Apparently I'm not allowed to say "Sucking" in my title. Stupid censorship. It's not even a curse word! Anyhoo, onto the blog:

I stepped out of my back door after dinner this evening to take a look at my garden, maybe pull some weeds, pick a few peppers or tomatoes, or just enjoy the overall peace and quiet that comes around sundown. I spent a few minutes pulling weeds (including a dandelion that must have been on steroids; the thing was as tall as my mid-thigh, and I'm 5'5" tall). The dragonflies flitted around my head and the crickets chirped loudly at my feet.

A few minutes into my quiet-time, I looked down at my bare feet and saw three little mosquitoes lined up (and I'm not exaggerating) in a perfectly straight line, like they were pigs at slop, or fat people lined up at a Golden Corral buffet. I squealed and swatted them away, only to notice a couple perched on my other foot. I swatted them away too and was about to run in the door when Dad said "Stop!" and started doing what I now call his "Mosquito Jig" - he hopped around clapping at every little flying black speck that could possibly be one of these horrendous blood sucking devils.

But where did they all come from? We live in the south, known for it's humidity and mosquito-population, but walking out your back door, even in LA (where I am not living), shouldn't mean walking out your back door into a swarm of mosquitoes dense as a column of smoke. The culprit? Our neighbor's decorative fountain that he never uses.

I really have no complaints about my neighbors other than the typical neighbor complaints. They're nice people - very interesting, from Saudi Arabia. Their kids are irritating and like to take up the whole road when they play and leave stuff lying around for everyone else to trip over. They have a giant, ugly satellite dish next to their house (of course it's facing our house) so they can (supposedly) get channels from Saudi Arabia (because why else would you have a jumbo-satellite dish that huge?). A couple years ago they had half their back yard paved into a fancy concrete deck/patio that they rarely use. The fountain was built into their lovely patio, and for a while they used to turn it on and let it run. It was very pretty and added a sort of waterfall-meets-ocean sound to our back yard (that sent us running to the bathroom if we listened to it for too long). It turned into a lovely little nesting place for frogs and toads, and we were often serenaded by their croaking songs. But after a few months they got bored with it, and they haven't turned it on in a couple years.

We didn't notice it so much last year. We realized there was an abnormally large mosquito population hanging around our back door, but we didn't really care because we didn't have our garden last year. This year, though, we can't spend more than 5 minutes outside without getting eaten alive. I have a bite the size of a dime on my wrist! I tallied up all my bites - totalled to about 8 or 9. I couldn't really tell for sure because a couple are either one really huge one, or two really close together.

We're getting really close to contacting the health department, or some other government organization in our city, to report them. Mom wants to talk to our neighbors first to see if we can sort it out, but they didn't really care when their kids took our mail and threw it all over our yard and into the street, so would they care that their fountain is making our lives miserable? Probably not. But having a fountain full of stagnant water and mosquito larvae has to be against some sort of city code, and I'm determined to find one that they're breaking so that we can finally rid ourselves of the horrendous mosquito problem.

Our foster kittens are doing well. Magnus has been renamed Cooper (as in Mini Cooper, because he's the runt - though he has done quite a bit of growing over the past week), Kaydence is happy-go-lucky and nuts, Keesa has a URI so she's on antibiotics (her sneezing and wheezing is finally getting better), Callahan did something funny to his paw and won't put pressure on it or use his claws for anything, and Kesler is acting strange (doesn't want to walk, rolls in waste, won't use the litter box, doesn't like to be touched or picked up, etc). I want to take Kesler back to the shelter to get him checked out, but the foster-mom-in-charge wants to give it a couple days to see how he is. If something is seriously wrong with him I'd rather know now (especially if it's contagious!). Hopefully it's nothing. *crosses fingers*

My parents invaded Facebook! Apparently when I sent my mom a link to one of my photo albums she thought it was an invitation and signed up. Dad got into it for "work purposes". And he joined Twitter as well, which was my last final private online place to share my thoughts (other than here). I was enjoying the privacy of Twitter because no one I knew was on it (except for my cousin) and I didn't have to worry about offending anyone or making anyone mad or being myself and saying what I think. Now I'm going to have to guard everything I post: "Is this something I wouldn't mind Dad reading?" *sigh* Maybe I'll open a brand-new Twitter account that isn't in any way linked to the one I have now. It's really annoying. Facebook I didn't mind quite so much, because I already never act like myself on Facebook. I tone my morbidity and sarcasm and dry humor down as much as possible because it freaks most people out. But I loved Twitter because I could keep my thoughts short and sweet and I didn't worry about who saw it because no one I knew was on it. Oh well. I suppose all good things must come to an end...

I started watching True Blood on Monday night and I'm almost done with season 1. I really like it. I didn't expect to because of all the great things I've heard about it. I tend to not like really popular shows/music/movies because everyone else does like them. I hear so much about it and before I can get around to trying it I'm already sick of it. Anyway, I decided to give it a shot and I think I may be addicted. I've been up until 2 am every night (or is it every morning?) watching as much as possible. Hah...Yep, I think I'm addicted.

Hello!

Well, Naaiya and her mom and I picked up foster kittens on Friday. They're so cute! We got five of them. Four of them are from the same litter and are about 3 weeks old. One is from a different litter and got mixed in, and she's about 4 weeks old. She has a cold right now, though, so she's quarantined in the downstairs bathroom. Poor baby...

We have three boys and two girls. The boys are Callahan, Kesler, and Magnus. The girls are Kaydence and Keesa. Magnus is the runt, so he gets a special name. Haha..

-Keesa

-Callahan

-Magnus

-Kesler

-Keesa on the left and Kaydence on the right

They're so cute. We have them until July 20, so I'll post more pictures as they get older and bigger.

I'm going camping next weekend! We're going to visit my Grampa for Father's Day (leaving Saturday and spending the night with them) and then we're going up to the campground and staying till Wednesday. I'm so excited. We only got to go camping one time last year, and we already have three different trips scheduled for this year. Yay!

Hope you're all doing well!