Ants in My Pants

I was out all day today.

In the morning, while waiting for a cab at a very crowded area, I felt a tingling sensation running up my legs. After awhile I realised I had my feet just an inch away from a mound of large, red ants and, predictably, a few had crawled up my feet! I started stamping about like a mad person in the middle of the crowd. Amazingly, I managed to shake every last one of the angry looking ants without getting a single bite! I did however, squash one particularly big one to its death. I’m so sorry ant, it was a reflex reaction.

The rest of the day went by quite uneventfully until the time I had to go home. I was happily hippity-hoppity-hopping way down a long stairway when I decided to skip a few steps. This proved to be a good move as I would have plunged my feet straight into a colony of big-headed ants otherwise. What are the odds of my narrowly missing stepping on an ants’ nest twice in a day!? Counting my blessings, I continued walking down the flight of stairs with trepidation.

A few minutes later, I was waiting for the traffic light to turn green when I thought I felt something crawling on my feet again. Obviously after two encounters with different groups of ants, I was extra sensitive today but what I wasn’t prepared for was the fact that I had my feet, once again dotted with ants — this time fast-moving orange (red? yellow? crazy?) ants. And once again I had to do my crazy dance to get rid of all of them. After moving away a safe distance, I noticed that I was standing just a mere inch away from a very bustling ant highway, 3 inches wide. An inch away! Again! The third time today! Thankfully, I didn’t get bitten at all! Phew!

Too much ant drama for one day.

Junk Food Day

After looking at the cute stuff from Re-Ment, I found myself craving for a lot of things. The sad thing is, I got myself a lot of junk food and ate them in one sitting:

1 garlic butter bread
1 bowl instant noodles
1 coffee-filled chocolate bar
3 slices of white bread with chocolate spread
1 bag of salted nuts
6 Mentos
1 can of Pringles chips (oh oh!)

Not too proud of myself. I’m having a bit of a tummy ache. I wonder why…

Kid’s Answers to Life

My favourite answers from “Kids’ Answers to Life’s Big Questions” by Steve & Ruth Bennett.

Q. What makes rainbows?
A. Pieces of sunset.

Q. What should you do when you feel like hitting someone?
A. Ask them if they want to be hit.

Q. What kinds of things make people happy?
A. John Lennon.

Q. What are some things to be sad about?
A. Running out of coffee. < True

Q. Why do countries fight wars?
A. Because they don’t like cats and the other country has cats.

Q. What does the vice-president do?
A. He golfs.

Losing It for a Minute

At 630pm yesterday I realised I had not spoken to my black cat, Spooky Angel, the whole day. She’s a very talkative cat who can answer most of life’s important questions, sometimes, with great wisdom, wit and intelligence, so it was unusual that a day would pass without us engaging in serious conversation.

She was sleeping beside me when I was reading a publication at 8 in the morning. Being the affectionate lap cat that she is, she’d wanted to sit well, on my lap, but I wasn’t in the mood to entertain the fuzz ball as I had to concentrate on an article, so I nudged her away.

A few minutes would pass and I’d fallen asleep sitting. When I woke up, I found the little Angel asleep, beside my right thigh. Aaaaw… I felt a little guilty for not letting her take a nap on my lap, especially when I was more asleep than doing anything else, but then she woke up and looked at me with the look — yeah-you-know-you-want-me look– anticipating that I’d take her and place her on her rightful human cushion. I thwarted her happiness by pushing her off the couch! Ha ha ha! So evil of me!

Anyway, it was 630pm and I’d not seen her since then so I called her name. There was no answer. I looked around the house. Under the couch, in the kitchen, in the bathrooms, under the beds, on top of cupboards, everywhere. She was nowhere to be found. And then it hit me that she might have slipped out when I went out at about 10am.

I went to search for her outside, bracing for the worst - she might have been ran over by a car, eaten by a pack of wild dogs or was taken by someone - someone better, someone who wouldn’t mind her sitting on his/her lap all day. Strangely, only the last thought made me wanna cry.

I got very worried because she’s a black kitty and it would be very difficult to find her in the dark . And then all that I felt was guilt. Guilt. Guilt. GUILT. Am I being punished for being mean to her? Will she forever remember me as the evil witch that pushed her off the couch?! Do I have to live with this guilt forever?!!!

.

.

.

It took me all of two minutes to find her. She was asleep at my neighbour’s steps. When I called her name, she just opened one eye, and looked slightly annoyed, like “Wha? Don’t be disturbing my sleep, woman”.

She was very calm when I carried her back home. I smothered her in kisses and showered her with words of love but when I tried to put her on my lap, she sneered at me and went off to eat instead. Oh well… Thank God I found her. I’ll never deprive a cat of my lap again.

Related links
I can has cheezburger
Cute Overload

Related posts
Power Control
Happiness Is…
Tablet Do’s and Don’ts
Pencil Thief and A Little Faith

Power Control

There was a power failure just now. When I got the power back up, there was a *bzz…bzz* sound coming from the mess of cables under my desk. Upon inspection I found out that the failure was due to…. my cat.

One of my cats had peed onto my multi-plug extension outlet rendering it wet and useless. I’m thinking of banning them from entering the room. I know I’ve thought of this a hundred times before but AAARGH! this time it’s too much!

I’m typing all this on a UMPC with an uncomfortably small keyboard. I can’t do any work now. My computer refuses to start up after the power went off just now. So very, very annoying!

The “No Cats in the Room” rule will be on with immediate effect. At least until one of them gives me the Puss in Boots dilated-pupils, I’m-so-cute-and-innocent look.

Thursday Trivia

It’s nearly the end of the week. As I turn my gear down a few notches towards weekend mode (aka total slacker mode), I’m pleased to leave you with a few bites of information to tickle your palate.

1. Hot King, Cool Queen
   In South-East Asia, the durian is known as the king of fruits. The queen of fruits is purportedly the mangosteen. The Chinese consider durians “heaty” while mangosteens are believed to have “cooling” properties. This is why some people believe in eating The Queen after bingeing on The King (to counteract the heatiness). I don’t know how true this cooling/heaty thing is, but I once got sick with a sore throat and fever for 3 days after feasting on durian mooncakes. Then again, I should have stopped at 9 slices(?!!).
2. Get This Monkey Off Your Back
   According to a study conducted with rhesus macaques, eating dinner late doesn’t necessarily lead to weight gain. (This is for S, who insists on having dinner before 6.30. Come on, live a little! :D )
3. Step On the Gas
   Fruits and vegetables release ethylene gas as they ripen. Some fruit, like apples and avocados are high ethylene-producers; others are ethelyne-sensitive. You can speed up the ripening process of some fruits by placing high ethylene-producing fruits near them. Alternatively, sealing an unripe fruit in a paper bag prevents the gas from escaping thus hastening its ripening process.
4. It’s Just Soy
   Edamame is just a fancy name for young soya beans (accept it, Polly).
5. Once in a Blue Lobster
   The odds of finding a blue lobster is about one in two million. A yellow one? One in 30 million.

Related links
Yin and Yang in Chinese Cooking

Random Sunday - Names

Girl names:

Ava
Charlotte
Elisabeth
Lilian / Lily
Sophie
Rose

And boys:

Alexander
Daniel
Edward
Jacob

I might design a character based on one of the following names:

Beatrice
Doris
Edith
Gertrude
Mildred

The theme for the week, starting Monday, is one of my favourite things to talk about - FOOD!

Related Links
Old-Fashioned Name Generator
Why old-fashioned names are cool again

Maybe I Should Go Bananas?

On a box of Post Banana Nut Crunch cereal I was eating:

We should all aspire to live like bananas. They are on permanent vacation, living in lush, tropical rainforests.

I didn’t know bananas lead such enviable lives!

Pencil Thief And A Little Faith

I lose a writing instrument every other day. My cat, Moo Moo, has been stealing my pens, pencils and markers. She used to target only thin cylindrical objects but now she’s expanded her collection to include rulers and erasers. She just grabs the items off my hand while I’m writing or drawing and hides them with the rest of her loot under the bed. I think she’s opening a stationery store.

Moving on to a less scheming animal, this video made me cry…

Renaldo Lapuz (American Idol Hopeful)

“We’re Brothers Forever” is playing repeatedly in my head now. If we had more people like him in the world, there wouldn’t be a need for wars. Seriously! Even Simon Cowell was smiling. Ha ha!
Watch his performance on youtube here