to bee or not to bee

so, i know i rip on Dork a lot for not pulling his weight and being a typical male who has to be told to do everything and who doesn't *want* to want to do things....but i do feel badly about something i asked him to do that went terribly wrong.

we have an awning over the front of our house, and i've noticed a small wasp nest being built over the past few weeks in the upper corner, nest to the roof. in the vein of "if i want something done, i'll do it myself," i attempted to knock the little sucker down myself about a week ago, but it was kinda hidden under the awning and i couldn't see it and was afraid to just take a whack at it and have it fall down on top of me. after hearing me complain about it one too many times, Dork said he'd take care of it, and he proceded to buy some wasp and hornet spray at home depot over the weekend.

we chatted on the phone yesterday -- i was at work and he had the day off -- and we agreed that we'd go to see a baseball game with our daughter that evening. we talked about what we'd have for dinner and we discussed how my day was going. then he casually mentioned it: he had taken care of the wasp nest. in the process? five stings and a beat up leg. he promised me that he didn't look like quasimoto with a swollen, huge forehead or anything, but i couldn't even imagine getting stung FIVE times. unfortunately, our family's beekeeper outfit was at the drycleaners (OK, that's one thing neither Dork nor I have ever been for Halloween, although we've been many other odd characters...) so he had no protection other than his madras plaid shorts, flip flops and t-shirt (assuming he wasn't out there bare-chested, which maybe i shouldn't assume).

knock on wood, i have never gotten stung and am kinda skeeved out about it ever happening, since i don't even know if i'm allergic to bee stings. but i felt so horrible after he told me what happened, like i was mostly responsible for his ill fated incident. evidently, when he aimed the spray can at the nest, the bees just went crazy and flew at him. he said he was flailing around and got stuck in the hedges (he had to stand in the middle of the hedge to reach the wasp nest, hence the scratches and scrapes all over his leg). i'll bet our neighbors wondered what kind of funky dance my husband was doing outside in the front of the yard!

i dug out the neosporin when i got home from work and gave Dork some tlc for his bee-fighting efforts. but the real kicker to his pain and suffering? the stupid nest is still there, and the little suckers are still flying in and flying out; although i did spy a few dead ones on the pavemet this morning, so his spraying wasn't all in vain. let's hope the effects of the spray kick in over the next day or two so we can knock the nest down before Dork becomes their afternoon snack once again!

the allure of PS3?

ok, would someone please explain something to me? what i can't figure out is my husband's obsession with all things play station, or, more accurately, why all he has been able to talk about for the past two weeks is that play station 3 (in the 80gb mode, as if that means anything) is being released and how he can't wait to get his hands on it.

ya know, i thought that having one play station was enough -- he's equipped with PS2 and a ton of games for it, and he even gets to jam out on guitar hero and be a big, bad rock god. apparently, this new one is so good that it will even cook dinner and change our daughter's diaper for us, in addition to having a blu-ray player and top of the line graphics! oooh, where do i sign up to get one?! after all, for $500, this baby had better be doing my laundry for me and watching the kid while i go shopping for a pair of manolos (which, incidentally, i could have for the same price).

and just getting excited about the new PS3 isn't enough -- i thought he was going to have a seizure last night when he was looking at the *PACKAGING* for the new systems online. i was watching diego with morgan and out of nowhere, i hear, "hey honey, look at the packaging on this." since diego didn't have his rescue pack out at the time (yes, it scares me how kid tv is overtaking my life...) i turn around to find Dork glued to the laptop with the screen turned around so that i could behold the really cool box that the PS3 comes in. but wait! there's more -- after all, there's not just *one* type of box that's available. evidently, there's a choice of packaging and he's pretty wound up about all the kinds that are available.

meanwhile, i'm wondering what the attraction is for a 30-something guy with a professional job and a child. sure, i had an atari hooked to my tv as a kid and video games were kinda cool when i was in high school, and i remember going to arcades with my friends when we were at the mall -- centipede was my fave, and i couldn't wait to shoot at the segments of the bug as it inched its way down the screen. but then i went to college and found boys, alcohol and my sorority more to my liking and the games went by the wayside. Dork, on the other hand, played video games and Dungeons & Dragons through college and (i can't even believe i'm saying this) he and his friends still play D&D as adults. the only difference? they now play online since everyone lives in different parts of the country. so now i can count on Dork to grab his headseat every few weekends and log on to their site so that he can talk live to his buddies while their characters (D&D as well as World of Warcraft) can interact together. maybe it's just me, but doesn't life itself have enough weird challenges and twists and turns, without having to create them in a fantasy realm? or maybe it's escaping reality that they really are looking for -- after all, even though i don't know too much about the D&D characters, i'm guessing they don't crap their diapers or spew barf on your new outfit as you're heading out the door, already running late for work. and if they did? i'm guessing men would be nowhere to be found.