Alas...My Vacation is Almost Over

I thought I'd entertain all of you with some pics and narrative from my week off. I know you're thrilled!

My Mom's Scary Snowman Tree

OK - so it's not that scary. My mom likes snowmen a lot - enough that she's created a whole Christmas tree that only has snowmen ornaments. (In addition to the tree with regular ornaments!) In case you can't tell, it also has a big, giant snowman head. Hel-loooo Frosty!

She's had it a couple of years. When she first got it, I vaguely remember someone putting it on their own head. (That someone might have been me.) I think that might be what I find so scary.

Sylvania Animal Adventures

Yes, that's Tailless. (Note the lack of tail.) My brother heard that squirrels like peanut butter so he just globbed a bunch on the deck. It nearly caused a squirrel feeding frenzy.

(Speaking of my brother the squirrel feeder - that's a picture of the two of us below. Ignore my unflattering outfit - the shirt bunches in a weird way - and focus instead on his studly Mohawk. If only my parents had known what would happen if they let us watch the A-Team! Actually Ben might have been too young for the A-Team. Maybe I should get a Mohawk!)

The Sylvania squirrels are brutes! One was sitting on the deck near the door. As a joke, I opened the door and invited it in. It ran for the door, which I immediately shut. However, the devilish part of me decided to try it again. I opened the door a second time, called to the squirrel and it came running toward me again. I almost couldn't get the door shut in time! It would've been like National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation only with more screaming.

Much like the screaming that occurred when I was poking the fireplace to get more fire action and noticed black things crawling on the log. Yes - big black ants had taken refuge on that log and were crawling around trying to escape the hellish flames.

Of course I shrieked my head off much to my dad's disgust. Sadly I showed no mercy to those little buggies. I made sure they were burnt to a crisp. Ants creep me out - mainly because of this horror movie about giant ants that I had no business seeing when I was 7 or 8.

Flushing Animal Adventures

My mom and I traveled for 4 hours by car to visit my Mammaw in Flushing, Ohio, which was fun. We playeda rousing game of Attack Uno with my mom, aunt, two cousins, cousin's husband and cousin's friend. I, of course, lost.

While we played, my cousin's dog Maisey (might be spelling wrong) and my aunt's dog Paisley ran around the house like savages. I was afraid to put my feet down!

More Fun - in Columbus This Time

Yesterday, I got to hang out with my friend Shannon (who lives in Indiana) and her husband and their two little girls. Sadly, we hung out at Polaris so the girls could play at the playground. Not sadly because it wasn't fun, just sadly because when Shannon and I were jumping on her bed singing New Kids on the Block songs in Clements Hall eleven years ago (I never said we were cool), we didn't anticipate hanging out at children's playgrounds on Saturday nights.

I felt like a pervert ... although Zack (Shannon's hubby) pointed out that most women aren't seen as perverts. It was great to see them and (hint, hint) it would be even greater if they'd move back to Columbus so we could hang out all the time!