Birds have nested in the exhaust vent from my downstairs bathroom. It stinks. A workman is here now. I thought removing them would be a fairly simple process, but no. Apparently there is a bend in the vent, so he can't simply scoop them out. He's going to "try" smoking them out (with non-poisonous water vapor and peppermint oil). This may not work. Yay!

Also, the birds got in because the end cap that's supposed to protect the vent from invasion is missing, and he doesn't have one, so he's going to partially cover the end cap with duct tape so they don't get back in.

msbelle, I am in the same debtor's boat with you and feeling dumb about it.

Cheerios: This exterminator is not filling me with confidence. He doesn't seem to know anything except what the company trained him to do. However, the birds seem to be gone, and he's sanitized the vent with something that smells like Vicks' VapoRub, so hopefully this chapter of Home Ownership: The Adventure Continues! will close with a happy protagonist.

You think Vick's VapoRub smells good, until your whole house smells like that.

I got myself two scoops of caramel ice cream with toffee on the way home and just sent a snarky e-mail to the nurse practitioner. (It was actually, "salted" caramel ice cream. When will this salted craze go away? In something like this, it just means too much salt.)

I've been there, msbelle. I suspect many of us have. I think that depriving yourself of everything is more likely to lead to falling off the wagon.

Birds! Oh, no. They're lovely outside, but a pain in the house.

I love salted caramel ice cream when it is done right, so I'm hoping the trend never goes away.

Yay for Tim heading home.

and I think a better plan than no nothing is no more thna x amount spent on non-needed item.

Zen, I am going to be working on an eat my way through my pantry adventure this summer. Goal, spend less on food, clear out stuff in pantry, cook more.

Also also, stopping with dying hair and spacing out the manicures more.

Oh, I forgot to say: YAY TIM going home from hospital! Stay inflated, lung of Tim!

I feel you, msbelle. I'm pretending that if I don't actually look at my financial situation it is okay by default but I know deep down that it is not.

I do not know how to psych myself into thinking about this damn presentation. It's not an intrinsically interesting topic and I'm not sure who the audience is supposed to be and I would so much rather take a nap.

Add me to the salted carmel lovers.

Ginger - snark away. This is crazycakes.

Izzard was born in what is now Yemen, so no US citizenship at birth for him.