Feeling sorry for myself

Yesterday afternoon I went outside for about 45 minutes to do some yard work. I don't know why, but I was under the impression that it was still too early in the day, and also in the year, for mosquitoes to be much of a concern, so I neglected to use buy spray. Wow, that was a mistake! By bedtime last night the full extent of my stupidity was revealed as I could count twenty huge, incredibly itchy mosquito bites. Ben said I should take pictures, but I didn't want to put anyone through that so instead I have created a bite diagram. When you include the two old ones on one side, and all the new ones on the other, it's not a pretty picture.

According to Wikipedia, female mosquitoes are the ones that bite, and require the blood to nourish the her unborn mosquito eggs. Due to my generous donation I think I may have just singlehandedly tripled the Minnesota mosquito population for this year. 

There have been many studies done to try to figure out why some people are so much more attractive to mosquitoes (and their equally evil Scottish cousin, the Midge). My brother Robert and my dad actually took part in one such study a couple of years ago, as Robert is very rarely bitten by insects.

James Logan, a research student at the Rothamsted Research in Herfordshire and Professor Jenny Mordue of the University of Aberdeen, found that "unattractive" individuals give off different chemical signals compared with "attractive" individuals. They tested the behavioural reaction of yellow fever mosquitoes to the odour of volunteers.

According to the January 2005 BBSRC Business, in one experiment, the mosquitoes were placed into a y-shaped tube and given the choice of moving upwind down one of two branches. The air flowing down one branch was laced with odour from the volunteer's hands. The other was without this odour. Their results suggest that differential attractiveness is due to compounds in unattractive individuals that switch off attraction either by acting as repellents or by masking the attractant components of human odour.

This theory differs from that of other research groups who have suggested that unattractive individuals lack the attractive components. The researchers are now testing these theories further using foil sleeping bags to collect whole body odours from volunteers.

They took part in the 'foil sleeping bag' study. I'm not sure what the final finding was, but if it was that he gives off an odour so noxious that it repells even mosquitoes, well, I could have told them that years ago... 

Anyway, as if the joy of 20 mosquito bites wasn't enough, I also have a bladder infection and feel terrible. The doctor told me to drink fluids, and get lots of rest, but apparently Fiona disagrees with her medical opinion and has not been remotely cooperating with the 'resting'plan. 

Oh well. On a lighter note, it's definitely warm enough for summer clothes now, so here are a few gratuitous pictures of Fiona looking really adorable. And if you see a mosquito having trouble flying due to the fact that it has swelled to she size of a small dog from consuming 1/3 of my blood, please approach it with caution, then take it out with a tennis raquet or something. Thanks.

Hugging her BFF Brodie

Looking cute!

Our latest adventures

I haven't updated for a while... I was still recovering from my sunburn incident ;-)

Last week we had some lovely weather. I was really happy our yard was all cleaned up so we could enjoy it! One of the things we did last week was hang up a clothes line. I was so excited, until I hung up my clothes, only to find that the line was to low and they trailed on the ground. Then I had a brainwave... washing pole! My Mum had a washing pole... it was a long, smooth stick topped with a hooky thing made specially for the purpose of propping up the washing line. I, however, did not have a smooth stick, or a fancy hooky thing, so I found a long piece of wood in the garage, and banged a nail into it near the top. It works great, and also comes with the added excitement of the danger of serious splinters in your hands when you use it! 

Here's a picture of my washing line, and pole, with diapers hanging out to dry.

To celebrate the first day with temperatures above 80, Ben and I ate dinner outside on Thursday. By the time Fiona was alseep and dinner was made, it was pretty late, so we even got to use our 'summer' lights*. Here's Ben...

I love eating dinner outside, and I especially love drinking wine outside. It makes me so happy that the sun finally came back! This time of year is extra lovely because there is only one mosquito. I'd say there were no mosquitoes, but one bit me, so I'll have to assume there's just one so far. 

This weekend was also the first day of the Farmer's Market. I love the Farmer's Market, so I was pretty excited. I hadn't completely thought it through though... given that we've only had a handful of days without snow this year so far, there was not really anything to farm yet, so pickings were kind of slim! 

We ended up buying some crazy hot salsa (Ben), crazy hot pickles (Ben), and crazy sharp cheddar cheese (to share). There were also many options for hot food, so despite the fact that it was only 10.30am, we had lunch. Ben had shrimp taco and fries, and Fiona and I shared a fish taco and stole a few of Ben's fries. 

Ben really enjoyed his lunch!

On Sunday we had dinner with Ben's family. His Aunt Gloria and Uncle Neil are visiting this week, and his sister Laurie was here for the weekend. Here's Fiona and I with Laurie. This photo is evidence of why I generally take the pictures. Out of nine pictures, this one was the best. Yep, I know I'm missing part of my head. I'm not sure if it's my face or Ben's skills that's the problem, but at one point Ben did ask me to 'do a different smile' and then winced at the resulting photograph. 

Fiona enjoyed the visit, and even pitched in with the dishes...

This week, Fiona has a new tooth! Which explains why she has been sleeping so badly. Hopefully that will improve now that tooth number 7 has emerged. She also has a new diaper! (ok, the diaper is partly for me too). I got 2 on super sale online, and I really, honestly needed two more diapers! I mean... Fiona needed two more diapers!

It's made of mostly bamboo with some cotton blended in. Apparently Bamboo is pretty eco friendly because it grows faster than cotton and requires less resources to grow. It's SUPER soft, and extremely cute! Fiona loves it ;-)

So that's what we've been up to in the last week. It is sunny today, so after Fiona wakes up from her nap, I think we'll go for a walk. Who knows, maybe we'll meet George Clooney at the park and I'll have something more interesting to write about next time!

*Summer lights = Christmas lights. Except turned on during Summer. Sneaky, huh?