Take me out to the ballgame!

Danjo the Magnificent took mid-Adventurer to the ballgame tonight, where they got to parade on the field (thank you soccer club and b-Ball team!) and enjoy fireworks after the home team won the game. 

The rest of us watched Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. The staff of Ra seems to be entirely fictitious. Venom was wondering.  Adventure boy was made nervous at bedtime. Not suprising. PG meant something different then than it does now. Or maybe we parents just didn't remember this movie all that well. Lots of killing (Indiana Jones is fairly cold-blooded). Lots of drinking. Lots of not-child-appropriate language. Oops. Adventure boy was comforted by remembering who God really is and fell asleep without any trouble. Venom (A1) commented than it was better than the selection for school movie night, which was her other entertainment option for the evening.

While I wait

I kind of like the Honda CRV. It looks comfortable. And sporty.

I really just want my minivan back. With a new battery

The Rest of the Story

Venom, A.K.A. Adventurer One, has made several observations about "The Sting":

• "Once I calmed down, I remembered that I should have elevated my leg"--she has been certified in First Aid and CPR since mid-August. 
• She woke up in the middle of the night with most of her face numb and with double vision. The end of her nose has been the most numb, but the numbness in the back of her throat felt "weird" at lunchtime.
• She had no frame of reference for the initial pain of the sting. Nothing with which to compare.
• Her hands have been quite numb. She says it feels like they are tingly like they have been asleep and need to be shaken to wake them up, but exercise seems to make the numbness and tingling worse. The hour-long orchestra rehearsal this evening definitely made things worse. At 24 hours post-sting, her fingertips were still numb.
• The area of the bite (near her knee) is completely numb in an area about the size of her hand.
• Her little sister is good to have around in an emergency.  She made several phone calls in an effort to track down mom and dad, while Amazing Sitter tried to calm the hysteria of the moment; and she googled what to do when bitten by a scorpion (first on the list was "stay calm" and it was already too late for that). Her brother is good to have around also. He and Amazing Sitter were the Search and Destroy team.
• She thinks we should step up our scorpion-eradication program. The rest of the family agrees. 
• She blames the laptop keyboard for the attack. She thinks it is retaliating for supposed abuse poured out upon it. She thinks the scorpion is in league with it.

Potatoes, Oil, Special Seasonings, and a little creativity over lunch

May we have your mantis, please?

This video is rather alarming (I don't know how to imbed it or I would). Don't watch if you are afraid of mantises. However, Adventurer would like to have Booyor's mantis as a pet. She will keep it as a house-mantis in her room. 

Adventurer One encountered the  Bark Scorpion at (too) close range last night. The symptoms of a sting (on the knee) are lots of pain (and screaming), and some other fun stuff, such as numbness (in the foot, knee, arms and hands, and face, as well as some funny vision stuff (in the middle of the night)). All that numbness continues as of this morning. Adventurer needed help with her earrings due to this bizarre numbness. The poison control people said it can last up to a month. (I apologize for the heavy use of parentheses in this paragraph).

Said of the scorpion:

"As with all animals, these creatures are a normal and desired part of the ecosystem.  Seeing one should be considered a real treat and not an opportunity to molest it or kill it." 

Umm, no. I don't think so. It is dead. The people responsible for that quote also have a skull and crossbones posted next to this same creature. Whatever.

This has been wildlife week at our house. We have toads, a snake, a goldfinch, and now, the scorpion. Everything can stay except the scorpions. Danjo the Magnificent sprayed for bugs again this morning. 

Here's the snake and the toads (I don't photograph scorpions):

It is a Ground Snake. They eat scorpions, but not people. Welcome to our yard, little friend.

These are some sort of toad. They eat bugs. They are cute.