A New Weapon

We love our home.

a la blizzard 2011

It's an older house with all kinds of character and charm (as in, quirks and faults). We mostly don't mind though, since it's a pretty cheap rental home with plenty of space for us. Plus, our landlord lives down the street so it's usually pretty quick (and always free!) for us to have anything fixed.

However. This past summer, I learned there is one thing I absolutely can NOT stand about this house, which was inevitable during this past summer of ungodly heat and humidity in Atlanta we just endured: cockroaches.

I have an abnormal fear of cockroaches, and, well, pretty much all other bugs and insects too. I run around and scream bloody murder at the mere sight of one, which Bo finds to be hilarious entertainment. So he will usually laugh at me, make fun of me, tell me to chill out... and basically wait as long as possible before killing and disposing of said cockroaches. My hero.

One thing we have always disagreed on is the proper way to kill and dispose of cockroaches. Bo prefers to squash them with a paper towel and throw them away. I cannot bring myself to do this because then I would feel the roach crunching in my hand. Gross. Plus, then there are leftover cockroach guts to clean up.  I, on the other hand, prefer to slam them with an old shoe - quick and dirty. Of course, this only works if the roach is within reach and I have a handy shoe and can get to it before it crawls away. These tend to be Bo's shoes and then he gets mad at me for leaving roach guts on his shoes. My other method is to find the nearest can of Raid and spray the roach until it dies. Either way, my main problem is having to pick it up and make it all the way to the toilet and flush them away. (I don't like putting them in the trash, because - here is where the abnormal fear kicks in - I have this feeling that I didn't kill it all the way and it will escape the trash and torture me all over again.) We've always had those bait traps in every corner of every room in the house, so it wasn't really that big of an issue for the first 8 months of living here.

Enter Molly.

blurry but cute :)

I didn't want her accidentally eating the roach bait, so I got rid of the roach traps. Combined with the terrible heat, this of course resulted in more frequent roach sightings in our house over the summer. I have given up on method #2 since spraying a ton of chemicals around a puppy is definitely not the best idea. Bo was thrilled, since he despised this method anyway. So I have devised a third method, which is by far the best method of all -- my new weapon of choice is my handheld Dyson vacuum.

the lean, mean, Dyson machine

It sucks up the roach immediately so I don't have to deal with crunching. It has an enclosed area so I know the roach won't come back to find me. I can dump the whole thing out and never have to see those suckers again. (Though, having to clean it out the other night after a summer full of cockroaches was almost equally terrifying.) I no longer run around or scream like a little girl when I see one,  because I know I can conquer it with my Dyson. Problem solved.

Granted, it would be much better if cockroaches just didn't exist in the first place. But at least now we have finally compromised on a proper roach killing method, and we can live in peace and harmony. Life is good.

Cure for the common cold

This past week was the one whole week in a 7 week period where Bo and I were both at home. And coincidentally, it was also the one week where we all got sick. So that was not awesome and I'm glad it's behind us. Sunday night, Bo started to feel a cold coming on. Monday morning, Molly got spayed. Monday evening I had caught Bo's cold. By Tuesday morning, we were all a hot mess. So we decided to bring out the big guns and kill our colds for good. Bo refuses to take any kind of medicine besides Tylenol/Advil, so we have devised our own cure for the common cold: a few Hotty Toddy's and Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. Sarah first introduced us to the Hotty Toddy (we've made a few improvements to it) and the soup has been (and still is) continually improving over the past few years. We loaded up on both of these remedies Tuesday evening, slept for a solid 9-10 hours, and by Wednesday morning we had recovered. It's a miraculous cure and amazes me every time.  Our recipes are below in case you find yourself under the weather. The hotty toddy makes for a delicious winter drink, whether you are sick or not ;)


Hotty Toddy

4 ounces boiling water

4 ounces whiskey

2 teaspoons honey

1/2 cinnamon stick

3 whole cloves

1 thick lemon slice

pinch of ground nutmeg



Pour the boiling water, whiskey, and honey into a mug.
Add the cloves, cinnamon, and lemon slice.
Let cool for 5 minutes, then sprinkle with nutmeg right before serving.



Chicken Noodle Soup

1 onion
7 celery stalks
7 carrots
5 skinless boneless chicken legs
3 skinless boneless chicken breasts
8 oz. package of medium egg noodles
a few dashes of dried parsley
a few dashes of tobasco sauce


Fill a large pot halfway full of water; add a few good shakes of salt.
Cut the fat off the chicken breasts; add to the water.
Slice the chicken leg meat against the bone, exposing the bone but not comlpetely taking the meat off; add to the water.
Cut the onion, celery, and carrots into desired slices; add to the water.
Sprinkle with salt, pepper and parsley.
Bring to a boil for 15 minutes.
Turn down the heat, and shred all the chicken meat using tongs and a fork (do not remove chicken from the pot).
Bring back to a boil.
Add the noodles; boil for 9 minutes.
Add a few good shakes of tobasco sauce.
Let cool before serving.