You’ll have to wait til the end for the punch line.  First let me tell you how my day started. I finally figured out a good place to keep Graycie until I can get her adopted to a good home.  The Buster/Graycie experiment is not working and it’s also upsetting Buster a lot.  He’s started trying new places to pee instead of his litter box, and this is an indicator that he’s very unhappy with a new bunny in the house, and he’s marking his territory the only way he knows how.  So I put Buster back in his beloved laundry room AND we’ve stopped trying to introduce Graycie to him.  He immediately went back to his good litter box manners and he seems back to normal.  Buster is old now and I’m never going to try to bond him with another bunny again.  If I foster buns in the future, I’ll just keep them out of his sight and smell. Which brings me to the habitat I made for Graycie yesterday.  It has all the essential bunny accoutrement needed for a happy, healthy House Rabbit.

Old piece of carpet, water jug, pellet bowl, wicker basket for chewing, hay, more chew toys, cubby cardboard house & litter box.

Thanks to my pal Susan for providing the doggie fencing.  I used half of it for inside and the other half for the yard so Graycie could enjoy the outdoors in safety.

This green stuff is called what? Grass??? Grass is awesome!

 I even let her cruise around the yard while I walked behind her.  I’m pretty sure this is her first experience with the outside.

A whole herb garden just for me???

Of course Buster runs around in the yard all the time and Graycie was envious of his freedom to roam.

This is MY yard! My roses, MY ivy, MY rock!

Try to be a bit more gracious with our houseguest Buster!

So with the animals happy in their safe environments, I began trimming my overgrown shrubs.  A project I started yesterday, I was looking forward to finishing it today, and then mowing the yard and cleaning up my filthy house for my houseguests who are arriving tomorrow for a weekend visit.  I actually love sweaty yard work and was weirdly excited to get my shrubs looking all nice and tidy and beautifying my casa to show off for my visitors.  I trimmed shrubs for about 90 seconds when I felt a searing pain on my cheek.  Having been stung by wasps many times in the past I recognized that feeling immediately and rushed into the house to cut a potato.  CUT A POTATO  you say?  Yes, you see, just this week I had read a comment on our neighborhood FB page about applying a cut potato to a wasp sting immediately after it happens. It’s SUPPOSED to kill the pain and stop swelling.  WELL GUESS WHAT???  That must have been a MAGIC tater, because this sting hurt worse than all of my other wasps stings COMBINED!  Within 10 minutes one side of my face looked like Vito Corleone, and the pain was pulsing and fierce! I’m not normally a baby about this stuff.  I’ve been attacked by a mamma foster cat, (still have a scar on my ankle), been bitten by two moccasins, (0ne cottonmouth, one water) and as I said, been stung by a squadron of wasps, but this sting started to scare me when my ears started tingling, and I developed hives on my chest and arms.  I’ve also had cancer twice, and had natural childbirth (I do not recommend this to ANYONE!)  I say all this not to prove that I am an Amazon queen who is impervious to pain, but to tell you that this wasp sting made me want my MOMMY!  I did the next best thing and called Jim.  He came home from work, and drove me to the Urgent Care.  The doctor said I was having a mild reaction and that as long as I could breathe and my throat wasn’t closing up, I was probably going to be fine.  Easy for him to say.  Quasimoto was entertaining houseguests within 24 hours!  He gave me steroids and Benadryl in an IV and said to go home and take a snooze on the couch for the rest of the day.

Actually I am home and feeling much better.  The swelling has gone down considerably and the pain is almost zero.  I should be groovy by tomorrow morning giving me time to prepare for visitors, but Jim is going to have to finish those DAMN shrubs.  Please pardon my French but I WILL NEVER TRIM SHRUBS AGAIN AS LONG AS I LIVE!

Now I am going to do something incredibly stupid.  I am going to post a picture of my face at the height of the swelling and redness.  This is very unwise of me because I look terrible for many reasons, not the least of which is the wasp sting.  Since I was engaging in yard work at the time, I am not wearing any make up.  It was hot out and I have been sweating.  My hair is in need of a washing.  And my expression, as you may imagine is not a happy one.  OK, get the children out of the room.  Here it comes…

SEXY!

The lovely necklace of hives adds even more “Ooh La La” don’t you think?

So I wish you all a happy & “wasp-free” day.  I must go now.  I have an appointment with daytime TV, a comfy couch & an assortment of steroids, Benadryl and Advil.  Jealous?