Ad Interim

Last night I headed to my bed only to realize that it was still unmade and my sheets and pillowcases were still in the dryer. I fetched them and put everything together, and was just about to pull the comforter onto the bed when I noticed a small nondescript something on the turned-over underside of the duvet-cover. I took a closer look and saw…

…a scorpion.

Let me just say that again: there was a scorpion on the UNDERSIDE of my comforter. If I hadn’t noticed it, it would have ended up UNDER THE COVERS with me.

Ack ack ack.

The worst part? It was so tiny. And I don’t know if it was tiny because it was a tiny variety of scorpion, or because it was very young and its fellow hatchlings are still hanging around nearby. Perhaps in that pile of clean laundry on the far side of the bed that I haven’t gotten around to folding yet. Or in my sock drawer.

In other news, today is the first day of school. Elizabeth is going into the fifth grade and Luke is starting third. I wanted to capture the occasion for posterity, but the kids were in a goofy mood and this was the best I could get:

You can’t see them in this pic, but Elizabeth is wearing a very pretty pair of ballet flats today. It was like pulling teeth to get her to even look for new shoes in the girls’ section, but there are times when wearing boys’ sneakers just isn’t going to be appropriate and I wanted her to have at least one pair of “girl shoes” in her closet. Luckily for both of us she fell in love with the silver “dragon scale” flats at first sight.

But we did not find find them in the girls’ section. Oh no. All of those shoes were too small for her. We had to go to the women’s section to find something that would fit her. At ten years old my daughter wears the same shoe size as me. Women’s sevens.

Eeergh.

Last and least, here’s a pic I’m throwing in just because I like how it came out. Gericault in B&W:

What a handsome fellow he grew up to be!