Beavers and Fleas and Baseboards - oh my!

Ah, yes - never a dull moment.  Where to begin . . .

Rabid Beavers Terrorize Northern Virginia

Back in 1999 a rogue beaver made headlines in our area when it showed up uninvited in the Tidal Basin and began munching on DC's prized cherry blossom trees. The Washington Post published photos of the cute little rascal doing the backstroke in the water near the Jefferson Memorial. Everyone oohed and aahed and did everything in their power to make sure the little guy was treated humanely as he was unceremoniously removed from federal property and promptly deposited back where he belonged, which was likely some pond in Northern Virginia. I think he looked something like this . . .

A few weeks ago another buck-toothed mammal made very different headlines in our area when a rabid beaver attacked an elderly woman as she emerged from swimming in a lake in a private residential community just outside of DC. This crazy beaver literally swam after the woman as she was getting out of the water and started chomping on her leg with his sharp yellow teeth. Luckily a man who was fishing nearby saw the attack and came to her rescue, but not before the beaver had done considerable damage. I imagined the beaver to look something like this . . .

This poor lady will probably have nightmares for the rest of her life. I can't even imagine.

To make matters worse, last week ANOTHER RABID BEAVER leaped out of a pond a mere mile from our house at a beloved nature center and went after a group of kids who had just been fishing there. Luckily no one was hurt, but animal control had to come out and shoot the deranged animal. 

I might add that my kids and I have spent many a quiet afternoon at this same nature center, meandering around the pond, checking out the frogs and turtles and the occasional snake. I don't recall ever seeing any signs of beavers even living there - so the idea of a rabid beaver emerging from the calm green muck is just that much more horrific

My husband and I have wisely kept this information to ourselves. Our daughter developed an irrational fear of foxes several years ago when she was still in preschool - how this came about is still a mystery to us. The fear was so pronounced that one day during a school picnic she had a panic attack because she was absolutely certain that a wild fox was going to come out of the bushes and eat her. The teacher had to take her inside while the rest of her little friends sat outside and enjoyed the picnic. Telling her about these beavers would probably set her back . . . way, way back.

Damn Fleas
Yes, that's right. The fleas are back. I'm convinced they never left - instead they've been hiding in the dark recesses of our fifty year old home just biding their time. Little F*&%$ers.

I first wrote about our flea epidemic back in January of this year. I'd include the links to the posts - but I wrote about it so many times it's hard to keep track. If you care in the least, just scroll through my January 2012 posts and you'll get the general idea of the torture of trying to rid a house of fleas.

I admit, we became a bit lazy. Once we thought the fleas were gone the vacuuming became more sporadic and we became a bit lax in applying the Frontline in a timely fashion (by the way - I'm starting to think Frontline is bogus - how is it possible that after applying poison to my pets' skin those little monsters are still crawling all over them???)  I'm convinced that the flea larvae lay dormant in the dark corners of our house, just waiting for our defenses to be down enough for them to leap out and start munching on our animals again.

I've researched the life cycle of the flea online and I don't know how anyone can EVER get rid of fleas. As they crawl all over your animal and make them feverishly scratch themselves, they are laying eggs which then fall off your animal wherever they happen to roam. Basically this means flea eggs are lying all over our house since we have a dog and two cats. After two days the flea eggs hatch and larvae then burrow into dark little spaces, like the cracks between the floor and wall, the carpets, the backpack you happened to throw on the floor and forgot about for a week. Then, after an undisclosed amount of time, these larvae become full-fledged fleas and wait for the opportune moment when your unsuspecting pet walks by, then LEAPS onto said pet and start feasting on their blood, not really caring that they are also sucking on Frontline since they've apparently developed some type of immunity to the stuff.

I HATE FLEAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow the pest guy is coming (AGAIN). This means we have to vacuum the entire house - not just the floors, but every crack and crevice where fleas could possible hide. I had to crack open a Sam Adams Octoberfest this afternoon just to get myself through the vacuum job on the main level. I haven't even gotten to the bedrooms yet.

On top of this, we still have to go to work, take care of our kids, eat, sleep - you know, live our lives. Did I mention how much I hate fleas?

This is what I see at night as I'm falling asleep - imagining that these nasty things are crawling all over me as I sleep.

DISGUSTING!!!!!!!!

**update - 8:48 p.m - just got done with bedrooms, had major meltdown inside my closet during which time the vacuum was in serious danger of being pulverized out of sheer anger and frustration - not to mention fatigue and sweatiness of vacuuming incessantly since 5 p.m. Surrendered vacuum to husband out of fear that I would hurt it and myself.

Baseboards (On to a lighter topic before I get too worked up . . . . )
I'm not even sure this is what they are really called - being that I'm home improvement challenged.  I'm talking about the strips of painted wood that border the bottom edges of our walls - aren't they called baseboards? Anyway - whatever they're called, I'm finally painting them.  Earlier this summer I gleefully finished sanding and painting the cabinets in our kitchen after six long months of off and on DIY efforts. I thought I'd written about it on here but after searching through my blog posts, it looks like I never did. Anyhow - back in December I decided to sand and paint all the cabinets in our kitchen by myself, a la Tato - my quintessential do-it-yourself-even-if-you-have-no-idea-what-you're-doing guru. Despite many late nights and a narrow brush with plumbing disaster, I finished the project. Here was my reaction upon completion of my endless task . . .

I'm done, I'm done, I'm really done!!!

Anyway - painting the cabinets was a huge accomplishment, but now there's the rest of the kitchen to deal with: the walls covered in wallpaper glue and splotched with various "test" paint colors, the dirty trim around the windows and "baseboards", the ugly linoleum floor. I decided to start painting the trim to match the cabinets and then worrying about the walls - I've got a permanent case of "can't decided on a paint color-itis".

So that's where the kitchen project stands. Yesterday I managed to clean and paint a tiny little corner of baseboard. Not much, but boy is it shiny :) Makes me feel a tiny bit better about the flea problem. Just a tiny bit.

Did I mention the flea guy is coming tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. and that I have to vacate the house at that time with both kids, the dog, two cats and four hermit crabs? Perhaps a rabid beaver will show up to make things even more interesting.

Think I'd better go pour myself another drink.