Spring = Bugs, Summer = More

After another long and tiring day of "work", I come home, grab a glass of water and a homemade snack bar, sit down to check my email, and I see one of these on the wall:

(not my photo)

Luckily, my next door neighbor, Alyssa, showed up as I was frantically and frenetically trying to find a bug identifier website (without much luck, since I know almost nothing about how to properly identify bugs). She identified it right away as a young Wind Scorpion - something she informed me usually comes in pairs. I should expect to see another one within the next two days. I should also, now that it's starting to warm up outside, start wearing flip-flops in my house so that I don't get bit by a scorpion.

Hold up.

So scorpions are going to come into my house!?!?!? Okay, I kind of knew that coming in, but I have recently been operating under the (false?) assumption that my brand-spanking-new house would mean that I wouldn't have creepy crawlies sneaking in to take chunks out of my toes. Wind scorpions, luckily, are not poisonous, though they have been known to bite (and hard) a human from time to time. We carefully removed this one from my house and put it back outside. Also, the scorpions we have at Big Bend, while mildly poisonous, are not life-threatening to humans. Alyssa informed me that it was totally okay to squash any scorpion I found in my home - the crunching, cracking thought of which grossed me out far more than the fear of scorpions in my house ever did.

Have any of you seen "The Good Year"? I think I'm going to start putting lavender boxes on my windowsills. Eep!

What time is it?

My back patio is lined with clothes, there are bike jerseys hanging in my entryway, and the guest room window is wide open with all my underclothes on a drying rack so my neighbors don't have to see them. That's right... it's laundry day!

I finally generated enough dirty clothes that I decided I could suck it up and pay the $1.50 to do a load of laundry. Miraculously I fit everything in with room to spare. Now it's all drying outside and inside and I'm preparing to go do something else with myself. It's a toss up right now between taking my watercolors down to Boquillas Canyon and playing Super Scrabble with my friend Jane. I'm kinda leaning towards super scrabble right now, since I already painted one picture this weekend. Maybe I'll do Boquillas Canyon next weekend. Of course, I already played super scrabble yesterday as well, but I think I'm going to find that game addicting. Not only does it take way longer to play, but it's got so much more going on, and Jane is one of those upper-level players who knows all the 2-letter words. Yeah, I'm gonna up my game some this year, I think. Better watch out Cecile! ;)

I did the Burger Bike yesterday with a couple friends and felt much more quick (in both senses of the word) than last week. We had a bit of a headwind, but it was nothing compared to last week.

Well, that's all for now. I think I'm going to leave you with some pictures of the many beautiful sunrises I get to see here:

P.S.!!!

Hey my blog-reading friends:

Do take note of the "Settling and Setbacks" post. At the end I give you my address and my current phone number. Make sure you've got the right information and you just might be able to get a hold of me next time you try. Sorry if you've left a message on my cell phone and I haven't gotten back to you - I have been unable to check my phone missed calls/messages/etc. since I got here three weeks ago.

Thanks for continuing to read my blog - I love getting your comments!

~Jaclynn