Kill the Gnats!

The kitchen is infested with fruit gnats (I'm not sure what their offical name is). As I'm typing this they are hovering about, crawling on the two bananas and dish of rine wine vinegar and soap meant to both attract and kill them. The picture on right show the current sucessful of the trap.

Thanks for Margaret for helping me take the photo and being such a sport about blogging about gnats in her house. On a whole their house is spotless, very clean, no other bugs! I'm not sure how they got in, but they are going out!

If You Find Yourself Eating Too Many Milk Duds...

There is way to much candy in the CCC offices lately. Milk Duds, Kit Kats, M&M - I feel like I'm in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory - sans chocolate river. Perry especially needs to lay off the Milk Duds, every time I see him he has got a box in his hand. Food is not the answer Perry, if you are stressed out you should just take a swim in the pond, drink more coffee, sneak out of the office and watch a movie tomorrow afternoon with the Leadership Residents (3:10 to Yuma is supposed to be good). And remember you are not the catalyst, the Holy Spirit is the catalyst and the Holy Spirit isn't high in corn syrup and partically hydrogenated soy bean oil.

My First "War Eagle Moment" in Chicago

I have had my first Auburn alumni sighting in Chicago on Saturday at the Morton Arboretum. He had on and Auburn hat and the dialogue went like this:


Me: "Did you go to Auburn?"

Him: "Yes."

Me: "Me, too!"

Him: "War Eagle!"

Me: "War Eagle!"

Him: "Are you excited about the game tonight?"

Me: "Yeah, it's on ESPN2."

Him: "All right, War Eagle"

Me: "Bye."


I don't want to talk about that horrible atrocity of a game. It's good to know that the Auburn Spirit is alive and well, even in a place so far from the loveliest village on the plain. It's also good to know that those "War Eagle Moment" commericals the school does really do happen.



I'm including this picture from the Arboretum. It was beautiful! Though the mosquitos were life-threatening. Repeat after me: no West Nile virus, no West Nile virus...

Special thanks to Sher for bringing me along.

Periwinkle Blue

I went running today. I'm learning to go running instead of the variety of less healthy methods of dealing I tend to do when frustrated or anxious (shopping, eating, reading). I laid down in the grass afterward and looked at the sky, it was that periwinkle blue of earliest evening - the same color as the ceiling of my room at home. I loved that room, always so bright and sunny and Raffles (my dog) sleeping in the corner. It's amazing how a smell, color, or song can take us back in time, fill us with memories so strong it is like one of those daydream sequences in a movie. I wish I could go back to 15 or 18 year-old me and offer advice, some comfort. At least some stock tips and to wait to buy the iPhone after the price went down (I can't afford an iPhone, before or after the price change, so maybe that doesn't matter so much). It's memories like that, remembering who I was before, rembering how far God has brought me, wondering what 30 year-old me would want to say, that keep me going, that and the running.

Caren's Thoughts on Illinois License Plates

People in Illinois are crazy about their personalized license plates. I think that they cost the same as the random ones so everyone and the brother as "NO EZWAY," "METCALF 1" (there is no Metcalf 2, I asked) or whatever seven digit statement they can come up with proudly displayed.

They are like tattoos for cars. You might regret it later, (what happens if Hillary wins? Poor OBAMA license plate guy!)but you'll never mistake your white minivan for anyone else's every again.