A few random things from today

1. I discovered my betta had died today. I'm not sure if I'll replace him; it's only a three-gallon tank, and while it has a filter and bubbles and all, it's not ideal for a fish, and one can't go in the same tank (a 29 gallon long) with the goldfish because he'd probably fight with them, as bettas are terribly territorial.
2. I went to move my flamingo plant today in order to open the window and there were hundreds of ants (with pupae) underneath. Gross. I put the saucer on the windowsill next to the ant bait so they can either go outside or take the bait that's nearby. It was swarming too much to take it out through the apartment and the hall to the outside, so I just used the window screen.
3. I have a terrible sinus headache that has lasted for hours. It looks like it'll storm, and it's definitely supposed to rain tomorrow, I think. I'm going to lie down in a little while and see if that helps, after taking some ibuprofen.
4. I've visited a friend and helped him with a few things. He wasn't feeling great either and decided to lie down, so I came on home. I'll go back about 7 pm to help feed the animals and see if he's doing better.
5. I saw a great interview by a young woman with autism with Channing Tatum earlier. She uses a pad to communicate. It was her first interview, and she did a great job. She's got quite a sense of humour. Her name is Carly Fleischmann. YKWIA showed it to me, and we both liked it.
6. I usually pick a grey horse for the Kentucky Derby, if there is one running. This year, there are actually four on the roster, at least three with the same sire. I'm going to go with Creator, I think. Yesterday the odds were 10-1. I'm going to make sure I get up in time to watch the Derby. What can I say, it's a big thing here in Kentucky. Even if you're not partying or at the tracks, you're probably going to tune in for the actual race if you can.
7. I learned that I am incapable of using a 2-bladed razor, apparently, without doing bodily harm to myself, so I went to the store and got a five-bladed razor and some more shave cream to prevent 'cuts and nicks' in the future. I had a time stopping the bleeding, and finally slapped a giant Band-Aid on it. Maybe I should have looked for a styptic pencil as well.
8. When I went to open the window, I also discovered my aloe had lost its root structure, and while it is still alive, has nothing to anchor or nurture it, so it is essentially the unwalking dead. I rather like aloe, so that's sad. On the other hand, I took some bits that had fallen off my Christmas cactus and put them in dirt, oh, a couple of weeks ago, maybe, and one is budding. Yes, budding. So not only has it rooted, it's getting ready to bloom.
9. Having a headache is detrimental to my grasp of grammar--I had to make three corrections to this post, and two weren't typos. :( Hey, it happens sometimes when I'm tired or in pain, what can I say. At least I proofread both before and after I post.

I guess that's it for now. I'm going to go rest and see if I can take care of my headache. I'll probably write later.

No less than four ants

Managed to scuttle onto me tonight; I had thought I was winning the war.  Now,  I'm not so sure. I was in different areas of the living room,  sitting or standing,  although I think most got onto me while I was on the loveseat. Hopefully the bait will help,  though.

Okay, having an ant run across your face

Right under your eyes,  so you see a dark shadow quickly go by and the feeling is of something crawling on you,  this is not acceptable.

I know,  ants are good creatures with benefits to the environment.  Poison is not.  But you know what?

This means war.

Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!

Taking a break

Listening to Chris Isaak's 'Wicked Game'--that man's voice is pure sex.

The living room was where I decided to start, especially with my penchant for opening the blinds and windows and the fact you can see right in without the sheers I had up for so long. I've done very well at getting it in order, and except for some minor things like dusting and vacuuming, it looks much better. I can actually sit on the couch, which I tend to use as a landing area when I come in (yeah, I know, that's not what it's for). I think I'll do those little things that are left and decide this room is my main project for the day. There's no sense in trying to do everything today. I have part of tomorrow, after all (I'll work on the bathroom, which just needs a once-over, and the kitchen). I will try to put my little bit of laundry together tonight so it's ready for tomorrow. Monday evening after work I'll tackle the dining room. Tuesday a friend has an appointment, so I'll probably be over there. Wednesday I should be able to work on the bedroom, as Thursday is another evening appointment for him. Friday's 'Grimm', assuming we watch it that night. We will be playing next week unless something comes up with Brenda's meetings, so that leaves Saturday, possible, to do anything else left.

The ants appear to be taking the bait. Yay! So often they put those things down at work and the ants ignore it.

Well, one nice thing

I have reached my 60 minutes of daily activity goal, and surpassed it by 24 minutes, and it's not quite 5:30 pm. I have also recovered, and made it through a fairly large grocery run without feeling run down, tired, or short of breath. I rested a lot between exercising and say, 2 pm, then went over to my friends' house, went through the grocery list, took A to the store, got a fair amount of groceries for me (yesterday's run was a small one; now I have enough for several days), put everything away, and then left them to a walk now that the rain has stopped (at least for now), and came home and put my groceries away. I think I finally feel caffeinated and ready to do stuff around here. The rain's really made me sleepy all day. I've put on some peppy music, and now I'm going to make a battle plan of what I want to get accomplished today. Tomorrow we decided to cancel the game, although Brenda could have played, so we can go through some things and get them ready for Monday. YKWIA and I are also going to watch a movie I have out from Netflix, The Wicker Tree, which is done by the same folks who came up with the original The Wicker Man, which I love. It will be interesting to see what they've done with this. It'll be a good thing to watch for Beltane/May Day. :)

When we were coming from the store, I saw across the road in a grassy place a crow trying to attack a bunny rabbit, the latter of which channelled the rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and basically it jumped at the crow and told it to f*ck off. I'm thinking it was a mother rabbit protecting her babies. I do love the bunny with the big gnashy teeth from the movie. YKWIA has a stuffed animal version of it.

I did get ant bait, so we'll see if it'll work. It's the stuff made by Hot Shot. I hate using poison, but hey, I'm tired of the little bugs crawling all over the place (and me).

Okay, time to create a battle plan.

That took way too long to recover

I fell asleep while propping my ankle up, and slept for about an hour and a half. It was good rest, mind you, but not what I planned for my day. I got up at 11:30 am, took a shower, and headed over to Kroger for some soda so I could get some caffeine in my system. I know, coffee would be better, and I actually have some coffee and those little Land O'the Lakes Mini-Moos, but I only imbibe coffee occasionally, to be honest. I'm just not into it.

I managed to find a parking spot that may have been a 10-minute spot (it wasn't marked as such, but there were several in that lane that were, so they may have meant it to be). I just ran in, got three items, and was out in probably 6-8 minutes, so it was okay. Driving back actually took longer, since I went the back way to avoid the traffic and got caught just as a light turned red.

I'm eating lunch at the computer, which I probably shouldn't do, as I'm still finding an occasional ant on the computer desk (or even me). But I'm being careful of not getting anything into the laptop keyboard. When I go back to the store with A, I need to make a list, including snacks for tomorrow's game and ant bait, because they're just not going away. Don't get me wrong, I like ants and insects, but not when they're invading my home and food. There's a whole line of them along the window sill right now.

I'm not sure when we're going to the store. They were going to spend some time together and do errands out on the bus (which is good, but it's raining, so they probably are getting wet). The rain is still making me sleepy, and I've feeling a little overwhelmed by the house. Maybe I need to break down what needs to be done on a pad of paper and go from there. And I need to remind myself that it doesn't all have to be done today. I can spend some time reading or listening to music or watching DVDs and that's fine, too.

Correction

It's actually a fairly substantial colony of ants. :( I may have to head over to Kroger later for something to take care of it. And the fountain may just have to go live outside for a day or two. I keep feeling like they're crawling on me, even though they're not--my computer desk is in a corner near the window they're swarming from.

Today has been about getting used to changes and being one phone call away when needed. But I'm having a quiet night alone at the apartment, and I've had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a banana, and some string cheese, so I'm good for the night, hopefully. I brought some very sturdy copy boxes home from work over the last couple of days in the hopes of doing some spring cleaning--putting loose things in the boxes and then going through each one item at a time. Basically I want to contain things and make it easier to break down the process. I also need to water the plants and add some to the fish tanks. They're not dangerously low, but they do need some. My violets and geraniums are blooming nicely. I've put a couple of sprigs of my Christmas cactus which fell off into another pot and hopefully they'll root.

They sent the modem out today and I should get it tomorrow, although I'm going to be at an appointment or two tomorrow afternoon, so I may have to come back later and see if it came. Tomorrow I should be away from home in the evening, but I'll try to set it up after I get in. I'm just using the laptop at home right now; a friend still has my desktop borrowed.

I didn't sleep much at all last night. I went to bed early, about 10 or 10:30, and I slept till about midnight. After that, it was all tossing and turning back and forth. So I think I'll take a short nap before proceeding with my afternoon.

There is a very annoyed bee who keeps trying to get to my geraniums through the screen. :)

Okay, time for a nap.

I have found a small colony of ants

making their way back and forth from the front wall to a rarely used fountain that still has some water in it. It's in the sunny living room window surrounded by plants. Occasionally I have seen an ant on my computer desk, so I decided to investigate. This is not good. I'm used to having trouble in the spring at work, but I've never had them in my home here, and it's usually fruit flies that are the issue in the summer. So, I guess it's time to find some decent ant bait.

I also just made arrangements to get my Internet/Wi-Fi back. Time Warner Cable processed my payment and will send me a modem within two days. I just have to tell the folks in our materials management that I have one coming via FedEx (I can never seem to get anything directly sent to my apartment).

I had a great appointment with my endocrinologist today. I went from a Hemoglobin A1c of 9.6 (pretty high, although the highest I've been is 10.1) down to 7.1 (which is in the range they like to see diabetics) in just three months, and it would probably have been better but the last two or three weeks I've struggled with my medication routine. Still, I'm back on track, so it should continue to stay decent.

I came home and did a little straightening up in the kitchen and living room before even taking off my shoes. Now I'm going to get something to eat and try to tackle the dining room, which had a lot of laundry on the table but now just has lots of random stuff. I brought home a couple of copy paper boxes, and I'm going to sweep everything into them and then go by things one by one. Hope you're having a good week so far!

You've got to love that headline

Zombie ants fight fungus with fungus

:)

Now that's a great movie premiss, giant winged ants sweeping down on humans

Okay, maybe not giant, because a hummingbird is fairly small, but for an ant, a hummingbird is 'ginormous'.

Hummingbird-Sized Ants Once Roamed Wyoming

It’s not a bird or a plane, but it is an ant the size of a hummingbird.

A winged ant queen fossilized in 49.5-million-year-old Wyoming rock ranks as the first body of a giant ant from the Western Hemisphere, says paleoentomologist Bruce Archibald of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia.

The new species, Titanomyrma lubei, is related to giant ants previously found in German fossils. These long-distance relatives bolster the notion that the climate of the time had hot blips that allowed warmth-loving giant insects to spread from continent to continent, Archibald and a U.S.-Canada team propose online May 4 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

An ancient ant wing from Tennessee had hinted that big ants lived in North America during this time, says Torsten Wappler of the University of Bonn in Germany. “But complete preserved specimens were not known until Bruce came up with this beautiful preserved fossil.”

I want to be a paleoentomologist when I grow up. I love bugs. I love fossils. I love history. Where do I sign up?

Fascinating

But in studying it, they destroyed it. :( How many ants, pupae, fungi gardens, etc. are now encased in that 10 tonnes of cement?



Thanks to Maria Popova (@brainpicker) for the link, as retweeted by Emil Petrinic (@strangegoat).

Fossil evidence for mind-controlling parasites from 48 million years ago

Mind-controlling parasites date back millions of years: Unnerving variety of creatures evolved ability to control brains

Mind control by parasite sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but not only have scientists revealed that it is real across a range of animals including perhaps humans they now even have fossil evidence suggesting it has taken place for millions of years.

An unnerving variety of parasites have evolved the ability to control the brains of victims to help the parasites spread. For instance, the protozoan known as Toxoplasma gondi imakes rats love cat urine so that it can spread among its feline hosts and it may influence human culture as well, making people more prone to certain forms of neuroticism.

Another case of parasite mind control involves the fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, which essentially turns ants into zombies. It maneuvers the insects into biting down on the major veins of the undersides of leaves just before they die the fungus then rapidly grows a stalk from their victims' heads, releasing spores to infect more ants.

I've heard of the ant fungous before (thanks to YKWIA). Here's a video of what happens to them. It's unnerving...

More hours mean more pay

but it was still nice not to be working at the store today, the only day I've had off during the work week. Tomorrow I do my regular Saturday shift, then Sunday I'm off for the game, and then I work Monday. But I'm off Tuesday and Wednesday.

At some point I need to reschedule a cancelled dental appointment for two fillings. I'm having some pain and I'm not sure but I may have chipped a molar. I have such large fillings in most of my molars that it's pretty easy to break a tooth. That may mean another crown.

Today was spent doing interlibrary loans, putting literacy project books on the cart for the clinic, printing off patient surveys, and generally preparing for our big open house at the hospital. I don't go (I did once. I discovered I'm uneasy around crowds and clowns. I never had trouble with clowns until I was surrounded by about seven the one time I volunteered for the information booth. They wanted a pin I had. The lack of personal space and creepy old men in face makeup really unnerved me. I know they meant well, but still....) That is actually one real hazard of my job. You never know when a clown is going to insist on hugging you.

I also spent the day being harassed by ants in my cubicle. It's rained quite a bit and they're coming in one by one. I picked up some ant traps from housekeeping, so maybe that will help.

I'm going to have to go into work early on Wednesday because they're having a free birthday breakfast for those of us with recent or upcoming birthdays. The directors serve the food and our administrator makes omelets. Considering that's the day before I get paid and my food situation is already looking sad, it will be welcome.

Speaking of food (or lack thereof), I weighed myself, and I have officially lost 20 lbs since about September. I weighed 291 at my heaviest; now I'm 271. Go me! Go lots of peanut butter! D said I could be the spokesperson for the Peanut Butter Diet much like the Subway guy is for healthy sandwiches.

I've been playing a lot with iGoogle this evening. It's a personalised form of Google that allows themes and various widgets where you can choose the content you want displayed and customise everything. I have Twitter, Google Docs, Google Talk (a chat client), Google Calendar, a picture-of-the-day from National Geographic, my Gmail account, my Google Reader feeds, a to-do list, a clock, and some miscellaneous stuff, just on the main page. There's other tabs for games, news, politics, etc. My theme changes according to time of day (the sun is shown during the day, at sunrise/sunset, it turns orange, and at night it shows the moon. Anyway, it keeps all sorts of applications that I use daily at my fingertips (and no, I don't twitter at work, since it is in essence mini-blogging).

The picture to the right of this post is of my Yahoo! Avatar. I played with it a bit and have been using a square icon of the face for some of my profiles, such as at Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Okay, it's almost 12:30. Time to go to bed early for a change. Good night.