Hornet Update

The supervisor from Ehrlich never called me back.

Today, after not finding a single little bugger in my house since the Ehrlich man came out, I came home from dinner with my parents and found one dead on in my basement. Completely separate from all the other ones. This concerns me a little since it looks like the other ones. Obviously they were getting into the house somehow, as they were in the attic. It seems perfectly reasonable that one would fly somewhere else and end up in the basement. I'm just hoping that he's the only one.

and now for something completely different...

I found this website/blog: PostSecret. The whole idea here is that you fill out a postcard with something that bothers you about yourself, or some secret you have, and then every week all the postcards received that week are posted, anonymously on the web. I'm not sure how I feel about this site, as you'll see if you read through some of them. I feel really sorry for some of these folks, living with hiding what's written on these cards. Hopefully posted them online (anonymously) and having people read them helps these folks. Anyway, I just wanted to pass this one on.

Presenting Ensign and Mrs. Jonathan Dorsey

We spent Saturday at the wedding of Mandy Martin, one of Cindy's friends from the Towson swim team. I've know Mandy for a couple years and I've known Jonathan since around when they first started going on, about two years ago. They are a wonderful pair. The wedding was held at the Naval Academy, where he went, and the reception at a fire hall in Severna Park. Both were a blast.

The Naval Academy chapel is beautiful. Simply beautiful. The ceremony was very short (~25 minutes) and performed by the Academy chaplain (we think). It was definatly a short one, as they apparently have weddings almost constantly on Saturdays - when we arrived one was finishing up and when we left people were showing up for the next one. Whew. One oddity was that when Mandy's dad gave her arm to Jonathan at the altar, the priest asked if he was willing to "transfer" his responsibility to look after her to her new husband. Never heard that one before. Id on't think I like it.

The reception was also nice. Our friend Danny DJed it and he did a good job. The food was good. We danced alot. Cindy visited with alot of her swim team friends she hasn't seen in a while. The reception was six hours long but didn't feel nearly that long.

All-in-all, a good time. Congrats out to Mandy and Jonathan.

The Aristocrats

Last night me and Cin went and saw The Aristocrats. This is a documentary about the "insider" comedian joke of the same name. Read more about the joke itself here. The movie was really raunchy and really funny, but not as funny as it could be. There was definatly alot more talking about the joke (and other things) than telling of the joke itself. Both me and Cin liked alot of the other, similar, jokes that the many comedians all told. What's interesting is the crowd response to those jokes. We were in the smallest of all theatres at the Anundel Mills Muvico - it had a capacity of 101 seats and maybe a third of them were filled. Everyone laughed at many of the jokes, the more vulgar they were. Noone really laughed at the more racial jokes. They even discussed that in the movie - that racial jokes are now the older sexual jokes - they still make comedians nervous to tell them. Interesting. All-in-all, this was a funny movie. My score => 7/10. BTW, Cartman from South Park had the best telling of the joke - we think largely because of the delivery and Kyle's interruptions.

Hornets

Over the span of two days, I found three dead hornets upstairs in my house (well, one was alive but very groggy looking and Eddie was swatting it). I got out the ladder to look into the attic (as they were all upstairs near the attic) and when I lifted the cover up a little, I saw another dead one. So I called the J. C. Ehrlich pest control company and they came out about an hour later, for an after-hours, "emergency", appointment.

He spent a good hour up in my attic looking for a nest and such. He found eight or nine other dead ones and one live one (which he killed). No nest. So there really wasn't anything else he could do. We did tape up the attic entryway (the moulding around the cover was loose and they surely could have flown in there). Apparently they will have their QA manager come out at some point soon to take another look as well. So he left and I slept pretty poorly, constantly on the lookout for hornets. It's about 2.15pm the next day now and no hornets in sight.

The Ehrlich guy was very professional and very good. I have alot of trust in everything he told me. He also impressed me when, upon calling me back after being paged, he tried to talk me out of the after-hours appointment as it's alot of expensive ($200 just to show up, plus whatever the treatment costs). But I felt alot better having him come out so it was worth the money. So, good job Ehrlich. Hopefully this is all taken care of.

Elementary

I just finished reading the complete works of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This includes all four novels (A Study in Scarlett, The Sign of Four, The Hound of the Baskervilles, and The Valley of Fear) and all fifty-six short stories. These were sixty of the most enjoyable stories I have ever read. Doyle had a wonderful writing style and the use of Watson as a narrator gives all of the stories a very intriguing feeling. As I'm done reading them, I find myself wanting more to read. I also find myself a little disappointed in Holmes' final disposition, as a keeper of bees in the Sussex Downs. I do, however, understand that as well, just as if Holmes was a real person. I understand why someone would want to get away from something they have been doing for such a long time to pursue other interests. At the same time, I completely understand when, in retirement, Holmes encounters a murder and must solve it. The character of Sherlock Holmes is one of the most believable fictional characters I have ever encountered. If you're looking for some good reading, I highly recommend this collection.

The Dukes of Hazzard

Last night we saw The Dukes of Hazzard. This was quite interesting. The movie was nothing at all like the TV show, with the characters being the characters in name only. Now while that's true, the movie was pretty well done. It was funny. Quite funny. If you go into this movie looking for a good time, you'll probably get it. If you go into this movie looked for a Dukes of Hazzard movie, you'll be likely to be disappointed. So take it for what it is. My score -> 7/10.