"They’re voracious eaters, hairy and just about unstoppable."

Scientists are unsure of their origin and have had to recognize them as a new species and think they have been brought to Huston by a cargo ship. No article I found lists exactly where from they think they arrived. They're called Rasberry ants after a local exterminator that was the first in trying exterminating them. They're also called crazy ants because instead of marching in a single straight line, like so many ants do, they just swarm everywhere without any apparent rhyme or reason.

"They take over whole neighborhoods sometimes. There are just thousands and thousands of them all over the property."

Apparently, they're so bad ass, that they eat fire ants, that Texas is known for. They also eat little wild chicken hatchlings too. But the craziest thing is, is that they eat electronic equipment, like computers, fire alarms, gas meters, pumps at sewage pumping stations, televisions, etc...

"They do get into electrical outlets and boxes,"

apparently they're attracted to the wiring and chew through it whenever possible.

and they're super smart too. after spraying pesticides, they use the dead ants as makeshift bridges, by piling them up and traveling over the dead bodies in order to cross the pesticide treated surfaces.

better make sure you check your phone receiver before putting it to your ear.....ewww.....

my mom and i went to the susan g komen breast cancer survivor luncheon yesterday. since my mom is now an official roswell employee she got to go for free.

it was so touching and moving, that i cried though nearly the entire thing. i went to this last year as a representative for my research study as my boss was the keynote speaker and since she couldn't make it this year, i was the only one from my research team holding down the fort. we are funded partly through a susan g. komen grant and so it was important that someone went to show our appreciation for the wonderful organization. i was disappointed that so few roswell employees attended, especially since we didn't have to pay for it (usually it's a $25 ticket price). there were only 3 nurses from the breast clinic and no other research personnel. i mean, who wouldn't want to go to a free lunch? especially since it's so pretty and yummy! i was expecting other people who recruit breast cancer patients to studies there, but alas, i was greatly disappointed and somewhat embarrassed.

there were about 500 people in attendance and i got to see some of my study participants and other roswell patients and some of my coworkers. the food was really good. better than expected. i got a picture of the salad and desert, but forgot to take a pic of the entree. the table setting was beautiful, swimming in a sea of pink. pink punch, pink napkins, pink balloons, pink programmes, pink baskets, and pink attire by just about everyone attendance. everyone got a pink pearl bracelet as a party favor (although i'm sure it's not REAL pearl it still looks real enough).

the chief surgeon of our breast cancer clinic, dr. edge, got an award for being an outstanding medical professional, which was great, because he had no idea until he got there and found his whole family there that he was the recipient. he was at a loss for words, and if you know dr. edge ((e:jenks)) you know that he's NEVER at a loss for words.

it was kind of cool that i got to sit next to two nuns during the lunch. i tried to milk them for all kinds of information.... like do they get emails from the pope.

apparently, information gets disseminated through the bishops, so no, there is no system-wide distribution list for emails from the vatican to all of it's employees.

i also asked if you could become a nun even if you're no longer "pure".

she said that you certainly could. i'm trying to look into job prospects in case this epidemiology gig doesn't work out and i managed to fit in a few questions as to how their sisterhood recruitment is doing these days. as you might imagine, not so good. but since the church eased up their requirements of being "pure" (of body and soul) in order to become a nun, they are getting more older women entering the convent than ever before. also, she said their recruitment efforts are going much better in third world countries and developing countries than in western ones. hmm.....i wonder why ;)

mary alice demler from channel 2, mc'd the event, as she does every year. she is so sweet and personable. i also won a gift basket from the raffle, which makes it two years in a row! all in all, it was a wonderful event.















afterwards, we stopped at aldi's and although i like the store for its weird european cheap food, i was weirded out by this bacon i found on the shelf. shouldn't bacon be refrigerated? how much chemicals does it take to make bacon non-perishable?

I am writing this using transcriber at worKS a lot better on this phone than or my other one. [can write right on my screen in cursive or by printing and it does a good job if recognizing my hand writing. so felly I shouldn't have a problem with texAing except that it has a hard time recognizing commas and periods and they end up looking like paranthesis and L' s Its actually Kind of cool coz I can sit in a meeting and hand write notes onto my screen and it looks like I have some Kind of futuristic device. I'm going to attach a picture fvith my phone a minute ago r lets see now well it looks online

so i'm changing my mind. my mom is making me feel guilty. i feel guilty for leaving roswell, for leaving my bosses.

i'm not going.

i got called back to work by usairways, and i accepted. so i'm going away for training this sunday through the 14th. and then starting the 15th, i'm back to being a flight attendant.

i haven't separated from roswell yet. we're going to try me working part time for a while. we'll see how it goes. hopefully, usairways won't be calling me much since i'm at the bottom of the seniority list and i'll be collecting a fat paycheck, while working for here.

i don't want to leave roswell, but the offer from usairways was too good to pass up. plus, i would have lost all of my flight privileges had i passed on this recall. the nice thing is, is that i'm based in philly, so most of our international flying goes out of there and i'm hoping to get me some of that. i'm looking forward to 36 hour layovers in zurich, amsterdam, shannon, london, paris, greece, belgium, stockholm....etc.



plus we've just put in to fly into beijing. i can't wait to work that 18 hour flight!

i'm starting practicing now....coffee....tea....me?