A scorpion, a tent, a little girl and a dog

Katie has the night off tonight, so I'm filling in as webmaster! Big excitement this weekend. As some of you already know, I had an encounter with a scorpion on Friday night. Katie had gone to the grocery store while I put Maggie to bed. When she returned, being the good husband I am, I was helping unload the groceries. I had gone out to the garage for the last load when I saw him. Well, I almost jumped through the ceiling. I ran upstairs to do some research on how to take care of him. I first searched for "killing scorpions". Don't do this. When you search for how to kill stuff, you'd be amazed at what you would find. One website then suggest I search for "extermination." This was closer, but mainly brought me several ads from pest companies. However, I did find one resourceful article that suggested I get 3 or 4 chickens to roam around the affected area. Apparently chickens consider the scorpion a delicacy.



Once I realized that we didn't have any chickens here at the house, I found some spider, roach and ant spray. I jumped up on my car--complete with my steel-toe boots in case it got ugly--and sprayed him. He ran and I wasn't about to start moving boxes to find him. So, the next day, he was lying on his back suffering from my dose of spray, and I used a broom to finish him off. See the before and after pictures.



Despite the entertainment with the above-mentioned creature on Friday night, we still continued to have a full weekend. On Saturday morning, Katie walked in the Las Vegas breast cancer awareness walk. Maggie and I didn't venture out, but we did watch the news coverage of the event while enjoying a fried egg and cartoons.

Later on Saturday we went to REI to find a backpack for me. I will be hiking/camping the southern rim of the Grand Canyon in two weeks, so it's time to get the gear ready. After an hour and a half of fitting me, the salespeople (I had three at this point) told me that they just didn't have a pack that would fit me, and that I should consider renting. So I did. (Apparently, I have an "odd-shaped torso".) Today the gear prep continued with me setting up the tent in the living room. Maggie did a thorough inspection and everything passed. She loved going in and out.



A good weekend leads into a busy week for the Kennedys. I am taking a vacation week beginning on the 16th, thus a lot to do at work to get ready. After being in a visitor drought for a while, the planes are about to start landing again. Jeff and Amanda Covington are coming on Thursday and staying until the middle of the following week. After their visit, on Wednesday, Katie, Maggie and I will drive to the Grand Canyon to meet Julie and Andrew Battaile for our hiking expedition. Actually, only Andrew and I will be doing the Grand Canyon. The girls will stay at a lodge, but may be able to do some hiking. And then Gigi is coming in town at the end of the month for Halloween.

That's about it. Oh, and you'll notice from the pictures that I think we have a piano prodigy on our hands.

~Andy