Insects and Their Concept of Boundaries

You know when you watch a National Geographic special or most things on PBS and you see clips of people in Africa?  Inevitably, there is a scene with a couple of guys standing there with only loin cloths on, chatting quietly about what village life is like, constantly moving their feet and legs to deter the flies.  Well, lately, doing ANYTHING in our kitchen has made me feel very, very African.  Why?  Ants.  Ants.  Ants.  Thousands of them.  When I first moved here, a friend of ours who lived in this very apartment said it seems like they come in waves.  Call me silly, but I guess I just assumed that, given how far inland our apartment is, and how high up, whichever wave the ants rode in on wouldn’t reach our apartment.  Seriously, call me silly.  Right now.  Because that was a terrible thing to assume.  Why? Because I failed to take into account the fact that once they’d landed, they DO have six legs each and are known to be both mobile and crafty.  So, picture it.  There I am in the kitchen.  A pile of dishes and dirty laundry to do, talking to myself (Jacelyn’s studying) about what The Village People were like, in a loin cloth, constantly moving my feet so that whatever sort of minuscule grappling hooks they use won’t dig in.  Oh, to be HERE, even for 30 minutes….(If there are any genies reading this, THAT is my wish)(Seriously, I won’t even call my family.  Just from Dom to there and right back)  So, I find myself wishing the ants were ONLY in my pants, instead of forming front lines, strongholds, and vanguards.  Last night, I think I saw a group of them reading blueprints for how to build a trebuchet.

Thanksgiving was extremely difficult, this year.  On both sides of our family, they’d all gotten together to celebrate, so it was tough to be here, where Jacelyn just had school and needed to be in the anatomy lab until nearly 11 at night.  We were, however, able to purchase an authentic, homemade pumpkin pie from “The Bread Lady” (not to be confused with Tiney).  She makes all-natural bread and jams, as well, and sells them out of the hatchback on her car.  So, at like 11:30, we finally settled down to drink coffee, eat pie, and watch the claymation “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, which we never saw the end of because exhaustion won over. It was either the exhaustion or a sleeping agent released into the air by the advancing Ant Axis of Evil.  There is a light at the end of the cornucopia, though.  This Saturday, we are getting together with around 30 other students and spouses to do a pot luck.  We’re bringing Sweet Potato Souffle’, Peanut Butter Cookies, and ants.

Last Sunday was the celebration of Christ the King and I got to speak a little bit at the all-day event they had.  I just thought I’d include a pic or two of the setting.  First, there’s…

Then there’s…..

And we mustn’t forget…

Jacelyn is going to harvest a couple of medical facts over the next couple of hours, so I’ll update more later.

Pray for us.

On to the next thing…