bought a ticket to illinois to go visit family october 1-4. i haven't been there in over a year, so i'm really looking forward to it!

had to work today - packing up all of our event materials for next year.

also had to clean up the ant aftermath today - was on my hands and knees scrubbing floors and baseboards. we did about 3 dishwasher loads to get everything clean and bug-spray free. and we did a few loads of laundry for the same reason.

proactive ant defenses, we have done:

- indoor spray in the areas we saw ants
- outdoor spray (around all of the windows)
- ant bait traps in the kitchen
- sprinkled amdro granules around our foundation

no more ants, PLEASE!

i guess the up side would be that our house is very clean now!

and we rearranged the living room furniture for something new. i'll have to post a picture of it. the dogs are confused though, that's for sure!

stupid ants.

they are in our kitchen and master bath.

we went through 2 bottles of raid yesterday and put out some ant traps.

it's just from all this rain - they want to be inside instead of outside.

so our kitchen is all torn apart - counters cleared off, a cabinet completely empty. our master bath is a mess - had to move everything to the extra bath and close the door.

been spraying bug spray. wiping things down with cleaner. repeat.

no more ants! please!

today - i even dawdled coming home so that scott would get home first to discover if we still had ants. it worked - he got home first, but we still had ants. boo.

on a happier note, he asked me to bring home dinner, so i chose sonic, so i had 2 cherry limeades. (scott has soda here that he likes and plus, he doesn't like cherry limeade anyway - so i drank both of them!).

i won a trip for 2 to san diego (hotel, airfare, some spending money, a dinner. gift bags, ground transportation). i thought i had a year to use it when they notified me, but the promtions company called on Monday and said the trip has to be taken october 2-4. well, scott's so busy that he doesn't want to go then and my friend couldn't go with me either. and i honestly wasn't in the mood to go on another weekend whirlwind trip right now.

so i emailed the promotions company and told them i would love to go, but i can't get a travel companion on such short notice, i'd have to decline the prize, and i hope they can select another winner.

it was the saddest day.

and they emailed me back today and offered to give me the CASH EQUIVALENT of the trip instead! holy cow! what an AMAZING offer!!!

so of course i said yes!

they didn't have to do that - and even in the rules, it doesn't mention anything about a cash option (sometimes it's in there that you can select a cash equivalent instead). they could have just not selected a winner, not given me anything, and saved the money. but instead, i'll get a check in a few weeks!

i'm still in shock! $$$$

yesterday, my husband was uncharacteristically grouchy when i got home. even when i asked him about his day, i was getting less-than-one-word answers. so i switched to asking about what he learned at his training, still no life from him. ok - i switched to his favorite topic - football. this still elicited little more than grunts and sighs at me.

i finally asked him why he was so grumpy. he denied his grumpiness. but it was clearly there.

i guess my point is that this is one of the things in marriage that you just have to deal with. a grumpy spouse. everyone has their off days when they just want to be left alone (which is finally what i did - we retreated to separate rooms so i wouldn't catch his funk).

but when you're married, you have this other person to tolerate. and figure out. and put up with. you have to figure out how to deal with this other person that you can't escape (usually) and is the thin ice you're on something that you caused or just something that is happening near you that you are witnessing? (that's a big struggle for me - i'm not trying to FIX his problems as he tries to do to me, i'm trying to UNDERSTAND THE CAUSE so i can recognize it in the future, but he doesn't like me analyzing his moods, so i guess we're even).

i will admit that i got the better end of the grumpy-spouse-deal - as i can't remember the last time i had to deal with a grouchy husband. i don't think he can say the same for me. fortunately, he is very gracious and understanding when i have my bad days. i need to learn some of that from him.

of course, when i have a bad day and am THAT grouchy, i usually just go to bed - to put me (and him) out of my misery!

he did email me today to apologize for his poor attitude yesterday (at least he finally SAW it) and said tonight would be better. and so far it is.

and (married) life goes on...