Muddy Paws and Flies

This past weekend definitely was as busy one. Friday night Pat and I spent the evening shampooing our living room carpet. Between Urban’s paws and our daily life going in and out of that room it was starting to look pretty gnarly. Since Urban’s tail could pretty much be classified as a deadly weapon we have stopped putting drinking glasses on the coffee table and have moved the candles way out of his reach.

We had to strategically plan this cleaning session. We had to wait till later on in the evening so we could move all the furniture out. Well, minus the TV stand. I cheated, people. I really didn’t want Pat to have to move that and then reconnect everything. We also needed to wait to be closer to Urban’s bedtime. I was not fighting a 90lb dog who wants to be everywhere you are.

So there we were at 9:30pm cleaning carpets. Okay, I need to rephrase that. There I was at 9:30pm cleaning carpets. I will fully admit Pat was all about using this machine. Unfortunately, he was doing it wrong and I didn’t have the patience to show him the right way. Thus, I took over.

Saturday we all awoke to clean living room. Until….I let Urban outside. Did I mention it had poured the night before? Yeah, didn’t think so. I opened the door to let him back in and it was literally one of those slow motion NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO moments. You know what I am talking about. Before I knew it the living room was covered in muddy paw prints. After a minor temper tantrum. I pretty much stomped my foot and all, we fired the blasted cleaner up again.

Soon later I was off running errands and picking up groceries for the “going away” party we were hosting for a guy Pat works with. I knew we were going to have a lot of people over and there were a few invited I had never met before. This always makes me nervous. Call me old-fashioned but if there are people coming to the house I have never met I want everything to look presentable and food well prepared.

After rushing home and preparing more dishes than I knew what to do with, three o’clock rolled around and I still hadn’t showered. Pat response “Don’t worry no one gets here in time.” Que : knock…knock…knock. Well, there went that. Thankfully it was just Pat’s Lt. and his wife. I know them pretty well so my frazzled appearance wasn’t too embarrassing.

The rest of the day went really well. We had a good turn out.  I do have to side note though, I was disappointed in a few of our friends who didn’t show up. Pat and I always try to make a conscious effort to go to anything they have but I guess the feeling isn’t too mutual. That is the one tough thing about the military life. You make friends with a lot of people but it just isn’t the same. They are there when they are and aren’t when they aren’t. I am now done with my “woe to me” moment.

Sunday I woke up and started going through my normal morning routine. Until I realized our house had been overtaken by flies. Oh moly! I knew a few had made it in through our backdoor constantly opening and closing, but this was insane. Since moving to North Carolina I have been introduced to the bug issues here. Spiders are everywhere and flies aren’t far behind.

Urban who normally loves chasing flies was even overwhelmed. He just sat in the middle of the living room trying to follow every little black body that darted by. I gave it about 5 minutes and gave up. I hoped in the car in search of those fly paper stands.

When I got back home I had 4 rolls of that stick paper and a mission. Two went in the living room and two in the kitchen. There was one hanging in the kitchen I was sure I was going to back into and get my hair caught. Thankfully it didn’t happen. Pat decided him and I were going to have a contest to see whose caught the most flies. He claimed the kitchen rolls as his and I took the living room. He won. I don’t even want to tell you how many flies those things caught.

I still have a few smarter ones buzzing around the house but at least the bulk of the fly plague has been squashed.