So are you guys ready for your big update?

The fly did not actually make it out the window. I only thought he did. He is now perched back in the same place, and the window is open and the blind is down and it's 28 degrees! He just flew between the top bits of the window, but cannot make it to the open half.

It's nothing ~ma!

Okay, I'm closing the window. Forget the fly.

OKAY, I TRAPPED THE FLY IN A CUP AND TOOK IT OUT THE DOOR.

WTF, fly? Why is my life so stupid? I swear I was doing important stuff just the other week.

Flies are dumb.

Yes, but I am dumber for devoting not one, but two days to its welfare. I hope the other flies that read its blog learn from its experiences.

It would not fly away from the light just a little bit in order to get to the actual freedom available to it. I feel there is a life lesson in there somewhere, but can't get to it without invoking Darth Vader, which I feel is possibly the wrong life lesson.

Anyway. I'm going to eat dinner now. It's leftover chicken parmesan from the new pizzeria in town. Normally I would be worried that this comment is not scintillating enough conversation for buffistas, but it's an upgrade from flies.

You are a kind person! Not dumber.

I had leftover ham and kale. And just made a plan for dealing with the rest of the ham this weekend: mini quiches to freeze, add some to this potato soup mix I have and freeze, and also maybe mac & cheese with ham & peas. The problem with all of the "leftovers" recipes is that they stretch out the ham!

I have leftover spicy chicken-sausage and chickpea stew that I can have for dinner, yay!

Consuela, thanks for the link to the bacteria article!

Man, I would love to do something like xkcd's squirrel-and-bird-bombing of loud-music-playing-drivers. It's a problem here. And that would be a better solution than an EMP gun, which is what I really wanted.

Payroll tax - my paycheck decreased by about $62. Not terrible. I'll tell myself that I'm helping Uncle Sam, and once I pay off my 401k loan, I'll get twice that back to my paycheck, so there's some incentive. 2013 will be the Year of Austerity for me; I've let my credit spending get out of control again, and I mean to pay it all off this year.

I wonder where I can re-claim that money?

I could do this too. I could cancel my gym membership, it's ridic expensive, $80 a month for something I almost never do. I can stop buying clothes, I have everything I need right now and a size down too. Shoes too. Definitely stop buying stuff off eBay, I don't need anything. I could sell some stuff on eBay, I've been putting it off because I don't like dealing with people, but in debt-paying-off mode every dollar I can bring in counts.

Liese, you are a good person for rescuing the fly.

We need to cut some of our spending too. sigh. But at least most of what comes to mind for me really does seem like unnecessary spending, like our Y membership and paying for more cable/modem than we use, etc. But ugh, don't like dealing with stuff.

I just killed the biggest mosquito I've ever seen. Good lord, has that been biting the kids?