Redecorating

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I was excited to swap out old pictures for new ones in our wall display. Nick liked the new one on the right, but didn't care so much for the one on the left.

I still need to pick a wall color- desperately. I am just overwhelmed by all the options, and am paralyzed by indecision. I'm afraid that I'll commit to something, and that it will be wrong. I just need to reassure myself that, no matter what I pick, it cannot possibly be any uglier than what is already on the wall.

The House Always Wins

We've had an ant problem here since about two hours after we'd moved in. We didn't even have any food in the house when we first saw them crawling over the sink and counter. The commercial baits we bought did not interest them. They happily crawled around them and continued to look for even the smallest crumb on the counter. First battle was a win for the ants.

However, the war was not over. Janette had an ant problem last year, which was quickly solved with household items. Step one: puree hot dog. (I actually minced it, because I didn't want to wash the food processor). Step two: Mix three parts hot dog puree with one part borax (sold as a laundry additive, it's cheap too.) Step three: Watch ants as they swarm on the mixture and carry the poison back to their home to share with the queen. Step four: Notice there are no more ants around after a couple of days.
(A variation on this formula can be made by using honey instead of hot dog, if that's what your ants prefer.)

So, we got rid of the ants on the counter, and that was great. But then a couple of weeks later, a new batch of ants figured out where the dog food bowl is, which is also next to where Henry eats. It became very bad very quickly. By the time Henry was done with lunch, the bits he had dropped would be covered with ants. I think ants were eating more dog food than the dog was. The challenge was to put the poison on the floor in a way the ants could get it but dogs and babies couldn't.

Add another step: Cut little entrance holes in the bottom of a sour cream container (or similar). Put the bait inside, and replace the lid. The ants can now crawl in, but larger creatures can't get to the poison. Borax is only mildly toxic to mammals, but I still don't want any little mammals here eating borax-laced hot dog.

We had one more ant breakout in our bedroom. I had thrown away a cup that had once had ice cream in it, in our bedroom wastebasket. I did not know this was the ant equivalent of Disneyland. They came in a dramatic swarm and were all over the garbage and adjacent nightstand. I was grossed out. I made a batch of ant bait, put it in the sour cream container, and waited. Six hours later they were swarming (see photo). The next day they were gone.

I win.

Block Party

On Saturday, the next street over had a block party. We had been invited to stop by, so we went and had some cotton candy. It was so hot and humid, that it turned into a ball of goo in about 2 minutes. Henry didn't exactly get the concept of the bounce house ball pit. Then a bunch of tween girls got in and were throwing the balls at each other, which made it even less fun for H. The saddest part is, he wouldn't even touch the cotton candy. He doesn't know what he's missing.

We only know 4 people on that street, and none of them were there at the time. I had been hoping to meet people, but ended up not actually talking to anyone. I'm still working on getting to know my neighbors, and obviously I need to try a little harder.

A Foreign Concept

We had a family outing to the zoo today. Nick had a rare day off, of sorts. Nick had to go to work at 6:00 PM, and then work until tomorrow around lunch. At the zoo, the Henry got to pet a guinea pig, but the rule was you could only pet it with one finger. Nick and the zoo docent got Henry model just one finger, and every time he would pet the animal, he would bring out the rest of the fingers right as he touched the fur. Very sneaky, or more likely, he just doesn't have clue.

We Named Our Son Jennifer

When I was in junior high, it seems all of my friends were named Jennifer.  In addition to having a bff/cousin Jennie, my friends at school were Jen A. and Jen S., and in high school, Jen H and a few more Jens, Jennys, and Jennifers.  Point being, I knew a lot of Jennifers and they were generally wonderful people, but it could get a little confusing.

When Nick and I were expecting, we considered the popularity of a name.  Because our last name is Johnson, we figured we needed an unpopular name so there wouldn't be two "Jennifer Johnson" kids in a kindergarten class.  So, we went old school.  We went for a name that I had never met someone under fifty using.  Neither of us went to school with a Henry.  We had no friends or relatives named Henry.  It was ranked in the 80's on the social security list, between some names I'd never heard people use.  The only Henry I knew the first few months of our baby's life was the octogenarian Henry in my camera club.  I thought his generation's "Jennifer" was going to be William or Aidan.

What I didn't realize, and perhaps couldn't see coming, is that we were using a name that was on an up-swing.  After he was born, we would meet people that would say "My niece just named her baby Henry last week." I've met other Henry's at the playground, the zoo, and the grocery store.  A friend recently posted pictures on facebook of her son (who has the same name as Dallas's youngest that I thought would be really uncommon) with her nephew-that's right- Henry.

By trying to go just slightly off the beaten path, we've ending up in the middle of a herd of people just like us, who all have boys with the name equivalent of Jennifer.

PS- To my Jen friends, it is a great name, and you're great too.

Stages of Waking

They say there are five stages to mourning. I'm not sure how many stages there are in the process of waking up from a nap. It begins with gentle stirring from sleep, then some stuff happens in the middle, then acceptance.

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Random Stuff I Miss from St Louis

Of course, the first thing I miss about St. Louis is our friends, but this post is more about the tangible things you could experience if you went to St. Louis for yourself.

Some things I miss about St. Louis:

Places:
Missouri Botanical Garden
http://www.slam.org/
Seeing the Gateway Arch every time I left the house
Tower Grove
The St. Louis Mills (all Nick's dress clothes came from the Hagar outlet)
The Magic House.  Henry's just getting to the age that can really enjoy it.

Foods:
Pho Grand
Ted Drewe's
Sweetie Pie's at the Mangrove (for their awesome mac & cheese)
Quik Trip- the greatest place on earth for fountain drinks

Things and Services:
The wall of windows in our apartment
Built-in dishwasher
Easy freeway access (it was literally in the front yard)
Awesome eyebrow threading at the Galleria  (the Chicago version was TERRIBLE)
St. Louis Camera Club  A huge regret is I didn't find out about this until our last year there.
Emily Southerland Photography  Beautiful Portrait work
A sales tax rate that's less than tithing (not so in Chicagoland)
Five o'clock traffic is really that- traffic at 5:00, not all day and night.

This is an Orchid from Mobot's 2010 Orchid show.  The orchid show is definitely on the list.