Oh, yeah, you have to get rid of the fruit that is attracting them too.

Bob's family's house burned down when he was a kid and his folk's say the hardest part was just remembering all of the things they lost so they could file a claim to adequately replace them. Plus, there's all the stuff that you can't ever replace--like old letters and art. I know my friend who lost her place had a huge cookbook collection. She will be able to rebuild that eventually but, still, it won't be the same.

I've attracted plenty of flies with fruit, but never trapped them. They're just useful in my kitchen for starting the problem, not resolving them. Vinegar is my go to.

Lisah, that's horrible. Another reminder to insure my shit--the awfulness would be barely mitigated, but any mitigation in such an awful situation, damn. I hope they put things back in as much order as possible as soon as possible.

Ugh, I just told the short version of a relative's experience to help me explain why I had Vera Wang to give to Goodwill, and I have depressed myself tremendously. This is the cousin whose mother surreptitiously [triggery for reproductive-related issues, for just life related issues--it's awful] terminated her daughter's first attempted to-term pregnancy under false pretenses because she saw it as a no-win situation for everyone, least of all the putative grandchild, and the next time around when said cousin managed to evade stealth syringes of abortifacient, her mother tried unsuccessfully to get legal custody of the child and failed, but thankfully the father did not, so the child is being raised halfway around the world, to everyone's relief.

My cousin's mother should be 100% the bad guy in that scenario, but...cuz is really really messed up, and that was proven right when she did go to term with a child who was born addicted to god knows what and with significant birth defects. Problem is, said cousin wants to get pregnant again, because they took the first one away. Ten years ago, which I guess makes us the lucky ones?

Awful scenarios are awful.

Oh lisah, how hard for them to lose everything like that.

And ita, how tragic for all involved.

ita, damn.

lisah, the place burned down due to faulty wiring? Oh no!

Over-ripe bananas worked as well for my mom for attracting gnats as vinegar, but once they were trapped the vinegar drowned them whereas the fruit provided a breeding ground that had to be disposed of. I vote vinegar.

Of course hers ultimately turned out to be fungus flies coming from a bad pipe, so the solution involved plumbers tearing up the kitchen floor.

Awful scenarios are awful.

This.

Reminder that I need to get my mother's old photographs scanned. Every summer she packs them all in rolly containers so that if there is a hurricane while she is north we can just grab them and evacuate with them. But digital copies would be a good thing.

The ricotta had gone bad. Since this is not how I want to add green to a "white" recipe, I substituted cottage cheese.

Final recipe: Chickpeas, Cauliflowr, cottage cheese, sunflower seeds, onions, garlic, leeks, parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme, marjoram, white pepper, lemon juice, honey, olive oil and mozzarella to be added later on. no added salt cause the beans and cottage and sunflower seeds and mozzarella adds plenty. Will add 3/4 cup of whole wheat shells if there is a lot of liquid to use up. (With that many veggies in a crockpot there normally is, but sunflower seeds can absorb a surprisingly large amount of liquid. )

I feel for my cousin like you wouldn't believe, but a bigger mass of problems I hope to never meet. She's so terribly messed up.

I finally submitted a picture of myself to baldblackbeauties.tumblr.com. Because I am a stickler for semantics on some terms, I was going to hold out until actually bald, but considering what they mean is short & natural and I'm at least a month away from wondering if I'll do it again, I figured I'd go ahead while I'm still taking daily pictures.

(I hope they don't mind pictures without faces [link] I figure that's one way to avoid other semantic issues.)

(I hate that I'm having to replenish my wardrobe again, but I do love buying long black skirts, and I do lovelove this one--it's one of the ones with ties so you can do intermittent ruching)

Sounds yum. The pumpkin chili smells good. Chickpeas, kidney beans, diced tomatoes, pumpkin, chopped red peppers, garlic, cumin, chili powder, red pepper, oregano, other stuff I'm sure I forgot. Now I just need to make the burger for them and the crumbles for me and divide the chili into 2 pots. I also bought some nice looking baguettes and some shredded cheddar to accompany. We need comfort food after the Dolphins game today.

I hope they don't mind pictures without faces [link].

Nice! Really nice.

I feel for my cousin like you wouldn't believe

It is such a feeling of helplessness. Not anything that can be done about peoples bad choices. Sucks.