Termites and crack...or Elisa's First day of Spring

Yesterday was a good day. Got a ton done at work, although never as much as I hope. My friend let me borrow his car as mine is still in the shop, the sun was shining. Scott's family came for a little visit and brought me the rest of my new bedroom furniture (before and after pics soon), and I planned to have CJ over for a new recipe (a rendition of Urban Standard's Orzo pasta salad) and a beer to celebrate Spring the start of Kitchn: The Cure, which we are both participating it. And, she and I signed up for a veggie CSA with Grow Alabama. All good things to celebrate!

I get home and start to cook. Tender Orzo boiling on the stove, beer freshly opened, when I notice a little bug. I thought "Well, that's what you get when you cook with the door open" and killed it. Then I noticed another...and another. I determined that they were coming from the water heater closet. I opened it up to find TERMITES! EVERYWHERE! There was a crazy swarm of them. I instantly freaked out and started doing an insane "get the hell away from me" dance and armed myself with the only chemical left in my house: bleach. I sprayed them as though they were out to kill, yelling things like I hope this burns your soft, soft underbellies (what!?)and You will not ruin my Easter!!. About this time CJ came in. Witnessing my meltdown, she quickly decided we must go out to eat. On our way to a Mexican joint for Guac, we saw Nabeels...and quickly pulled in.
It was wonderful. We feasted on stuffed grape leaves and feta, Taramasalata dip (the aptly named 'crack' dish of caviar and greek yogurt) and fried potatoes. Accompanied by wine of course. My termite problems were soon forgotten in an hour long conversation about food (seriously, we talked food for an hour). We dissected the flavors and nuances of each item and their pairings and potential. It was refreshing. It was also decided that we now must start a tradition of Greek food on the First Day of Spring. After literally eating the dip with our fingers after running out of crudites, we decided it might be time to go home....to the TERMITES.
they had all perished in a chemical induced frenzy and lay waste on my kitchen floor. A quick run with the vaccuum and the evidence was gone.
This easily could have been my undoing. I am just starting to like the apartment, and this incident could have turned me off of my kitchen and my home completely. But it didn't. I cleaned up, drank and beer and laughed about it. After Ant Wars 2008, termites are a breeze.
When I got to work today and told my 'cellmate' about it, a coworker from a few cubes away piped up "When are you going to call someone about getting your hex removed". I need to get on that...

A visual of the horror:

Tales of a dissatisfied apartment dweller...and her semi-famous dinner

Check me out on Apartment Therapy.com! Look here to see my dinner fixins. (I am elisaruth under Good Links). I am participating in The Cure, an 8 week apartment overhaul and re-do. This weeks assignments were (are) long and laborious. They are: Clean kitchen top to bottom, cook one homemade meal (see pic), clean out pantry and fridge, buy fresh flowers, make an outboz and clear one horizontal space. Oh yeah, and run your hands over every wall in the house, moving the furniture and all. The author has very interesting ideas for why all of these things are important, and so far they are actually making a difference. You can check out the book on Amazon. It is different from most decorating/organizing books in that you focus on doable goals and only do what you can afford and want.

So far I have: cooked, cleaned out pantry and fridge and 1/2 of the kitchen. Tonight I am tackling the oven and plan to try out an all natural cleaner of baking soda and water. Week one had me buying fresh flowers, scrubbing the floors, and replacing with all natural cleaners. Lucky for me I went all natural a year ago.

This program is intended to kick start you into living in and loving your apartment. That is more difficult than it seems because they are often so temporary and big changes are impossible. You have to work with what you have. I am re-doing the bedroom, painting it next week and getting some more new (free!) furniture tomorrow.

As I have said, the part of my house I love the most is the kitchen that leads out to the back door. The breeze comes through and natural light shines right onto the island I pull out. Plus, my homegrown herbs and compost pile are a step away.

What is your favorite part of your home? Why?