My Ingrown Toenail got drilled on.

Well, not really.

I don't have an ingrown toenail ( Thank God!), and we do have several drills... but that's beside the point.

Point is, I got bitten by an ant yesterday. A Texas Red Harvester Ant.

photo courtesy of Wikipedia

On the shin, out in the yard.

It was excruciating. I looked down, and here was this ant clinging on to my shin with its freakin' mandibular mouth parts. I brushed it away and went back in the house.

That was at about 5pm. When I finally went to bed at about midnight, it was STILL hurting! This time, the hurting was down the front of my shin. I felt under my PJs pant leg, and that area was SWEATING. I mean, everywhere else was dry and cool, but the hurting area was DAMP. *hoy* Anyway, a I quickly googled the darned situation, found out that the pain could last anything from 1 to 8 hours, made a judgement call that I wasn't about to die or lose a limb, and went to bed.

This morning, there is a 1 1/2 inch diameter round red welt on my shin, and it still tingles some, but I'm alive and well.

Where does the drilling of the ingrown toenail come in? Well, an entomologist came up with this pain scale from 0 - 4 for stings, and mine came in at a 3.

• 1.0 Sweat bee: Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm.
• 1.2 Fire ant: Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet & reaching for the light switch.
• 1.8 Bullhorn acacia ant: A rare, piercing, elevated sort of pain. Someone has fired a staple into your cheek.
• 2.0 Bald-faced hornet: Rich, hearty, slightly crunchy. Similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door.
• 2.0 Yellowjacket: Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine WC Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.
• 2.x Honey bee and European hornet: Like a matchhead that flips off and burns on your skin.
• 3.0 Red harvester ant: Bold and unrelenting. Somebody is using a drill to excavate your ingrown toenail.
• 3.0 Paper wasp: Caustic & burning. Distinctly bitter aftertaste. Like spilling a beaker of Hydrochloric acid on a paper cut.
• 4.0 Pepsis wasp: Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric.
• 4.0+ Bullet ant: Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail in your heel.

Boo at the Zoo 2010

Halloween came early

at the Abilene Zoo, where they had their Annual Boo at the Zoo event. It was from 2:00 pm till 6:30 pm, and we got there around 4:30 in the afternoon.

We were quite shocked to see several long lines of cars trying to get into the parking area.

Judging by all of that, we knew that parking in the zoo parking lot was going to be just about non existent. So we decided to make do a U-Turn and park a little ways away and walk the short distance back to the zoo.

When we got into the parking lot, we saw a huge crowd standing in line for tickets. At least we didn't have the parking headache.

Jaxon did NOT like it that the line was not moving very quickly, and tried to muster up all his super baby powers to will the stroller ( and the line ) to get a move on.

So we left David in the queue and walked/strolled around the verandah area.

Jaxon didn't really care too much for their huge inflatable spook-cat.

One of the first booths we encountered was the local TV Stations, and Maria Oliver came over to hand Jaxon some candy.

Except, he was already munching on a Granny Smith apple and offered THAT to her!

According to the local paper, there were around 40 booths that were handing out candy and fliers... I don't know if we saw that many or not. We stopped by about 4 or 5 of them, just for fun, and went around looking at the animals. We weren't there for the candy after all, and the lines at some of them were just ridiculous.

Not having grown up with Halloween / Trick or Treating, it was fun to watch the little ones ( as well as some of the older crowd ) all dressed up in their costumes.

We didn't get to see the famous lion cubs, but we enjoyed ourselves and the weather was just wonderful. It had rained cats and dogs that morning, with plenty of flooding around town, but by afternoon, the sun was out and the air was crisp and cool - perfect for an outing to the zoo.

Mr. I'm-SO-Not-Doing-Candy-Yet, with his apple

Living History

As I get older, history gets less dry and way more interesting. Especially when it comes to life. A couple of weeks ago, we drove over to Fort Griffin over in Albany for their Annual Living History Days. We had called them up that morning, and asked how the maneuverable it would be for a wheelchair. The lady on the phone offered to let us use a golf cart they had. YIPPEEEEE! Grandad and David got to drive around in style once we got there, and see things which would have been impossible - or extremely difficult - to get to, if we were there with a wheelchair.

The little boy, on the other hand, was a wriggling mess in the back seat of the golf cart, and for everyone's sanity, I let him roam free on the grounds, running after him every which way his little feet led him.

I did manage to get a look at some of the exhibits, though.. and having people in costume reenacting the times/era was pretty neat.

The Texas Camel Corp!

After touring around the Fort part a bit, we drove over to "The Flat", where the original settlement below the fort was, and which is being preserved by the Historical Commission.

There was an old Truss Bridge which is now blocked off but we stopped the car and walked over it.

Very cool. I now also have a new interest in Historical Markers too :)

Oh, and on that vein, check out THIS app for the Android. Cool. http://www.mygeoreader.com/

Food Galore

Just a collection

of random meals ....

Meal 1

Fried Kway Teow




Stir Fried Mixed Vegetables




Mild Chicken Curry/Stew




Watercress Soup






Meal 2

Mahi Mahi with Mango Glaze




Mango Dip/Sauce




Rice Cakes




With Sweet Chili Sauce




And a Salad





Meal 3

Chops with Mushroom Gravy




Rolls and a Salad




Scalloped Potatoes




Poppy Seed Muffins with Lemon Glaze





Meal 4

Chicken Bruschetta Bake ( recipe link HERE )




Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes with Pecan Sprinkles ( Link to Recipe HERE )

Garden World and Photo Ops

A couple of weekends ago,

we went to the Garden Center with Grandad.

It had been a while since Grandad had been there, and he had a great time going through the aisles of different plants they had.

Grandad had always been an avid garden/lover of plants, and has passed that love to David, and hopefully on to Jaxon as well

Although, little boys are sometimes way more interested in all kinds of other things too.

There was a tiny little glitch with the foot rest on Grandad's wheelchair,

but a few minutes with a borrowed wrench quickly solved the problem.

Meanwhile, Jaxon got all antsy and would not be kept in his little stroller, and so we left the boys and went off in search of the "pumpkin patch" area.

He even managed to get in some "stomping in puddles" time.

I managed to get him to sit down for some hehe, choreographed shots, most of which looked like this, or worse,

But I finally got one that is so sweet, it melts your heart :)