

-Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind

I said this to myself (and, because I hadn't seen her standing there, the dressing room attendant) while trying on clothes at Anthropologie and seeing how some of them looked in the three-way mirror. I'd like to think that the more cleavage-y shirts were so revealing because they weren't cut for a petite torso. Whether that's true or not, I don't really know.

Amy versus the Outsiders, Part II

Today I sprayed the second and larger wasps' nest with Raid. I positioned myself just so in order that I would be able to re-enter my apartment. Now all that's left is the actual bug-perimeter-ing of the door and windows, which is on my agenda for tomorrow. Since it should not involve angering creepy crawlers which can send me into anaphylactic shock (or, at the very least, make affected appendages swell up like Aunt Marge in HP3), I'm not too worried.

Literary Quote Month: Day 2

"Curiouser and curiouser."

-Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Have you ever tried to define information? Try it and you'll understand why this particular literary quote fit particularly well into a class discussion today.

My Morning Discovery

The thing with switching on the computer in the morning is that, before you've had a chance to actually go out into the world for the day, the world can reach you. Now, this can be both a good thing or a bad thing. Getting out of the shower to find that a favorite store is closing, the peanut butter crackers you've been snacking on have been recalled, or another plane crashed? Those are all bad things.

When your first real information about the world for the day happens to be the knowledge of the existence of a Librarian Book Cart Drill Championship at the American Library Association? Now that's awesome.

Methinks it's going to be a good day today.

Amy versus the Outsiders

The battle began last night. I was calmly reading on the living room sofa when I saw it: a big black spider, it's middle the circumference of a dime at the very least. I did not scream, no no. I may have sequestered myself in the bathtub, however, had my summer roommate and her male friend not come in while I was contemplating my plan of attack. Graciously, he removed the repulsive thing from the wall.

You see, it turns out that even 70-degree weather isn't always hunky dory, particularly when one resides near a wood. I had the sliding door open onto my porch, with only a slightly ill-fitting screen as barrier between apartment and wilderness. I checked thoroughly for more bugs before I went to bed.

This morning I bought an insect-killing and -repelling spray at Target, as well as some Raid for wasps. When I went out on my porch to spray the wasps' nest I had discovered on my porch, however, I discovered a second, much larger one practically right over the entrance to my living room. I lost my resolve and ran inside. After all, what would happen if my spraying one nest enraged the other? I could only spray one at a time! And I was home by myself! If I got stung, such terrible things could happen (I'm allergic)! And no one would know for, at the very earliest, several hours!

I spent most of the day avoiding my porch whilst giving myself a pep talk. Finally, just before my volunteer shift at the library, I resolved to spray the first nest (I figured that the library was expecting me, and if I didn't show they might possible be a little concerned as well as peeved). I donned my long rain coat, stuffed my epi-pen one pocket and my cell phone in the other should a stinging occur, and I opened my screen door just wide enough to stick out my arm, aim the Raid can, and shoot one nest. It was rather drippy because I think I overdid it a little bit, but I think I won the battle against this particular nest.

The saga shall continue tomorrow, when I attempt to take out the baseball-sized nest. I'm a little afraid, as I have to physically be out on the porch to have a proper Raid-spraying angle. Which means I have little margin for error if I want to be able to reenter my apartment after the Raid attack. [If I don't blog tomorrow, try calling my cell phone. I may need someone with a ladder to come let me off my balcony.]

To be continued...