What is it with ants and electrical wiring?! Dave Barry has some really good schtick on this. The scary part is that they seem to thrive on electrical current. That can't be a good thing, especially when fire ants are already the size of a small dachsund and pack enough punch to kill a child. Eeeek!

...fire ants are already the size of a small dachsund...

Hmmm. If that's the case, remind me to stay away from your neck o'the woods. Down here, fire ants are teensy.

Oh. Did I say Fire Ants? I meant Velvet Ants. I always thought these were Fire Ants. Turns out they're not even ants. They're wasps. This is what happens when you learn entomology from your kids.

Nevermind. ;-)

At least you're learning it from somewhere...my only knowledge of entomology comes from watching CSI - cause well, if Grissom thinks they're cool... ;) So I can probably spot blowfly larvae, but otherwise I'm fairly useless in the bug world. Other than of course, "Hey! Tim! Bug! Kill it!" I rock at that. :)

Ants. Wasps. They're all bugs, right? And I guess I keep missing all the entomology lessons on CSI (there are only so many hours in the night to devote to the various CSIs, you know). I do think that one of the first significant uses of entomology in onscreen criminal forensics came in "Silence of the Lambs," when they kept pulling moth (butterfly?) pupae (cocoons?) out of victims mouths.

I propose a name change to The Velvet Ant Gazette. This sounds so much more, oh I don't know, friendly? Kind of like the Velveteen Rabbit. ;-)

I dunno...the Velvet Ant Gazette sounds either like:
1) A bad Elvis movie (is there any other kind?)
or
2) A newsletter for, um, those who are enthralled with members of their same gender.

Heh. That's why I clarified with the Velveteen Rabbit example. My thoughts were running more toward the movie Blue Velvet, but it gets worse, doesn't it? Sorry, Eric. 8-}

Sheesh. I was going to say, why not just put lace doilies all over the place and set out the tea service?

I'm sorry, but The Velvet Ant Gazette sounds like the title of some failed David Lynch (a.k.a., "Judas Booth") movie.

It's getting a little hazy in here. ;-)

I can always count on all of you to bring some levity to my (stuck in drilling mud school) day.

Goes both ways. We all laugh just thinking about the concept of "drilling mud school." ;-)

Really, Janie! What in the heck are you doing??? Eric acts like you guys don't even have mud is Texas. Are you drilling for it?

If you've seen our rainfall totals, you'd know why we're mud-challenged. ;-)

Drilling mud is an absolute necessity to help lubricate the drill bit as it bites through our hard west texas dirt to find all that good oil and gas!

(But, I knew that before I went to drilling mud school :))