Life's a Stitch

Not a good way to spend a weekend - as gross as it gets

The title has given you due warning.

I lead a weekly meeting. That week I started:

"I'm having a personal crisis and I need someone to tell me what to do."

Silence in the meeting room, not usually so, considering the active participation of these three intelligent women.

I continue, "It all started a earlier in the summer."

"Girl," says one, "you know how to get our attention."

I continue. "I bought a sack of Trader Joe's whole grain white flour and upon opening it found a webby mess of worms"

"Ohhhhh yukkk." 

"Yes, yukk, I immediately put it into the garbage under my sink. Big mistake as it sat there for two days."

I explain how shortly thereafter I noticed a mothy infestation. Initially worried about my yarn, it didn't seem to be a problem. The moths were staying clear of my stash and hovering closer to the kitchen. 

FACT: The moths you see in your house are eating one of two things depending upon their variety - wool or food. They are also laying eggs in their dining areas. The eggs then hatch into wormy larvae.

I was witnessing the life cycle of the pantry moth. In my rice, flour and oatmeal; in the plastic Costco Orville R. popcorn container, despite the threaded lid. 

FACT: Pantry moths don't just fly randomly into your house. They hitch a ride in your groceries, usually the dry goods. Flour and those dried chili pepper flakes that you shake on your pizza are some of their favourite foods. Once grown,they leave their eggs on everything they touch. 

Now my cupboards look like a Tupperware/Lock 'N Lock commercial:

We threw out everything and started over. Before stuff finds its way to its cozy plastic container, it spends a few days in the freezer. I am not going through this again.

I don't deal well with bugs. Don't ask me about the time two of my dear children came home from Brownies "Hat Night" with head lice. Twenty years later I can't even think about that without feeling itchy. 

 

Grossly out of focus but too good not to share

I usually delete bad photos, but not this one, a precious memory taken by my son-in-law. That's me, my eldest and C in a moving truck, in our first serious attempt at clearing out our house in anticipation of downsizing. They thankfully took their bedroom set, the piano, plus 20 boxes of stuff belonging to her and her sister. It's unfortunate that my new camera decided to bite the dust at the precise moment my son-in-law held it up and said...

"Say Elina's pregnant!"

If that darned lemon of a camera had let him snap again, E says it would have recorded that my head nearly banged into the ceiling of the truck while I was jumping up and down. I never thought that would have been my reaction, but it was truly a joyful moment.

Oh yes, they took the baby furniture, too. And, no, despite the bunny hats of my last post, it's a spring (early March) baby, but not twins. And the camera is going back. I need something more reliable.

Whoo-hoo! Moving on to the next stage of life... how did it happen so quickly? And I am no spring chickie, being of mature age when I had that child, my first, and now she's following suit. Funny thing about life.