The Emmer Effing Fire Ants 2009 Edition

Ant Watch 2009: I was naive to think that by proactively treating my lawn for fire ants, I would lessen or eliminate the number of fire ant colonies in my yard this year. Right now, I have about 20 ant mounds, or 16 more than last month. In layman's terms, the number has increased %400 since treating with the same product that wiped them all out last year. Four of the mounds are near pavement, which means walking near the driveway is now an itchy hazard. I am wasting no more time. I bought another well known chemical...Orthene. Besides having hilarious radio commercials it is supposed to be an effective solution to my ant problem. The only problem is that I can't put anything on right now, because it is raining and will be raining for the next week. If I didn't have to worry about this entire problem, I would be 32% happier. Someday, I am going to create a patented (and probably dangerous) method of eliminating entire ant mounds instantly. I have quite a few ideas but most will require a written hazard disclaimer and probably a release waiver for people really serious about this. I'll let you know how that turns out.

I found some funny pictures recently and wanted to share. The first one is an ad campaign miscalculation. Audi taunted "Your move, BMW..."

This had me cracking up the other day. I know you remember this song.

Here's a friendly jab at the Harley folks. Also from BMW:

If you've ever used Real Player (like back in the early days of the Internet.) you'll get this....

If you've been reading Erin's vegan blog, you know she's been eating strawberries at a high rate. She loves loves loves them. Last week, she bought a gallon of them at a roadside stand. I kid you not, they are nearly gone now, and this picture was taken after half of them had been eaten. I still do not like strawberries.

Here's a picture of our Chorus, the Palmetto Statesmen, taken last Christmas at The Cliffs Valley.

Speaking of Cliffs, last week we had a performance at The Cliffs at Glassy.

Here's a shot from the back patio of the clubhouse. Beautiful! Mind you, this is on top of a mountain.

Here's Dr. Campbell, our director, warmin' us up.

And the steep drive down. This would have been really fun on my motorcycle. Maybe next year.

Erin, Dennis, and I tried a new restaurant last week: Lieu's Chinese Bistro. It is another "fancy" Chinese restaurant, located near P.F. Chang's.

I forgot to get interior pictures... It was more like a normal restaurant, like Arizona Steakhouse. For an appetizer, I ordered Crab Rangoons. They were huge and wonferful.

For my main dish, I had a spicy chicken dish. It was more like sweet and sour chicken than what I normally get. It was also good.

For dessert, Dennis and I split a (small) piece of cake. It was fantastic.

Overall, the food was very good and the price somewhat lower. I actually had food leftover! The waitress was a little spacey...She brought us the wrong appetizer and was very awkward whenever we talked to her....must have been new.


Erin talked me into singing with her choir for a couple Sundays and also playing in the bell choir for Pentecost Sunday. Look at all of those notes!!!

Actually, I am only responsible for a couple of the notes: E and F. It's just right for a newbie such as myself.

Erin and I finally got a new laptop! It's a pretty, shiny HP with....Windows Vista 64. This is my first Vista machine, and so far, it works just fine. Erin uses our old laptop daily in her classroom, so it was time for an upgrade. I bought the old one over 8 years ago. Not bad. The new one cost 1/3 as much as my old Dell and is more powerful than our regular PC. We love it! 6 hours runtime, Core 2 Duo, 250GB, 4GB Memory, etc.

I was at the video store the other day and snapped this picture. See if you can get this joke by clicking on the picture to enlarge. (Hint: There are no copies available)

For the last three weeks, I have been working to complete 30 PC installs. From start to finish, I image the pcs, transfer data and settings, install them for the user and then cascade or dispose of the old equipment. There are only two left to do by next week. It's been a lot of hard work, but a much-needed break from the daily grind.

Well, it has been a very busy month. I've been riding the motorcycle alot, finding some new favorite roads and going to the gym. Speaking of, I have lost a little bit of weight, and am starting to fit back into my clothes, which is my first priority. I have really been enjoying my time there and always look forward to going back. We are enjoying a nice long weekend with Erin's sister and hopefully make it to Carowinds this week, weather permitting. Can't wait. The weather has been cool, but rainy. I figure it will be hot and muggy within a few weeks... We've been seeing a lot of movies lately: Star Trek: Loved it! Angels & Demons: Liked it! Terminator Salvation: Hated it! This summer is producing a lot of theater worthy movies, and I have a feeling it's going to cost me a lot of money. Have a wonderful, safe Memorial Day!