three tragedies

I'm not gonna lie: Yesterday was a sucky day. I think you can assess a days suckiness by the tone of the dinner prayer. Here was Matt's prayer for dinner last night:

Dear God, thank You for this food. Please let this day end soon. Amen.

I love the brutal honesty, don't you? So walk with me, if you will, as I elaborate on the Three Tragedies that struck our family. And just for good measure, at the end, I'll throw in a few good things that happened too. I'm all about the Fair and Balanced, right? :)

Tragedy 1: The Squash

This tragedy was a few weeks in the making, but since I dealt with a lot of it yesterday morning, it just started the day on the wrong foot. Our squash have succumbed to the aptly named squash bugs. I knew that pests would be an inevitable problem (our garden is organic and pesticide-free), I just didn't know how big and FAST a problem it would become. I noticed the week before we left for vacation that a few vines/leaves/squash were dying...didn't care a thing about it, since we had a freakin OVERABUNDANCE of squash (you'll have to look back to see pictures of our formerly healthy squash garden-- due to Tragedy #3, I no longer have access to those pictures). When we got home, though, it was obvious that our poor squash were all but murdered. I was too busy all week to really deal with it or figure out what was happening, so by yesterday morning this is what I was looking at:

Poor sad babies, literally SWARMING in "squash bugs" (click that link to see a pic). So we spent some time doing what we could to pick them off (I don't have any hopes that we'll salvage the squash, but I'm trying to keep the bugs from getting my cucumbers next), but it was an altogether depressing task. I had such visions of squash eating...I guess they won't come to pass. Sad day.

Tragedy 2: The Bug that Ruined my Saturday afternoon

Friday night, Matt and I were walking Lola in our neighborhood. Matt stopped when a bug apparently flew in his eye. Ick! It was really bothering him, so he thought it was still in there. Using our flashlight (as we still held Lola's leash and the bag o' poo, mind you), I was able to find the bug in his lower eyelid and scrape it out with my fingernail. Classy. We went straight home, he took out his contacts, and that was that.

Saturday morning he woke up and his eye was all red and full of puss. YUCK. He said it was hurting, so we spent a few hours (while we were killing squash bugs) just seeing if it got better on its own, then Googling "insect in eye". We decided to err on the side of caution and take him to the Urgent Care clinic to see if he need antibiotic eye drops. We'd eaten a late breakfast, so when we headed out to the doc at 12:30 or so we figured we'd just grab lunch when we were done. Bad choice.

We waited in the waiting room for almost 2 hours. I read like 5 magazines, and then I almost died of boredom. And it's not like there were very many people there! For almost 2 hours, NO ONE GOT CALLED BACK!! Apparently they were dealing with an "emergency" back there. Um...I think that's what the emergency room is for. Anyway, I'm not a very happy girl when I'm hungry, and I was STARVING. This was probably among the most miserable several hours of my life.

Anyway, we finally got seen and the actual examine part was very quick. His eye was (is) infected, but it's normal and not a big deal-- the doctor even gave us free antibiotic eyedrops (samples) since we had to wait so long. So I guess that was nice. But I'm serious-- this whole Urgent Care-on-a-Saturday thing was rubbing me the wronnnng way in so many ways: a) spending your whole Saturday afternoon waiting for a doctor? No good. b) prolonged hunger? No thanks. c) spending money on non-fertility-related doctors visits? That really makes me mad.

Matt feels a bit better now, though, so I guess it's worth it. He just has to wear his glasses for a week.

Tragedy 3: Virus Attack!

We'd left the house in sort of a hurry (to go to the doctor), so I'd just left my computer open and running. When we got home, it was immediately obvious that something was amiss. A few minutes of sleuthing later, my worst fears were confirmed: Major Viral Attack. Trojans. Worms. All those scary words. Most of them probably apply. Poor baby computer.

This led to several hours of phone-conferencing with my dad as he tried to walk me through the healing process. This ultimately did not work because I don't have a way to hardwire into the internet (we share with our neighbors and they're out of town, so I can't get in to hardwire into their router). I hope that when I have a chance to wire in, we will be able to fix the computer. Once I saw how much Geek Squad charges for a basic virus-removal service ("starts at $199")...I decided I can DEFINITELY figure this out on my own. I mean, are you serious, Geek Squad?? You could pretty much buy a new computer for that much! In the meantime, I am without access to my pictures, files, and whatever else. So sad.

So those were the things that pretty much pushed me over the edge yesterday. None of those things are really the worst thing ever on their own, but it just felt like the combination was too much for one girl for one day. Too much.

On the bright side?

Well, at least I have a work laptop. I shouldn't take for granted that my job allows me to have a laptop to use at home...so at least I am not totally without internet (aka Social Interaction) while my home computer is on the fritz!

My cucumbers are growing! They seem to have gotten off to a slow start (they didn't even START sprouting until AFTER they were supposed to have been "ready to eat", according to their tags). But look how cute they are!

I got to see my lovely friend Elizabeth on Friday! I love her very much and we had a fun few hours of laughing and eating and finding great places to pose for pictures...like behind the garden. The obvious choice.
Also, as you can see in the above pictures, our tomatoes are thriving just fine. We are getting TONS of them ready to pick every day and I'm loving figuring out how to incorporate tomatoes into EVERYTHING I eat. They are SO good!!

Last night we discovered the joys of Yahtzee. I know...we're like 30 years late jumping onto THAT bandwagon...but for realz, that game is fun!! Neither of us have ever played, and we actually aren't even sure where the game (in it's original packaging) even came from when we found it in our game cabinet last night...but we gave it a whirl and had a lot of fun! So it was a nice ending to our otherwise not-so-nice day.

So now I'm looking forward to a semi-productive rest of the weekend (gym, dinner with Matt's fam, watering plants) and a hopefully good work week. Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there! Matt celebrated his big day with Lola by spending an hour or so Furminating her...I'm sure that's the way all guys wish they could celebrate, right?