The Christmas Tree Roach(es) and Other Adventures

Living in Florida you always run the risk of being in close proximity to wildlife at any moment. Even in the urban areas, it's not unusual to hear about a possum/snake/alligator/raccoon/armadillo/cow/bear wandering into a backyard. And even though I've lived in Florida my entire life, I am still terrified of all the above. PLUS anything with more than four legs. Or no legs. So when Dave pointed out the Jurassic Park sized roach on our living room floor (6 inches from my leg!) as I sorted through Christmas ornaments to put on our tree, I wouldn't consider my screaming and jumping onto the couch an overreaction. Especially after Dave swatted it.

(On a side note, I left a very confused Macy on the floor with the roach. I think it's important to note that she is the first thing I would grab if we ever had a house fire.) (I'm pretty sure Dave could take care of himself in said house fire.)

Fast forward to this morning as I leave for work and see something unusual reflected our office floor. It's roach #2 (possible search party for roach #1?). But this guy was on his back, waving his little legs in the air. So I left him there to die (hopefully) a slow death as punishment for roach #1's actions.

It's been forever since I've seen a bug in our home so of course I blame both incidents on our Christmas tree, which was purchased outside the garden center of a Home Depot. It's just too much of a coincidence.

On a less traumatic note, on Saturday we visited Mount Dora. It's a FL city with a small town vibe, lots of cute little antique shops and even more cute little wine shops. Cover it all in twinkly Christmas lights and even without the gallon of red wine, it's just charming. My favorite was Maggie's Attic where, no joke, each glass of wine was at least a 1/2 bottle pour. They were nice enough to let my friend Nic and I sample a bunch of different wines before we settled on something cheap and red.

Christmas lights + red wine = good times

It's time to start the music...

Working the day before a holiday sucks for two reasons. First, I'm at work. Second, I've developed long-weekend fever and have already listed out all the non-worky/fun things I want to do over the next four days. On top of this it's dark, foggy and misting rain (always the preferred weather for a nap).

So when I checked my email at lunch and saw this little jewel (btw, thank you Jen!), I IMMEDIATELY felt better. Beaker and Ralph have always been my favorites; a testment to my life-long love of all things nerdy and musical.


Remember the movie The Muppets Take Manhattan? Where the mice would skate around on little butter skates inside the skillet? I guess back then people weren't concerned about cholesterol (or mice fur in their food) and using olive oil. I'm going to add 'finding Muppet compelation DVD' onto my long weekend list of non-worky/fun things to do.

Sleeping Moo

My dog Macy (or Moo, Macy-moo, Moose & Moosey) spent almost all of Sunday on the couch watching t.v. If she continues to insist on getting her minimum 18 hours of beauty sleep, I think I'm going to have to demand that she either get a job or start folding laundry.

(Photo courtesy of my friend, Chad.)