Miscellaneous updates

Just random things that are of little importance.

• The roof leak...ah, that nasty thing. The builder sent a crew out who have, in theory, repaired the leak itself. We've had a bit more rain since the repair and haven't had any more water leaking into the shower but I'm not completely convinced that it's repaired since we haven't had nearly as much rain as before. And they haven't started the ceiling repair either and we may need to fight about that one a bit but it's ugly and damaged and I'm still convinced that the space above the shower is loaded with deadly mold and mildew.
• We've finally come to the conclusion that we've got carpenter ants. I'm not sure why it took so long to come to this conclusion but I'm voting for denial. We've got someone coming in next Wednesday to charge us $375 and eradicate the miserable little things but they tell us that it may be a multistage process and that they'll have to come back at least once to make sure they're gone. At least that price includes all the necessary follow up work but it doesn't include repairing the damage the ants may have caused or doing the work we may need to do to prevent them from inviting themselves back.
• After our 70's party, we had leftover Hamburger Helper floating around the house so I decided that it was going to be dinner one night. I remember having it as a kid, the pizza flavor with the wagon wheel shaped pasta I believe, and that I liked it way back then. But I hadn't had it since that time, hadn't even thought of it. I whipped it the lasagna variety and have to say it was really mediocre but I found the sauce you're supposed to put on top of it to look disturbingly like cum.
• One of Sam's teachers told us that a peer had taught the kids the word "fuck" the other day. We heard him singing "fucka fucka fucka bucka bucka bucka" the next day but don't really know if he was trying out this exciting new word or just happening upon an interesting rhyme.
• After weeks of rain we finally had enough of a break in the weather that I could mow the lawn but Ben was going out for the evening so I'd be mowing with my little antihelper in tow, hardly an ideal situation. At first he played contentedly on the porch while I mowed but then he decided he wanted to help push the mower. Picture him holding on, me trying to push it and him trying to pull it and you've got a basic idea of how well that works. Luckily my wonderful neighbor Marilyn saw us and said she'd watch him while I finished up. Have I ever mentioned that I've got wonderful neighbors?