What's the Buzz? (-ing)

All right, we have been finding some "bees" around here for a while. I say bees because I see yellow and black and flying, I think bees. That's all there is to it. Apparently, Yellow jackets is the correct term. Brian made sure I was getting it right tonight at dinner. I said, "Whatever, I just call 'em bees, but I get it, they're hornets." No. Not hornets. (Implied look at dinner table: Jill, you're a bonehead) They are wasps. Probably by now you're as bored of the whole conversation as I was. It's o.k., though--I still love ya, Bri!

Anyhow, we have been finding lots of bees (WASPS!) around the house, and I have been assuming it's because of the cold weather. They're just trying to get out of the cold, and I have an old, drafty house, so there are lots of little crannies for them to sneak into. Can't blame them, really--wasn't I just saying how cold it is around here the other day? Well, some turned into lots, and lots turned into a really yucky situation. I am blessed with a first floor laundry room, right off my kitchen. I was in this room on Tuesday, polishing the silver...
Just checking if you were paying attention. I was doing laundry. (I never polish silver.) Still with me? Good. I'm switching out my loads of laundry, which of course are never-ending. I hear the familiar buzz and start to look around. It's pretty loud, so I'm assuming that it's exceedingly close to my head, but hoping it's loud because the room is so tiny... I look to the right, to the left, down and all around. Then I look up. Up. That's when I see it. There is not a bee (wasp) flying around my head. It's in the light above. The drop ceiling has a fluorescent light with a large square of plastic. He's up there, IN the light. With about 30 of his friends.

Yup, there are a lot of them. And they are pretty pissed. It would seem that insects do not appreciate being trapped in light fixtures. Who knew? The buzzing is loud because the hornets (wasps) are swarming around above my ceiling. Discomfort overcomes me, and I don't know what to do. I can't really say I was afraid, on account of their being trapped. Instinct still told me get the heck out of there, though. I told Brian (who'd taken the day off to work next door) and he came to see. It's satisfying to report that I believe he was more freaked than I. We decide this is it and we really need to call someone. Instead of finding the occasion stray bee (wasp) trying to escape impending Winter, we found an infestation that appeared to be in our ceilings, under the floors, and most probably in our walls as well. Yuck. That's all I can say.

I left the light on in the hopes that the heat would pretty well fry the buggers, and it worked quite well.

Here they all are, dead.

The guy didn't come to deal with these "guests" until today, and boy, was I glad to see him! So now, we're all set, and I haven't seen any since maybe 11 am or so. We found 2 upstairs right after the man left, but I think they were just limping away, trying to escape. My sons and I captured them until two empty glasses from my bedside (good thing I didn't clean them up yet, right?) and left them for Brian. Kids enjoy looking at trapped bees (wasps) while they buzz around, attempting escape. I'm crossing my fingers that they're all gone, now. The worst was when I looked over at my son in his highchair at breakfast yesterday and saw one about an inch and half from his face, walking on his chair! Upsetting. Yes, upsetting is the word.

I wanted to update with some finished objects. And it's more pleasant subject than crazy, buzzing bees (wasps) so I'm ready to move on...

Spencer's mittens are finished and I did manage to get him to model them. Well, barely. People under two years old have difficulty with the idea of "showing" specific items. Here's the best I could do:



When I couldn't get him to hold out his hands and show off the mitts, I tried a different approach. I suggested he clap his hands. So I have lots of super cute pics of him, with his hands either together, not showing the mittens, or with his hands outstretched (pre-clap) and out of the field of vision. But he tried. And he said "clap", so that's something...



Another technique I tried was having him put his hands down on my leg, so I could take just the hands. He wasn't catching on. My daughter tried to help, by patting my leg, saying to lay them down right here. He put his head on my leg. I'm still laughing. Maybe I should put that pic in, too? Nah. Anyway, he finally got it. Both hands on my leg. I snap the picture! ...but not before he takes on hand away.



Wow, after that I was wiped out! Thank goodness that my older son is the model for the next pictures. So I get Keegan all set with his new winter hat on, although I still didn't get bells. Honestly, it's starting to grow on me without the bells. "OK, Keegs, let me take your picture so everyone can see your hat..."



Cute. Why do boys do this? And you can't even see the hat. Humph.
"All right, Keegs, tilt your head down, so I can see the hat, o.k.?"



Seriously. What a crazy kid.
"Can you turn your head to the side, so I can really see it for this one?"



Tongue still out!

I know you've seen the hat, now, but I have to continue...
It goes on like this...and I deleted a few, too! Check him out, it's bizarre--



And the tongue is always in a different spot, doing something different...
Astounding.



By this time, I'm cracking up. My camera will hardly stay steady, and the tears are rolling down my cheeks. But after all this, I've got to make sure I have one for the blog...
"How about one LAST one, from the back this time?"



His tongue is STILL out!!! Keegs kills me. He really does.

One thing I wanted to mention about the hat is that I did one thing differently. When I did my Tiffany Mittens, I found that the point where the round started did funny things. I didn't like the fair isle with the little jog. You know the way stripes make a jog when you're knitting in the round? Like that, but it made the pattern really odd to me. So I attempted to do a jog less stripe, in a sense. I knit the last stitch of the round with the stitch under the first (next) stitch of the round, so that it would pull the same row together at that join. I didn't look up how to do this before I started, although I know I've read it several places. (tsk, tsk, I know) I winged it, and this is how it turned out:



It's not perfect, but it's better to me. I will keep working on it. (And maybe look up exactly how to do it next time.)