House guests & Holiday Surprises

Remember our bee problem? After several unfruitful calls to beekeepers this summer, I got frustrated and put the bees on the back burner. They weren't bothering us, after all. Then weather cooled off and the bees quit leaving their cozy hive above the fascia on the front of our house. Well, a renegade squirrel decided to invade our attic Saturday morning, making all sorts of racket. The next day we experienced some electrical problems on the circuit powering the garage and one of the kitchen lights. Yes, we cursed the squirrel and suspected that he'd chewed through some wires on his rampage. Joe climbed into the attic to inspect and when he came down, he informed me that the beehive is, in fact, in the attic. Well, I have a keen interest in these bees who I've thus far saved from extermination. I decided to climb up there and check it out for myself and take a few pictures that the beekeepers generally ask to see...plus, I needed something interesting to post on this blog. So I tucked my jeans into my fUggs (that's fake Uggs), zipped up my polar fleece, and grabbed the camera.

Holy crap! I learned that I definitely have a healthy fear of bees...ok maybe it's a borderline phobia...which is not good when running away from danger is not an option in the attic. Unfortunately my nice camera with the really good zoom lens is drained so I couldn't get a good shot, and I didn't want to stick around to perfect my angle and focus. Holding a flashlight with one hand and a camera in the other while balancing on a wooden beam is tricky/scary business. So that bright yellow blob is the honeycomb and those black masses are slowly moving bees.
If I can't get a beekeeper out in the next couple of weeks, I have to call an exterminator. Luckily winter is ideal for bee removal as the colony numbers are at its lowest and they are slow moving...or so I read on the internet because now I am way freaked out. Endangered or not, these bees have gots-ta-go! So working in the attic around the bees is not an option and our electrical problem will have to wait.

Now on to guests in my home whom I don't mind having around. This weekend mycousinamanda and her fiancee, Matt, were in Dallas from Okinawa, as was our friend Jeremy from Colorado. Yes, I overbooked Casa del Arnold. Yes, Jeremy had to sleep on an air mattress (but it is pretty rad as far as air mattresses go!) I guess you could say Joe and I had "a failure to communicate." Ok, it was mostly me, but it worked out just fine. Having a house full of your favorite people isn't so bad. Aside from Joe's fist-pumping "fighting the beat" Guido impression (complete with sound effects) at 2 am, there were no complaints. haha What can I say? It is free lodging, people, not the Ritz...and I can make no promises that my dear husband and co-proprietor of Casa del Arnold will not entertain his guests with material from "Jersey Shore." Be warned.

Saturday night, Amanda, Matt, Kim, and I met for dinner at Urbano. We really love this place. It is unpretentious and the is menu constantly changing...which gives me an excuse to keep going back to try new things. Urbano is BYOB so Kim brought a nice crisp white blend which we enjoyed with our salad, and I brought our last bottle of Schug from the April shipment. I am pretty impressed that we rationed it out that long. A wine cellar would be completely useless in our home because I have little self control when it comes to saving wine, or anything for that matter.

And what would be an evening in Dallas without a trip over to our favorite wine bar? Joe and Jeremy met up with us after the Cowboys game (though Veritas was showing it on their HD projector). They went to Hooter's (insert eye roll) to watch the game.
Speaking of wine and Veritas, Joe surprised me with my Christmas gift early. I had dropped a few hints this year about needing some new wine glasses because all but two of mine have fallen victim to the "dishwasher" and/or Joe. I tease Joe about this relentlessly and even bought him a pair of acrylic wine glasses at Target that he could not destroy. :) Anyways, I specifically said that I would love to have the stemware they sell at Veritas, and he listened. I am one lucky gal. They are gorgeous and I love them! To top it off, Jeremy gave us a highly recommended bottle of Col Solare. I can't wait to try it!

And now...off to bed...my sweet Pheebs already got out of our nice warm bed and came to the office find out why in the world I am not in bed, asleep. I put her on Jeremy's cozy air mattress (he's visiting his sister this week) while I am finishing up this post. She is SOOO not happy with me right now. Gotta go!