When Life Gives You Lemons ...

... put them in your bra. Can't hurt, and at the very least - some of that vitamin C might leach into your system. Don't do this if/while you are nursing.

So. In keeping with our current month-long, fun-fest from hell, yesterday the son goes to crack open a can of pop. Which, of course, slips out of his hand and strikes against the edge of the coffee table. In a rare instance of physics-at-its-best, precisely enough pressure was thus generated to issue forth a veritable geyser of root beer, sufficient to the point that the entire north wall of the living room, all electronics, carpeting - and perhaps a small county up around Chicago - was blanketed in a runny, sticky film of brown sugar water.

This was at 9:00 a.m.

Far too early in the day to hang myself, but not by much.

Now, by this point the son and I are feverishly putting our heads together, to try and ascertain if we have somehow unwittingly disturbed an Indian burial ground, or if we are simply under a generic, garden variety curse. Either way, this shit has got to stop.

Eventually.

You would think.

Anyway, we also feverishly worked to wipe, mop, and basically eradicate all pop molecules before every ant in our zip code was alerted to the sugar buffet. Speaking of bugs, I know everyone is eager (Gross exaggeration) to hear how the wasp nest is coming along. Let's just say that I have trained myself NOT to look up when I open the front door (The wasps and I have reached an understanding. They can do whateverthehell they want, and I pretend not to care).

But ... as the cleaning frenzy progressed, we sort of got *into the spirit of things* and decided to go with the flow. And as we've really gotten into the whole downsizing/minimalist trend throughout the last year, we further managed to condense, pitch and otherwise remove anything that wasn't moving or glued down (or adhered in place by sugar solution).

Our two cats showed their support by hiding under my bed until noon.

Now, the whole point of this boring post is that sometimes it really does help if you can make the best of things. No matter how trite or cliched, attitude IS everything. And I'd like to boast that our living room looked sleek, spacious and spotless by the time we finished, and we honestly enjoyed the team effort/results.

Sometimes things aren't as awful as we think they are :)

** After a full summer of intense heat and unremitting drought, now we are having rain & thunderstorms to beat the band. After a week of considerable rainfall, down the street from me, one of the neighbors has a large *fairy ring* of white mushrooms which just popped up seemingly overnight. You can almost *see/imagine* the little people with gossamer wings and quaint top hats hosting a tea party under the moonlight. <3