Birthday!

Last night we had our good USC friend Steven over for dinner. He's from Houston, but lives far on the other side of town. He's recently been dating a young filly and we wanted to meet her. We told him that they should come to dinner sometime, so a few days ago he texted and asked if they could come Thursday night. I said yes, and then he told me that Thursday was actually his birthday. He also asked if he could bring some candy or a treat, to which I replied that I would make him a cake. I just want to record that he invited himself over to our home for his own birthday dinner. I also asked what kind of Blue Bell ice cream was his favorite and he replied, "Cookies n Cream with chocolate syrup. I'll bring the syrup."

He is such a fun guy and so down-to-earth that this request wasn't at all untoward. It did provide fodder for plenty of jokes, but they were all good-natured, of course. We had a great night and were very happy to meet his very nice lady friend. It was good to see him. He lived the bachelor's life about two blocks from us in Los Angeles so we used to have him over a lot. There is just something so fun about a student ward. Everyone is in a special stage of life and the future is open. Your dreams aren't crushed and you still have naive hope in the student world. Steven was doing his Masters in Music at USC and is a fabulous french horn player. He's still looking for a steady gig (though he has a ton of students) so we commiserated for a moment on unemployment.

On a less pleasant note, yesterday I came across a dead cockroach inside our apartment. We had never had one before and thought that being on the 3rd floor might be a bonus that way. It has been really hot and humid, though, and I wonder if that is driving them inside, or if they are flourishing more...

I wasn't too worried (I was plenty disgusted, but not worried) until this morning when we saw a giant, LIVE cockroach in the same vicinity. Luckily, Ryan was still home and he smashed it to smithereens and got cockroach juice on his fingers. Yuck. Everyone knows that one bug isn't a problem, it could have gotten lost or made a wrong turn. Two bugs means trouble, especially within such a short time span. I'm so disgusted! I pulled out the oven range and cleaned everything behind there. There was a 1/2 inch crack between the drywall and the flooring, so I suspect that is where they came from. I sprayed a bunch of roach spray. Our apartment has pest control but they just came Wednesday and they are skipping next week for the 4th of July. That means two whole weeks until they can come.  In the meantime, I'm counting down until we leave for Utah and even more determined to leave this locust-plagued land.