There's a price to be paid for living on the water.

That price is wildlife that you never want to see. Like rats.

Two years ago when Roehm Air Conditioning put in my new unit, they did not seal up the area around the tube that goes in the house. Apparently rats have been using it as their way in to my attic where they have been nesting in the insulation. (El vomito.)

One thing I don't understand is how I could have heard the scratching in the night and so easily brushed it aside as static noise from my clock radio. The clock radio wasn't even on "radio" at the times I heard the noise. This has been going on for over a year and I have been in denial. I live alone, therefore noises in the night must be explained away harmlessly. It wasn't until I heard scratching coming from the ceiling on the other side of the bedroom that I realized I had a problem.

Another thing I don't understand is how my bug man could go in my attic to treat for ants and never mention to me about the rat droppings. The rat control guy said they were obvious.

So now, the rat control guy will be back every other day to empty and refill traps until they are all caught. Then I'll need to find a cleanup company to remove the poop and wrecked insulation.

I don't' think I'll ever complain about lizards in the garage again. The good news is the lake is really full again!

My kale dilemma.

Ok, three big pieces of kale left. Should I use them in a green smoothie or make (for the first time) some kale chips?

I like having difficult choices like this!

Nuts About Florida is all over the map.

Ok, so I'm trying to work different fruits and vegetables into my diet. Apricots! I never eat them, so why not?

I got these home and put some in my next green smoothie. Yes it was delicious, thank you very much. Buy why do they have to come from Turkey? Don't we make apricots in this country?

You see, I try to remember to select fruits and veggies from not so far away. Except bananas. I read the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and agree with the theory that we shouldn't eat stuff that has to be shipped in from far away, using up energy resources. But if eating greens from Florida means kalalu you can forget about it.

Kalalu in my cart. or don't ask a whimpy blender to do the job.

I got the idea into my head to start doing green smoothies. Green smoothies, for the uninitiated, are blender drinks with greens disguised by fruits, blended in (usually) a really strong blender.

I have an Oster blender that is good for the spinach/banana/melon variety of green smoothie, but once I tried to get out of my comfort zone I had some problems. At the vegetable stand, the greens looked tired and hot, except for these pretty greens marked kalalu. No, I'd never heard of them either, but I did need to do something besides spinach everyday. I knew I wasn't ready for kale or collards. The Romaine lettuce produced 3/4 of the container of fiberous foam. Yeah, like that was pleasant to drink. Thank you Osterizer.

But I found out that kalalu, or callaloo, or calalu; is the Jamaican equivalent of spinach. Maybe, but it was so darn tough that I had flecks of the stuff settling to the bottom of my glass almost immediately. And it tasted like St. Augustine grass smells when mowed.

So I ordered the Vitamix. That was a week ago and I haven't even been notified that it's shipped.

I had a lot of  kalalu, so I cooked the rest like spinach: put wet greens on top of sauted onions and garlic and steam until soft. They were still tough. Like collards.

Me and spinach, we are still real good buddies. He's a softie, what can I say?

Busted kitchen timer. Or not.

I drop my kitchen timer (or it falls off the freezer) at least 3 times a week. When it hits the tile, the back, battery and timer all fly across the floor in 3 different directions. Still, the dang thing is working. I wish it would stay on the freezer better or just frickin break already.

How many times can this thing fall on its head and still be ok?

My newest toy, meet the pressure cooker!

I love my new pressure cooker. It's great for beans and pulled pork, but I think I've taken it a step further with hard cooked eggs.

There is no savings in cooking time, but dang those pressure cooked eggs practically peel themselves! There's your time savings!

Trapped in the dentist's chair

Well, another chapter of the "Blame it on the computer" book.

I had to go in for x-rays and a once-over by the dentist, which there wasn't time for in the previous cleaning visit. My appointment was for 9 AM and I didn't get out of there until 11:15, all due to the new digital x-ray system and "the computer".

If I didn't have to be at work today at noon I could have had the doc start my new crown work. I'm glad I declined, since his waiting room was really full when I left. Schedules are screwed up everywhere.