Post 5000!, Ants and the State High School Hockey Tournament

It's Post 5000 today! I'm absolutely amazed at that - I never was one to keep a diary, but I keep posting on my on-line blog, day after day, year after year. It's not always lengthy, and often there's nothing much to say, but somehow when I sit at the keyboard in the early morning hours, words flow and another post is made. I should have checked the date of my first post, but that would take quite a lot of digging. Still, it's worked into a nice routine for me - a way to sweep out the cobwebs of my mind and share with friends both near and far. Thanks for coming along with me on this journey. Now to start the next 5000 steps - LOL. 

Thanks for bearing with me through my 
many posts over the years. I think a few of 
you might have been with me from the 
beginning, others having joined later. No 
matter when, no matter who, you're welcome. 
Thank You! 

We're deep into the Boy's High School Hockey Tournament and we've broken attendance records. Now ... keep in mind that this is HIGH SCHOOL sports. They usually pull in parents, maybe a few friends, but not much else. Except this tournament, which has been held for more than 60 years, pulls in fans, scouts, and even Sports Illustrated (who updates their feed hourly during games), It's even televised, and I always have it on while the Tournament is running. 

Remember from a couple of weeks ago when I pointed out 
empty seats in the Xcel Center and promised there wouldn't 
be any for the State High School Hockey Tournament? 
Well, here's proof. This is from the first day of the games, 
and look around. Not an empty seat in the arena. That's 
the Boy's State High School Hockey Tournament. 

So, we set an attendance record yesterday for the quarter-finals. We had 19,765 people for the two afternoon games, and 20,208 people for the night games. That's more than 40,000 people total for a High School event! This is why it's such a Huge Deal for us, and for a rarity, we don't have a snowstorm to contend with and the temperatures are absolutely mild. We can usually count on snow for the tournament, but not now, in the Winter that Nature Forgot. 

So, we had ants similar to this in our pantry. We cleaned and 
cleaned, packaged and repackaged, and I hope we got them 
all. I had three ants this morning - two on separate shelves 
and one on the wall. We'll keep a sharp eye out for these 
critters. 

I had the tournament on in the background at the shop, of course, and came home to find DH watching it at home. Then ... major shift. DH put his soup into the bowl, opened a new package of crackers and added them to his soup. DROWNING ANTS!!! Probably more than 50 of those tiny ants that love to haunt pantries were in his SEALED package of crackers and dying a boiling death in his hot soup. Of course, the soup was toast, the crackers immediately went into the garbage, and DH started an ant hunt. 

We're on the hunt now. We're determined to keep this 
under control - ants outside, people inside. I'm glad 
we don't have pets - it could have been much worse if 
they had been trotted around to other parts of the house. 

We pulled everything off shelves, pulled all of the items on the floor out. We tossed out food items that probably should have been tossed earlier by their dates, we cleaned, and cleaned and cleaned. The pantry is a walk-in pantry, but really, only one person at a time can fit in there, so while DH cleaned, I quickly ate my dinner. Then I unfolded boxes, cleaned like crazy, and he finally relented and sprayed along the base board throughout the pantry. I found a few stragglers last night (less than xix), and three very slow stragglers this morning, but I think we got this nailed. We might pull everything out again on Sunday for a second deep cleaning, but The Great Ant Purge was successful. Now to make sure to keep it that way. We still can't figure out how ants could have gotten into a sealed pack of crackers, but maybe it was good that they did. It could have been even worse. 

The best thing about Lent is baked/broiled salmon on 
Friday nights for dinner. I adore it, and it's so easy 
to make. It's one of my favorite meals of the week. 

So, today's a "Day Off" and I'm making "Ogre Juice" and then I have a lovely piece of salmon for my dinner. It's the best part of Lent - salmon for dinner on Friday nights. We have an appointment with our accountant on Wednesday night, so I'd better make sure I'm totally ready with all of the tax stuff too. That's on this weekend's agenda. I think I have everything, but I'll have to double-check. So, on that note, I'm calling this done and dusted. I'll be back tomorrow, for the final day of the State High School Hockey Tournament. Such fun! Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.