Crick! Crick! Croak!

The cricket is dead! The cricket is dead! Hallelujah, the cricket is dead!

Tonight while packing my lunch for work tomorrow, I reached into one of the many cupboards where the cricket has taken up residency for the last couple of weeks. I needed a bowl to put my dinner leftovers in to take to school tomorrow. The bowl I needed was sitting inside a larger bowl. When I lifted it out, I screamed. I saw a bug laying inside the larger bowl. I got a grip on myself and realized it was a cricket. It took me a moment and then I yelled, "It's the cricket!" I closed the cupboard door and grabbed a papertowel. I reached in to pick up the cricket and it moved a little. After some girly touching a bug screeching, I picked it up. It seemed not to be moving so I thought that maybe the moving in the bowl was just my hand or the air from the waving of the towel. When I looked at it inside the towel, it moved again. I screamed and folded it up in the paper towel and stuck inside a bag. As I took the bag out to the trashcan a giddy and sinister laugh escaped from my lips. Tonight, it is quiet in the Delight household. What a relief.

Crick! Crick! Cricket!

A few weeks ago I wrote of a cricket who had taken up residency in my garage. Grandma J told me it was good luck and at least it was in the garage. Well, so much for the good luck because his girlfriend (or boyfriend) has moved into my house. I've only included this picture as a reference because in all reality it is impossible to see a cricket when it is in your house. IMPOSSIBLE. I hear it, but I can't find it for the life of me. It all started with the "crick! crick! crick!" coming from, what sounded like, behind or under my fridge. That first night I moved the fridge, looked behind it, and made lots of noise hoping it would scurry out into the open. No such luck, but I thought, "I can't hear it upstairs," so I went to bed and hoped it would be gone in the morning. It was gone, the chirping sound that is. It was as quiet as can be the next day when I went downstairs to make some breakfast. Phew!

Well that next evening, and every evening since, it has continued its song to its boyfriend who is still in my garage. It moves on a daily basis though. Sometimes it sounds like its coming from under my sink, sometimes it sounds like its coming from my dishwasher, sometimes it sounds like it coming from the pots and pans cupboard. I say "it sounds like" because I have no idea where it's coming from...once I crawl into one cupboard the sound bounces somewhere else. I have found myself standing in the middle of my kitchen, with my feet planted and my arms stretched out, just listening, hoping to locate where the sound is coming from.

To make matters worse, this seems to be a two-timing cricket. It not only has the garage boyfriend cricket to talk to, it is also talking to another cricket on my back patio. The triangular pattern of "crick! crick! crick!" is driving me mad. More than once I have whined, "Stoooooppppp iiiittttt, please just stoooooopppppp iiiiittttt."

I don't know what to do and I don't know how much longer I can stand it. "How to" articles on line say that your best way to catch a cricket is to know where it is. No, duh! I need a "how to" article on how to know where it is at this point. Do exterminators deal with this kind of thing? Do they have special cricket seeing powers that I don't have? I'm going to have to research that and get this problem solved. Any ideas?

Salsa, Salsa, Salsa

So, I've been taking this salsa class for almost a year now. It's a blast! JLo signed up for it along with her friend Julie, but in the four weeks of class we have only attended together once. They need to come to class soon! (Hint, Hint)

The group in attendance this go round is different than it's been in the past. It's an older group. I DON'T have anything against an older group, except maybe a little bit with this group. This is my 3rd class with the current instructor. She is great - very professional, patient, and helpful, but for the last 3 weeks that I have been in attendance, they have complained to her about the stupidest things. I have a "tendency" to roll my eyes when I am annoyed and tonight I think they got stuck inside my brain. They have complained that her music is too quiet. They have complained that her music is too loud. They have complained that she doesn't say the steps soon enough. They have complained that she says the steps too early. They have also complained about the way she calls the steps. They want her to change the names of them so they can understand them better...seriously, the names of the steps. My eyes are rolling as I write this. I need my "young" friends to join me again so I have someone to commiserate with. These ladies are killing me.