All Things Anne

I have this brother named Eric, and he is a card sometimes. (The Joker, of course!) For those of you who don’t know much about him, he is 15, and likes electronics, tearing things apart, and writing stickman comics. (He can put the most expression in a stickman I’ve ever seen!) I’m the biggest fan of his comic books, I think! I have one of every single one that he has (and I had to pay for them, too!) He has a slightly weird, twisted sense of humor which I love.

Anyways.

The word “groovy” will forever remind me of Eric. Not only does he say it frequently, but…his middle initials (he has two middle names) are G. D., which, of course stand for “Groovy Dude!”
Some time ago he signed up to a website, and instead of putting in his real name, he put in “The Incredibly Groovy Guys”as his name. So he gives them his address but not his name! Well, today he got, in the mail, a welcome package to the website or something to that effect. Enclosed were address labels. Folks, he now has a sheet of address labels bearing the name “The Incredibly Groovy Guys”!

Quite a mouthful, isn’t it? Well, last night we saw one of those, um, moths! This is how it went…

Once upon a time it was a Sunday night, at 10:30. Anne had just shut Darren down, but Joe was still on Valerie (with his back to the window…that’s important), and Mom was at Mother. Suddenly, they heard a noise outside on the deck.
“What’s that noise? Is that the dog?” Mom asked.
“Yeah,” Joe said.
Then they heard the noise again, this time on the window.
“Is that the dog, banging on the window?”
“Yeah, just the dog,” Joe said without looking. Then he turned around and went over to the window. “No! It’s a little bat, or something! A moth!”
Anne went over and looked, and it was a big moth!
“Why don’t you go out there with the fly swatter and get it for the twins?” Mom asked.
So Anne got the fly swatter and went out on the (wet) deck (with bare feet), but didn’t see it so she came back in. Of course when she came back in, the moth returned! So she went back out.
She realized that was quite a big moth, and when it headed for her, she tried to get out of the way.
She swatted at it, and got it on the deck and was trying to pick it up with the fly swatter, but it was still alive and wiggled through a crack in the deck and fell down to outside Dad’s office.

Well. The stairs for the deck have been missing for some years, but underneath where the stairs were was a little stair-step of cement blocks, so Anne stepped down that and jumped down to the cement outside Dad’s office. Dad and Ben were in there, staring intently at the screen and, typical boys, didn’t even notice Anne! She went over to where the moth lay shivering on the ground, and scooped it up onto the fly swatter, then walked over to the window and rapped on it to get Dad and Ben’s attention. They came over.
“What’s that?” Dad asked.
“A giant moth!” Anne said, through the glass of the door.
“Do you want in?” Ben asked.
“Yes.”
Ben opened the door, and Anne came in. Dad and Ben admired it, then Anne went up to show the twins. They were also impressed, and Em dug out a pin to poke it with, to kill it. She went to poke it, but when the moth beat its wings against her hand she decided she couldn’t, so she went to get a piece of cardboard while Kate undertook to poke it. She almost didn’t when the moth beat its wings on her, but she finally shoved the pin in–right into the body of the poor moth! The moth walked around the fly swatter, dragging this pin until Anne pulled it out. Yes, Anne was too chicken to poke the poor moth too!

The twins and Anne debated about what to do. Em poured a little bleach on a napkin and they tried to get it on the moth’s head, but that didn’t work. Anne got the idea of putting it in a jar and suffocating it.

Well, folks, it’s been in there for almost 24 hours and it’s still not dead. Instead, it laid a bunch of eggs! According to that website, though, the lifespan of this particular moth is only 7-10 days!
The twins have a little case with a glass top that they are going to put it in for display when it’s dead!

Well, the boys bought Mom pizza and it was awful good, although how something can be “awful good” I haven’t figured out! It was a very early dinner…more like lunch. Everybody snacked on pizza all day!

I made Mom carrot cake (with cream cheese frosting, of course!) for her present, and Beth decorated it with leftover cream cheese frosting she tinted purple (Mom’s favorite color). It was very good, if I do say so myself!

Also, the dishwasher was fixed by my nice brother Ben! Yay Ben!! He took the dishwasher out of the spot it’s in, and messed around with the water hoses and stuff, then put it back in and it worked! (what hadn’t worked before was the electrical stuff, not the water stuff, so I don’t know how he fixed it but I’m glad!)

And so, I shall bid you adieu.