I know, Toddson. Although Shriners are also part of the Masonic fraternity, I believe. I'm not obsessively enough into it to have picked up the hardback coffeetable book I saw on it, but it had a GREAT hierarchical diagram showing the different sorts of Masons and the different degrees one could achieve.

I did some research for something way long time ago. Shriners are the elite Masons. You have to be a 32nd degree Mason to be allowed into the Shriners.

If you just want to kill ants, the ant baits work pretty well. Sometimes you have to try more than one formulation to find the one that makes your particular ants keel over.

I try not to bother the things that are outside. When they come inside, I'm less forgiving.

And the hivemind again comes through! interesting information.

I asked our business exterminator what to do about ants and he said use Windex. It kills the ones already there and then keeps them away. He said it's cheaper and less toxic and works really well.

Gring used a gel that worked very well. They were gone within 3 days (it was the sort where the worker ants bring the poison back to the nest). I don't know if they put something specific into the nest under the hot tub (which I'm sure wasn't the only nest in our yard - just the easiest to find).

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Olivia Rose! Welcome, baby, we've been looking forward to you!

I just read the article Plei linked to (a couple days ago?) with the response to the accusation that college-educated women who become SAHMs damage feminism.

I'm having a hard time believing anyone took the initial accusation seriously enough to retort...but I've long suspected I missed the meeting where it was determined that "feminism" = "being just like the worst sort of man."

In more me news, I really hate this post. Embassy Athens, I mean, not what I'm writing right now. I know I've complained about it before, but I can conclusively say I hate it now.

The son of one of the officers got beaten up by 5 other kids. They SMS'd him, pretending to be a friend, lured him to a secluded area, and beat the crap out of him. One of them brought a camera and videotaped the attack. The kid chose not to fight back, and managed to get away. He was so badly injured he had to stay in the hospital overnight.

The kid with the videocamera was the son of another embassy officer.

The parents of the camera-bearing assailant have not only not apologized, they haven't even called the family of the kid who was attacked to see if he's okay.

And now, because the embassy security officer had to get involved, it turns out that they made the tape vanish so it couldn't be used as evidence.

Several of the other embassies I've served at would've sent the family of the assailant home. ALL of the other embassies would've held a mandatory meeting to inform officers that there is zero tolerance for this kind of stuff. Here? Nada.

Even better? Now that the gossip is making its rounds through the embassy, people are taking sides. Most of them against the kid who was beaten up. Because he's Jewish, and his father is a liberal.

I was just signing me and Mallory up for a weekly playgroup when I heard about this, and futher heard that the assailant's mother is in the playgroup team. I don't think Mal and I will be participating after all.

Nice "community."

Holy crap, Raq. That's...that's...well, when you first mentioned a beatup, I thought it was a bunch of Greek kids that had arranged it and that Greece was more dangerous than I thought. The fact that it was your co-worker's kids? Good luck getting a better post.

Eesh, raq. Shades of sanctioned torture.

God, Raq. What does SMS stand for?

That is just awful. I fucking hate people, so much.