Tonight we leave for Lexington, Kentucky. It's been too long since we've been to the horse races at Keeneland. I am looking forward to some good ole fashioned gambling.

Are you familiar with Etsy.com?

Etsy is a website where "people who make things" can sell their work. Painters, sculptors, photographers, jewelers, knitters, book-makers, gardeners... you name it. They all gather on Etsy to showcase and sell their work.

I have purchased beautiful photography from several artists on the site. The transactions were very easy!

Check it out: www.etsy.com

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