Attack of the Evil Bed Bugs!!!!

"Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite!"

You may have heard that cliche phrase many times before and never thought anything of it. You may even think that "bed bugs" are just an old-wives tale or some legend. Recently Lindsay and I discovered that bed bugs are real, and they SUCK.

Cimex Lectularius (A.K.A. bed bugs) are parasitic and nocturnal, meaning they suck your blood and they only come out at night. Bascially a vampire in bug form. They live in temperate climates and are known to get particularly bad in people's houses during winter time, when it is cold outside and warm inside. Generally, Bed Bugs will live in mattresses due to the warmth, and due to the fact that their host (you) sleeps there. Once you have them, they don't go away, they only get worse because they like making babies. Generally an adult bed bug will get no bigger than one tenth of an inch, making them difficult to spot. If left unchecked, eventually you will have an entire colony of bed bugs living happily inside your mattress just waiting for you to lay your head down so they can come out and gorge on it. That's where Lindsay and I were at.

It took us a while to face the fact that we had bed bugs. We would wake up in the morning kind of itchy and have red spots that were bites. It was obvious, but something about bed bugs and their putridity makes you not want to admit to yourself that you have a problem. But eventually, we could see the little buggers crawling on the bed when we took the sheets off. It was sick! The last 5 nights before we got a new bed Lindsay spent the night on the couch in the living room, and I slept on the floor next to the couch.

Getting rid of bed bugs is not easy. But it has to be done, and believe me, it's well worth it. Here's the steps to getting rid of bed bugs (in my experience).

1) Throw your bed away.
2) Bug bomb...it won't necessarily kill them, but definitely doesn't hurt. We used five bug bombs!
2a) After bug-bombing, you'll have to let your house air out and wash all your dishes.
3) Wash all your clothes. Everything. The water and soap from the wash and the heat of the dryer WILL kill them.
4) Deep clean the carpet in the infested room
5) Clean anything else you feel like cleaning, it won't hurt.
6) Bring in your new bed, and sleep well!

It took an entire day to get that list done, but it was well worth it. An interesting strategy post bed bug annihilation is to put the legs of your bed in glass jars, apparently they can't climb up glass. We didn't do that, but its just an idea.

Here's to hoping we never get bed bugs again, and if you have bed bugs, may God have mercy on your soul.

-Bill,
http://www.twitter.com/billgrip
http://www.youtube.com/billgrip

Parenthood reminds me of a Roller Coaster...so far

I don't know about you, but I'm afraid of heights. Something about being off the ground high enough that I could fall to my death just doesn't appeal to me. Maybe I'm crazy. However, despite all that, I have ridden a few roller coasters in my life, I can probably count them on one hand...nonetheless, I have ridden roller coasters. With a baby boy on the way, I realized that there are a lot of similarities between what is about to happen in my life and what happens when I ride a roller coaster.

When I walk up to ride a roller coaster, I have to tell myself "I will be okay, I won't fall to my death, I won't puke all over the guy in front of me, and I might enjoy this." By the time I'm next in line, I'm even a little excited. But then the roller coaster pulls up, the gates open, and the ride operator says, "Next!" All of the sudden all of the feelings of uncertainty that I pushed out of my mind start to come back. Uh-oh. I sit down, I pull the safety-bar over my head...click. Now I'm locked in. There's no going back. Now uncertainty really rains down. "I'm not ready for this roller coaster...I'm going to die," I think to myself. It doesn't matter though. I'm already locked in, there's no turning back. In seconds the roller coaster will be moving, I will be high above the ground screaming my diaphragm off and having no idea what's next.

Click. I'm locked into parenthood. When Lindsay and I were engaged, we made the choice that when we got married we wouldn't do anything to prevent having children. In fact, I got myself really excited to have a kid, but underneath the surface lurked a fear greater than my fear of heights. Being a parent makes all other responsibilities I've had so far in my life so far seem like a kiddie coaster. This is the Mamba that I'm locked into, this is a big scary ride full of sharp turns and death drops. As with the roller coaster, now that I'm locked in I wonder "Am I really ready for this?" The fact is that most, if not all new parents are not. Now I don't mean to sound like a scared little boy, but at the same time I cannot ignore the journey and responsibilities that I am about to embark upon as a father.

But here's the best part about roller coasters. They are a lot of fun. There will be times when I'm scared to death, there will be times when things feel completely out of control, but there will also be times of inexpressible excitement and happiness only comparable to the sensation of free-falling. At the end of the ride, I know I will have a smile on my face and I won't regret going on this roller coaster for a second.