Sunrise, Sunset

I caught the sunrise this morning. It's one of those cloudy mornings where the show only lasts a few majestic seconds, but I caught it. When you forget for a minute, a start to the day like this really offers some perspective. (Yeah, let's see what sort of zen take on things I have later when I hit a wall of tiredness.)

Another blessing? Cross your fingers, but I think the fruit flies that had invaded my home (and spirit) may be gone. When I went to the counter to make my coffee this morning, the halo of near-microscopic floaters that I had grown accustomed to was gone. I didn't even see a mass scatter. I have been struggling with them all summer and when I consulted the highest authority on the matter---Facebook---I was given a handful of options for pest control. I tried almost all of them:

Fruit Fly Trap Pageant 2010

When the majority of suggested solutions involved luring the little shits with cider vinegar, I felt like a real ass as I had this exact product sitting on my counter all week since I've been trying cider vinegar sparklers a few times a day in yet another attempt to find the right calibrations to make my body the high-functioning machine that I dream it can be. (Apparently the cider vinegar helps to balance acidity...results pending. Ate gnocchi with pancetta in a pesto alfredo sauce and penne with gorgonzola, sage and mushrooms last night, so I may have counteracted all efforts.) With the cider vinegar sitting mere inches away, our attempt at FF decimation last weekend when we left an inch of Watermelon Schnapps (I have the liquor cabinet of a Playboy Bunny) at the bottom of a water bottle with a hole punched through the plastic cap and left for CT, failed miserably.

When all-out war was waged on Monday, I tried these additional techniques per my Facebook experts.

1) I filled an empty olive oil bottle with the cider vinegar in the hope that they would go in but ultimately be unable to scale the steep incline of the bottle.
Confirmed kills: 0

2) I put CV in a jar which I then covered with saran wrap and poked holes in the top. This looked promising as there was a lot of activity around the jar at the start, but ultimately the FFs got wise to my schemes and stopped even collecting on the jar's edge.
Confirmed kills: 2
Wounded (but broke free): 3

3) Took a juice glass and poured in a bit of CV and then poured a layer of dish detergent over it without mixing the two. (Now that's an odd combination of smells.)

We have a winner!

This picture doesn't even show the real extent of glorious, glorious death that this method provided. I feel as though I've really gotten to the bottom of this household dilemma.

Your welcome.

One last thing before I head off for the day (driving down for a quick GiG visit before heading back here for the weekend):

Last night, Dan and I attended another book reading/discussion, this time with author Gail Caldwell who is promoting her new book Let's Take the Long Way Home. It's a memoir of her friendship with the late writer Caroline Knapp who died in 2002, seven weeks after being diagnosed with lung cancer. I know, I know, what am I trying to do, beat my personal depression best? But the beauty of this book, of Caldwell's language, of their friendship is so powerful even as it renders you so very weak. I'm 70 pages in and so frightened to go on, but eager to hear more of their affection for each other. I hope I am able to write about this more at length because the discussion was very rich as well. Hearing how Caldwell unconsciously postponed finishing the memoir for several months because she knew how the story ended and didn't want to say goodbye to her friend again ("Oh my God! She's back!" Caldwell said to herself when she commenced to writing about her friendship with Knapp, five years after her death.) was heartbreaking even as it provided such insight into her writing process.

I first read an excerpt from the book over a month ago in a magazine and was shaken and compelled. Then, a few weeks later, rather than ignoring the e-mail calendar announcement from a Portsmouth bookstore as I often do when I'm buried, I scrolled the list of featured authors and was shocked to meet upon this book and Caldwell once again. Meant to read this one, I'm sure.

The sun is much higher in the sky now, the day exposed and I've emptied out and recharged.

On the road again...

Happy Thursday, peeps. Have at it.