The Discovery Channel

If you stuff a Kong with a little peanut butter (organic, of course, nothing's too good for the pups), add a handful of kibble and seal the hole with mushed up bread...it will keep the pups occupied while you're away. No, duh.

If you do a good enough job of mashing up the bread, it's very hard for the doggies to get it out by licking or chewing. And with no opposible thumbs, they have a hard time using sticks or other long objects to coax it out so they can get at the good stuff inside.

If you don't check the Kong for a few days, it is also a great way to feed the local grease-eating ant population. So that there can be more of them. Like having the entire brick patio turn into one large ant-hive isn't enough already.

If you accidentally bring the Kong inside and lay it on the counter to refill without checking the innards, ants come along for the ride. I have plenty of awe and respect for the gift of Life, but the ants got smashed anyway when I discovered them roaming the counter. (There's some rule about Open Season if the ants are inside instead of outside, isn't there?) I was pretty stoked that I had my glasses on to actually SEE and destroy the little pests and take care of the minor glitch in Kong etiquette.

That was this morning. This afternoon I vacuumed the carpet and swept the kitchen. When I bent down to dust-buster the sweepings, what did I see...an ant. And then another, and another. GRRRR.

Kongs--the gift that keeps on giving!

My dilemna...were those leftover ants from the Kong episode or were they scouts from the patio colony foraying for new sources of nutrition for little ant larvae ripening in the nest?

Moving on, I swept the wonderful new ceramic tile that I adore in the refurbished laundry room and bent down again to dust-buster the leavings, only to make another discovery. When I re-texturized the walls, using my friend the air compressor, I apparently forgot to wipe down the door jams.

So add another project to the list, cleaning up the construction mess (not hard, take wet towel and wipe well). Kinda makes me feel sorry for all those hard-working contractors who have to deal with picky homeowners complaining about the mess that someone left behind. It's easier to do than I would have thought.

And now that I think of it, I never did repaint the ceilings in the laundry and powder rooms......