Don't Worry, Bee Happy

Lately I've been learning everything there is to know about replacing a roof and all the things to look for when hiring a roofer.  It's been a month-long journey of meeting with various contractors and navigating the professional jargon:  drip edges, soffit ventilation, felt paper, fascias, flashing, sheathing, architectural shingles, ridge vents, etc.  But the one thing I never expected to learn about with this whole project is that our home has been under attack by Carpenter Bees.

The fascia board, which is the wooden boards nailed to the end of our roof all around our house, was riddled with all these dime-sized holes which I just attributed to the work of our neighborhood woodpecker. It was unsightly, but I never gave it much more thought other than someday thinking I'd have a carpenter replace the wood because it looked ugly.

I had this really over-priced roofer quote our roof and he happened to notice the fascia boards.  He told me I had a Carpenter Bee problem.  I was really surprised because we don't have any issues with bees in the house, but he told me that these Carpenter Bees are pretty notorious for boring holes in wood and laying their eggs.  I told him I've seen these big, fat bumble-bees buzzing around up there, but I never saw them go into the attic.  Well, it turns out they were Carpenter Bees which resemble Bumble Bees.

The female Carpenter Bee lays her eggs in the holes and the male sort of flies around the holes protecting it. These bees are harmless except that they ruin wood because of their nesting habits and like any number of pests - you don't want them in or around your house.  Mi casa is not their casa.

I ended up calling Colonial Pest Control of Worcester to come out today to get rid of our bees. The exterminator who took care of me walked around the house and confirmed that I had a whole lot of bees. His reaction was priceless when he looked up on the left side of the house and simply declared, "Holy Shit!" Apparently the Carpenter Bees have been silent tenants at Miami Street for years and it was time to evict them.

But here's the cool thing - I started asking the exterminator how he ever got into the profession in the first place because I'm fascinated that someone makes their living working in the insect industry.  He started talking about his past and mentioned how he ran a couple Abdow's Big Boys restaurants - namely the one at Lincoln Plaza.  Now it was my turn to exclaim, "Holy Shit!"  I loved that place as a kid and just couldn't believe I was talking to this guy who actually worked there back in the day.

It turned out that he actually grew up on Wayside Avenue back in the early 70's.  He was 4 years younger than me, but was an old neighborhood kid.  I threw out a couple of names and it was so amazing that he recognized every one of them.  We ended up standing there reminiscing about the infamous Great Brook Valley riot and sledding down White Ave in the Winter.  He fondly remembered our neighborhood before the new construction in the back of my house and all the unpaved roads.

I could have talked to him all day, but there were bees to murder and I was mindful that I wasn't his only customer that day.

He ended up spraying around the house and promised me that neither our Beagle Minnie nor the little birds nest up near the corner of the house would be affected by the chemicals.  

I got a six month guarantee on the bees and now I'm ready to have our roof ripped off and replaced.

Make Your Own Dr. Dre Beats Headphones

12 Angry Little People

Courtesy of Robot Chicken.

My First MRI

Today would have been my mother's 63rd birthday.  I celebrated her birthday today by having my first MRI this morning at St. Vincent's Hospital which is appropriate because my mother suffered from severe neck and back problems her entire life and I'd think something's gone wonky in my back. I guess the only good thing about that is it took me into my early forties to notice.

My back went out a week before Christmas and it's just never been the same.  My lower back is always sore , but for the past two months, I've suffered from poor sleeping because of this weird pins/needles feeling every night when I lie down to go to sleep.  It's a hard sensation to describe, but trying to get to sleep while feeling like there's a fireworks show going on throughout your body doesn't exactly make for a night of restful sleep. Wait. I just thought of a better way to describe it: it feels like the pain you get from holding a sparkler during Fourth of July and one of the sparks randomly hits your skin and you sort of jump.  Whatever - it's still all about the fireworks.

Last week my doctor switched me from muscle relaxers to a wonderful drug called Neurontin which brings me back full circle to why I just might be turning into my mom.  She took that very same drug for a long time to help with her fibromyalgia and neuropathy.  It's prescribed to people for lots of reasons, but my favorite description of neurontin is that it helps "...decrease abnormal excitement in the brain."  Yup. That's me.

I remember my mom having to go for an MRI a couple of times and she had a lot of problems lying flat because of her back. This morning I was more nervous about feeling claustrophobic in the MRI machine so I popped a Xanax when I woke up this morning to mellow me out before I went for my appointment. I figured it was more of a preemptive strike because I'm not so good in crowds and get especially freaked out in elevators transporting more than three people. It definitely took the edge off.

My favorite part of the MRI experience was being given a sheet of artists that I could listen to while having the MRI. Can you believe the first artist on the list was AC/DC?    But they had a whole range of music that I could choose from while I lied perfectly still in that medical coffin:  Celtic Woman, Jethro Tull, Billy Joel (my mom's favorite), Yanni, Madonna and Eminem.  I ended up choosing the generic Calming Seas which wasn't the best choice because it didn't really calm me down.  I blame the dolphins and their damned squeaking language of the sea.

The MRI took about 20 minutes and I did great because I closed my eyes through 99% of the whole MRI. It was recommended that I think about calming scenery like lounging on a warm beach, but instead I kept myself deathly still by imagining how good my bowl of spicy Tortilla soup was going to taste this afternoon while having lunch at Playa del Carmen in Holden.

I'm hoping there's nothing serious going on with my lower back, but I was particularly missing my mother today because today is her birthday and I'm having back problems just like her.  But then again, sometimes I just miss her special way of  worrying about me more than I worry about myself.

 

Spring Cleaning

Today is Saturday and although I'm technically not on vacation just yet, I've begun Spring Cleaning and I thought that I would blog a little bit about what I just accomplished this Saturday morning - mostly for posterity sake.

I tackled the bedroom closet and drawers while listening to the last audio CD's of The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest.  I was determined to finish up the last in the Stieg Larsoon trilogy while on this vacation because I've been so engrossed in the books that I really haven't read anything else.  So now that I'm done, I can focus my full attention on this 600 page book called I Want My MTV that's due back at the library in a couple of weeks.

I began with the bedroom closet.   I made three piles to help me sort through everything:

• Save for storage in the basement which mainly is made up of my Fall/Winter clothes
• Toss out
• Donate to one of those conveniently placed bins outside of everywhere that has those neat drop-down drawers like a mailbox except instead of mailing a letter I'm sending off clothes I no longer want.

I got rid of at least 8 pairs of shoes.  Mostly the shoes I donated were nice shoes that feel just a little bit tight or uncomfortable sometimes. A couple were pairs of really good shoes that I've held onto for a couple of years because I paid a good amount of money for them because they didn't make my bunions hurt when I wore them.  But then I realized this morning that I don't have those bunions anymore thanks to surgery so why keep them?  They just don't fit right anymore.

This time I decided to really do a proper de-cluttering of my clothes.  In the past, I used to just pull out all my Autumn/Winter clothes and set them aside for storage for next year without really evaluating if I should keep everything.  I donated a ton of my Winter clothes - mostly sweaters that fit me OK, but didn't make me feel good wearing them.  Tossed. That left me with just a small pile of Winter clothes to store in the basement.  I know as I approach the colder weather, I'll pull everything out again and realize I don't have as big of a selection which will prompt me to do some shopping, but that's totally fine.  It's a problem to worry about eight months from now.

Here's my big tip for anyone struggling with clothes slipping off of hangers and all you have are those cheap, tube-like plastic hangers:  use binder clips.  Clamp those suckers down on each side of the hanger and I guarantee your clothes will not slip off and fall to the floor.  I've bought a couple boxes of black binder clips at Staples and use them all the time.

Next to tackle were the bedroom drawers.  I made a big decision this year - I finally tossed out all my socks.  I have this one drawer dedicated to rolled up socks and I swear I never wear any of them.  I must have 25 pairs of socks that I used to wear maybe ten years ago and each year I just keep holding onto them thinking someday I'll need them.  I'm just not a sock person anymore.  I go barefoot in my sneakers and use nylons for my dress shoes.  Why do I need these socks?  I tossed out every single pair of them.  The ONLY ones I kept were those super soft snuggly socks that I bought at Marshall's last year.  They're not even proper socks because I would never wear them with sneakers.  But they do serve the purpose of keeping my feet warm if I don't feel like walking around the house barefoot - so they made the cut.

I also donated a whole bunch of winter hats, scarves and gloves. I've got far too many hats and gloves for one person. The rest that I've chosen to keep got put into the Winter pile of clothes for next year.

Surprisingly my Toss Out pile was pretty big, too.  I had several shirts that had stains on them and really hadn't realized it because they were buried either in a drawer or in the back of my closet.  My bedtime clothes made up the biggest pile.  I had far too many pajama tops stained with the juice of pomegranates and a fair share of bottoms that were missing their matching top.  No idea where they went to, but it made it easier for me to decide to get rid of them.  In reviewing my pile, it reminds me that I should take better care of my clothes or more importantly, wear a bib while eating pomegranates.

Now that I've sorted through all my current stuff, it's time for me to start the whole process again with the Spring/Summer clothes that I'll be bringing up this afternoon from the basement.  I know it's only mid-March and perhaps a bit early in the season to be thinking about bringing out the warm weather clothes, but I'll be in San Antonio, Texas in a few days enjoying temps in the mid-70's so why the hell not?  I've got the rest of the afternoon to sort, organize and toss to my heart's content.  After all, I am on vacation...

Twilight: The Game

I know this is just another way for haters of Twilight to make fun of all the obsessive fans of Stephanie Meyers Twilight series, but this one really makes me laugh. In the end, Edward wins so that makes me happy.

Sesame Street - Monsterpiece Theater "Twin Beaks"

You've really got to hand it to Sesame Street. They always seem to come up with little skits that just aren't for children and I suppose that's to keep the parents entertained as well. Case in point: Monsterpiece Theater 'Twin Beaks'. The plot is pretty much plain as the bird's double beaks, but the parody is clever and cute. And you learn a valuable lesson from Cookie: Ask Questions to find things out.

"Matthew's Day Off"

This is a pretty cute tongue-in-cheek commercial paying homage to Ferris Bueller's Days Off. It was funny, but it made me feel old.

10 Fascinating Folks of 2011 Commentary-McGlover Style

Megan McGlover KILLS me. I need to be better about watching every single video she posts on YouTube because she's always got something whacked out and interesting to say. She's just one of those people who can always make me laugh out loud no matter what she's spouting off about. 
Love her or hate her, Megan is one of the best things about the internet.

Kohler Trumps Santa - A Young Boy's Christmas Wish Comes True

Meet Dustin Kruse - a little boy who loves toilets! His mom sent a letter to Kohler explaining his passion and they invited him and his parents to tour their design center. The video above shows him happily moving from toilet to toilet, flushing to his hearts content and loving every single minute of it.

Dustin doesn't have any reasonable explanation about why he's fascinated with toilets, he just loves them. I can relate. I don't know exactly what it is about toilets that I find them so interesting, but I just do. No explanation necessary. I also appreciated that his mom didn't talk about Dustin being strange or weird. She genuinely seemed amused that toilets make him so happy.

I wonder what he'll think about this video when he grows up and looks back on his childhood obsession?

Hello Kitty Cup Cakes

I know somewhere in the ADHA licensure that there must be a warning against giving sweets to your patients, but I'm sure glad my dental hygienist Andrea overlooked it.  Yesterday she gave me four Hello Kitty cupcakes that she baked just for me!

My cleaning appointment was at 4pm and she came out into the waiting room to tell me she had a little something for me chilling in the backseat of her car.  So we went outside to see and I resisted my impulse to lock arms with her and skip into the parking lot because I already knew what it was going to be!

They were simply gorgeous: four red velvet cupcakes with pink-tinted cream-cheese frosting topped with fondant-designed Hello Kitty faces.  Just look at those delicate little black whiskers.  Amazing.  Andrea explained she used one of her special cake tools to get the whiskers placed just right which was an improvement over the last time she made these for her daughter (another Hello Kitty obsessed adult - see? I'm not the only one) because she had used a tube of gel-based frosting and didn't get the same effect.

The kitty is in the details.

So I'm pretty sure I'm the luckiest patient of Boylston Dental Associates.  Dr. Scanlon has done lots of good things for my choppers over the years, but he never baked me Hello Kitty cupcakes.

FreeSol - Fascinated ft. Justin Timberlake, Timbaland

I'm becoming quite a fan of FreeSol and just wanted to share their latest video.

I could do without the snakes though.

Ice Ice Baby - MattyBRaps feat. Vanilla Ice

First of all, that is REALLY Vanilla Ice in this MattyB video.

Secondly, how cool is it that Vanilla Ice hooked up with this YouTube sensation little kid to sing his big hit? It was nice to see Ice bust some of his old dance moves and I've got to give him props for being a good sport 'cause he's got to be so sick of this song by now. Me? Still loving it.

"Baby Its Cold Outside" - Zach & Donald Holiday Video

Nothing like a little celebrity Bromance to end Christmas 2011 on a funny note. I love these guys AND they're singing one of my Top 3 Christmas songs.

Sesame Street: Measure, Yeah, Measure

WHY Do Girls Have To Get All The Pink Toys?

Destenee - Hello Kitty Christmas (Cute/Corny Christmas Song)