?skip=100 = RL post!

[thistlechaser]

I realized I forgot to mention RL stuff in my last post. I often get distracted by the "better" stuff and forget to write about RL stuff. Hee.

A few weeks back I had decided to stop walking until fall. "It's hot," I whined. "I don't like to get all sticky before work," I bitched. The week I stopped, I gained two pounds. "Hm, must be a coincidence," I lied to myself. The next week, I gained another two pounds. Back to walking! Last week I walked, and lost two of the pounds. This week I'm still walking, so hopefully will lose the other two again. Grump! Just wish this wasn't a "lost" month -- gained weight two weeks, then lose those same pounds the next two weeks! Stupid me, but at least I switched back to walking. I don't know why I always have to fight to make myself walk. It feels good to do it! Plus I'm walking faster now, which is nice. I want to extend my time, but I don't want to get up even earlier. Blech.

alessar is a wise and wonderful (but still mean! :) ) fellow. He suggested going back to having oatmeal for breakfast. I ate it every day for five years or so, then got bored and stopped. But it makes a good breakfast! And luckily not many calories, either (~150).

Kitty goes in for her annual cardiac ultrasound on Friday. (She's got a heart defect which can get worse with age, so she has to get it checked once a year.) Even if she didn't already want to kill the vet, it would be something cats would hate: Picture two plastic blocks placed about ten inches apart. Lay a cat on it on her side, so that she "droops" in the middle (where that open space is). Now keep the kitty there for five minutes or so. It makes for very unhappy cats! Poor girl.

Other than ants, I don't kill bugs in my apartment. Spiders won't hurt me, so I let them be if I can. (If they're somewhere in the way, say on my keyboard, I'll scoop them up and put them outside.) Live and let live... except this has been going on for years and they keep reproducing! Darned things are all over the place, making lots of spiderwebs.

Ants, on the other hand, inspire a hatred in me few other non-human animals can. I gleefully shoot them with Raid, which makes them retreat for a couple of weeks, then they try to make inroads into my apartment again. Die ants! Die!

Comments

[lunarennui.livejournal.com]

i do kill spiders, because they often bite me, and the bites go all necrotic and nasty. perhaps you just don't smell good to a spider! but i assure you, i do smell good to them--or whatever it is they're judging by. sigh.

*pets your poor kitty* minnie's up for her biannual senior wellness check too. i'm waiting until the last moment to tell her (read: when i stuff her in the cat carrier).

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

That's interesting! My mother said that she gets spider bites, too! As far as I know, I've never gotten one, so I always thought she was mistaken or something. Huh!

Heehee, good plan on the kitty! :)

[lunarennui.livejournal.com]

i've been viciously bitten by spiders all of my life. i know for a fact that it's spiders, for one thing because for 18 years or so the only things that bit in the winter were spiders, and because you learn to tell the difference between different kinds of insect/arachnid bites by the amount of swelling, necrosis, infection, et cetera. it seems like everything that CAN bite WILL and LIKES to bite me. and i'm allergic to most of them. damn you, parasitic beasties!

that said, i actually don't dislike spiders! i prefer them to stay outside my home, and i very much appreciate what they do as a part of the ecosystem. some spiders, like daddy longlegs types, i capture and release. others, like crab or cat-faced spiders, send me into instant kill mode. it pretty much depends on whether i've known them to bite me before, or whether they're aggressive. (crab spiders are REALLY aggressive.)

and as for being bitten by spiders, they usually bite while you're sleeping--so if you've ever been inside in bed and it wasn't mosquito season, or you were bitten in an area that was covered by sheets, it was likely a spider.

(i've had them bite me on the EYELID.)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

(i've had them bite me on the EYELID.)

*twitch* Ack! Oh my!

[hamburger.livejournal.com]

Yay for not killing spiders! We have two spiders that stay in the exact same place: One in a corner in the bedroom, and another in a corner in the bathroom. Jon hates creepy crawlies, but he's respected my wishes not to squish them because I tell him they'll eat scarier bugs.

No ants in the apartment yet! Tons of other bugs due to us being on the bottom floor (and partially underground), but no ants! Weird.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

And a yay right back to you! Not only do the spiders eat other bugs, but hey, why kill something if you don't have to? Spiders deserve to live, too!

Good luck with keeping the ants out! (Evil things!)