In Savannah, I dealt with flying roaches; New Orleans, stinging caterpillars (my fingers swelled like hot dogs when I was stung); but since moving to D.C. my experience with bugs has been, thankfully, limited.

Until we moved into a house.

Except for the first dreadful apartment that we lived in for the first six months (which I oddly have no pictures of), each of our D.C. apartments was perfectly sealed from potential visitors. Our house is no different. But step outside, and it is like a visit to a zoo.

Ok, I'm exaggerating.

The truth is, we have seen ant colonies that rival the population of New York City; june bugs, beetles, spiders, moths, millions of crickets, a praying mantis (see my photo below) and even a writhing mound of maggots. But the two insects that shocked us (one for it's size and the other for it's size and unsightliness) were the wasps (huge) and the clearwing hummingbird moth (horrible.)




I managed a photo of the first giant wasp we killed (with my new DSLR!) and the photo of the clearwing hummingbird moth is ripped from the internet.

Unfortunately you don't get an idea of size in the wasp photo. But believe me, these things are huge! When straightened out, they are about two inches long.


The clearwing hummingbird moth is one of the most repulsive bugs I've ever seen. It looks like a moth, a bee, and a lobster.

And the reasons why we do NOT miss living in D.C.

1. As mentioned in an earlier post, the parking issues. For me, the lasting displeasure comes from the time when my parked car was totaled by an underage drunk driver. But there are also the tickets and the hours of driving in circles to find a parking spot
2. Not having any private space outdoors
3. The higher price of everything - gasoline, groceries, a pint of beer...
4. Holding my breath after hearing the screech of breaks...waiting for the sound of the collision
5. From the window of my home, hearing with clarity ,what each car stopped at the stoplight is listening to
6. The unbearably loud sound of buses passing our window
7. Not being able to hear someone speaking 6 feet in front of me because of the constant sound of the buses passing by our window
8. Waking up in the night to the deafening sound of tractor-trailer trucks downshifting
9. Putting doggy shoes on Sal so he can get down the stairs without slipping when the elevator goes out
10. Carrying groceries across a street and up to the third floor every time we went shopping
11. Constant horn honking and the overall impatience of D.C. drivers

I suppose there are some reasons why we might miss living in the city. Here are a couple:

1. The local bar(s)
2. The take-out restaurants where we knew what we were going to order without looking at a menu
3. The fact that take-out is available at all times
4. Walking to the grocery store
5. I miss being able to say we live in D.C. Now, we are just a couple of people from Maryland. Much less exciting :)

The truth is, I didn't take much advantage of city-living... especially in the last couple of years. During the last year and a half that we lived in the city, we lived in a cute neighborhood, but it was not downtown, as we'd lived before (Dupont Circle, Logan Circle.) I was no longer taking walks to local coffee places, or boutiques, or local bookstores, as I'd done often when we first moved from New Orleans. We were living in an apartment building among single-family homes. When Sal and I took our evening walk through the neighborhood, I would peer into the yards and homes and long for the single-family house lifestyle.

Now we have all of that; and I am hardly missing city living. I'm looking forward to sitting outside on the deck on an autumn night in sweaters and socks; winter evenings in front of the fireplace, shoveling the snow off of the driveway for the first time... and then spring and flowers and a vegetable garden that my grandfather would be proud of.

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

I wasn't kidding about the rabbit.

I can't believe that it has been three months and two days since we moved to the suburbs. Typically when we tell city-dwellers that we moved out to the burbs, we are met with gasps and pity. But the truth is, we are loving it out here.

Here are some reasons why we are happy with our decision to move to the suburbs of Washington D.C. after nearly 4 years of living in the city:

1. It’s quiet. Oh. So. Quiet.
2. There’s much less traffic.
3. Sometimes when I open the front door after dark, there is a rabbit sitting in my front yard.
4. I have a front yard. And a backyard too!
5. I can walk barefoot outside.
6. We could not have purchased a one-bedroom condo in the city for the amount we purchased our three-bedroom, two (soon-to-be three) bathroom house.
7. Friendly neighbors. We have met more neighbors in three months here, than we met in 4 years in the city.
8. I can paint the walls, hang artwork, change light fixtures, even bust out a wall without panicking about whether or not I'll get my deposit back.
9. Our monthly mortgage payment is an investment in our future - no longer a rental payment toward someone elses.
10. No more worries about our cars being scraped, bumped, or even totaled (!!!) while parked in the street.
11. We have a driveway. No more parking in the street.
12. I can plant flowers, vegetables, and herbs in places other than my windowsill.
13. Grilling.
14. I no longer need to share laundry facilities with 100 other people.
15. It only takes 20 minutes to drive to the Baltimore Airport.

And most importantly

16. Salinger has a large yard to run and play in.

R got stung in the face by a bee yesterday :(

It occurred to me today that I might be more like the person I dislike most in my office than I ever realized.

I've got some changing to do.

I just looked out my window and saw the cutest thing. The little boy that lives across the street is working with such concentration to clean his bike with Windex and a rag. This boy is about five years old. He spends a lot of time outside, playing by himself. While there are other children in the neighborhood, he is the youngest and rarely plays with the other kids.

He just took his bike out into the driveway and walked it around, looking at his detailing job. Noticing a spot, he wheeled it back into the garage and returned to his cleaning.

The train to Union Station was very very crowded this morning.

I'm psyched about composting.

I realize garbage is a strange thing to be excited about, but I am.

This weekend Ryan and I built a dual-action compost bin. It is "dual-action" because it will eventually be composting two different stages of compost at the same time.

Since our last trip to Asheville, where we met some great people and learned a lot about living a more environmentally-friendly, back-to-the-earth, sort of lifestyle, I've been interested in how we can apply more earth-conscious elements to our life.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, "Yard trimmings and food residuals together constitute 24 percent of the U.S. municipal solid waste stream. That's a lot of waste to send to landfills when it could become useful and environmentally beneficial compost instead!"

Since I am planning my vegetable, herb, and flower garden for next spring, I figured I'd get a head start on my compost. I will save money on bags of soil and I'm significantly cutting down on the waste that's hauled off to the dump.

Links I used to research composting:
CompostInstructions.com/what-you-can-and-cannot-compost
www.composting101.com
www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=howTo&p=LawnGarden/compostBin.html