Can I just say how very thankful I am that Emily and I share the writing job at this blog?  Coming up with fresh material 5 days a week all by myself would be hugely stressful.  Even if I had enough good material on my own, which I wouldn’t, where would the time come from to write snappy posts?  How do you soloists do it?  At least one of you writes 14 different blogs and hosts Wednesday spaghetti nights for various gangs!  And has a preschooler!  And a  job!

Apparently, finding material is not a problem for this guy.  

BOOKS:  Casting back to this earlier post, I have read  Out Stealing Horses (almost dreamlike, brutal but beautiful), and am just finishing Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan (wonderful premise, great narrator, packed with funny and serious observations).  It was a treat to go from the ice and snow of Norway to the heat and jungles of Burma.  OSH was written in spare, stark prose - and then there’s Amy Tan, a wizard of wordiness.  I loved both of these, suggested by Melanie.  However, I could not get into her pick Ella Minnow Pea, even though the premise is clever and it’s all about words and language. Will try again.

Again, I’m so grateful for all the reading suggestions from you MOBsters.  It makes me feel snug and secure, knowing there’s a long list of good books in the pipeline.  On Thursday I’ll put up the entire list of recommendations.

COLLEGE:  This is crunch week - schools need to know on May 1 which kids have accepted their offers, and which kids are going elsewhere.  As a recent newspaper article said, ”A lot of families will be sitting around the table on Thursday night with a whiteboard.”  Memo to self:  get a whiteboard with magical decision-making abilities. 

 STINKBUGS:  And going back many months, I must re-visit the topic of hideous stinkbugs.  These god-awful things are everywhere, and they are driving me mad.  I can’t just shrug and co-exist with them, I must wage war upon each and every one.  As you can imagine, this doesn’t help my daily productivity quotient.  I describe my favorite waterboarding technique in the old post, and I continue to stand by this method.

But I’ve found an effective new technique of stinkbug torture as well.  This involves scooting said vermin onto a sheet of paper, then slapping a huge piece of strong tape down on top of them.  Don’t let any antennae or skinny arms and legs stick out – I’ve seen them escape through tiny gaps.  In a pinch, several criss-crossing bits of regular Scotch tape will do.  It’s kind of like home-made flypaper.

These scourges are the size of jellybeans.  When they make contact with solid objects, a small thud results.  They buzz, they swarm to lights by night and to windows by day.  No pesticide has been found to work against them.  Last night, Malcolm noticed the hall light was full of charred and dessicated stinkbug husks.  Today, I cleaned out the globes, chuckling grimly at the carnage – and the evidence that – haha – they can’t escape every danger, can they?

Please tell me Stinkbug Season will be over soon.

 

 

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