Catymology

Maybe you've seen the 1936 Three Stooges short, Ants in the Pantry? Where are Larry, Moe, and Curly when you really need them?


Yup, these annoying little buggers have, once again, invaded the kitchen. I think they're plotting to invade Netflix, once they activate their free trial subscription. Then, they plan to rent Empire of the Ants and The Ant Bully. Trying to educate us, they are. Luckily, I've still got a lot of Terro left. Take that!



I've decided to send them to the Friday Ark.

Labels: 3 annoying things

Aloysius is out enjoying his new grass. I think he's eating it. Perhaps he thinks he's a sheep? Since it's Tuesday, he gets to be whatever kind of animal he wants, while I indulge in a brief rant. Three annoyances:

1. Some person or persons continually drop little plastic bags full of doggy do into my garbage cart. It's good that they pick up after their dogs, but the bags of doggy do stick to the bottom of the cart and stink.

2. I live in a (fairly) a well-organized midwestern city which has rules about the dumping of garbage. City Ordinance 225.10 states in part: "No person shall leave, throw, or deposit, or use or permit any other person to leave, place, throw, or deposit, any substances or materials of any kind at a city solid waste collection point…for city disposal when the substances or materials were generated at a location other than the residence."

I have actually thought about calling my city councilmember's office to see what she can do to stop people from dropping little plastic bags full of doggy do in my garbage cart. Maybe I should get a life?

3. I've also wondered about the fact that many shops persist in putting a single item (a box of mints, a bottle of ibuprofin) into a plastic bag. If there were no plastic bags, people would not be putting their doggy do into them in the first place. But perhaps then they wouldn't pick up after their dogs.

Labels: 3 annoying things

1. Pology Magazine Online: Writers' guidelines:

The best stories resemble prose.

2. [from a recent Craig's List job posting] Are YOU a POWER BLOGGER?

We're looking for someone who wants to work from home - updating about 9-10 of my client's blogs - once per month with 250-400 words of real estate-investing related information (as if you were this female "investment property specialist" yourself).

THE TECHNICAL PART:

I am producing training videos to walk you through the process.

You will have to be able to make several separate blog entries per month (each in it's own independent blog).

Insert 2 hyperlinks back to our site within the text of each entry.- and then type the blog's URL into a simple online ping-service to let the search engines know that there's a new post.

Initially, your first month would just be getting use to the videos and audios we'll provide, and just writing posts as fast as you can into WORD documents (for $3 per post). We need to get caught up on our content - so you will need to be able to crank this stuff out.

3. Sign posted in a South Minneapolis alley:

Respect the

Neighborhood

Residents

only beyond

this point

Someone had hand-written a colon : after "neighborhood." Thank the Great Cat for copy editors!

Labels: 3 annoying things

Since Tuesday is Aloysius' day to simply be a cat, he's turned the forum over to me so that I can vent. Here are three of the X things that annoy amanuensis:

1. Automated call from a credit card company offers me a lower interest rate on "all my cards."

To speak to a representative, press 9. To stop receiving these calls in the future, press 8.

I press 8.

Incorrect response. To speak to a representative, press 9. To stop receiving these calls in the future, press 8.

I press 8.

Incorrect response. To speak to a representative, press 9. To stop receiving these calls in the future, press 8.

I press 8

incorrect

8

incorrect

8888888888888888

Silence.

Ahh!

2. I open up the dishwasher and the bottom is crawling with ANTS! Yes, I said ants. Legions of tiny, crawly, little reddish-brown ants.

I wonder if I am the only person who has ever found ants in the dishwasher. I google "ants in dishwasher."
Amazingly, I get a pile of hits. Non-toxic remedies are recommended:

a. white vinegar
I throw half a gallon of white vinegar into the dishwasher and run a cycle.
Wednesday: The ants are gone.
Thursday: The ants come back: legions of tiny, crawly, little reddish-brown ants. I wash ants down the drain, clean the filter, and run the dishwasher.

b. Borax powder
Friday: I obtain Twenty Mule Team Borax at the local supermarket. throw a couple of cups of borax into the bottom of the dishwasher and wet it.
Saturday: Ants crawling over the borax. I wash ants down the drain, clean the filter, and run the dishwasher.

This calls for escalation. At the hardware store, I buy some Terro, an insecticide that is designed to be eaten by worker ants and carried back to the nest. Following directions, I squeeze some of the gooey liquid onto a little squares of cardboard and place them on the counter.

Sunday: ants in the dishwasher, no ants on the Terro.
I place more gooey-liquid smeared squares on the floor in front of the dishwasher.
Sunday night: lots of ants swarming over the Terro.

For the next three days, I pick up, bag, and dispose of the used cardboard squares and replace them with new ones.

Day 4: no ants in dishwasher. Some dead ants on the cardboard squares. No ants moving around. Ahhh!

3. A former member of my freelance writers' union complains that the union has a left-wing political agenda. Then he tells me how much he makes per day as a business consultant. Ahhh!

Labels: 3 annoying things