As you may have read on my Facebook page, I was thoroughly owned by my bees last week. I don’t know why I thought just socks and runners would keep me safe from the little blighters. All summer I’ve been doing things with the bees, like taking off empty jars of syrup and putting on new ones, and nary a problem.

However because I was taking the two hives completely apart in order to put in a mite-fighting pesticide strip, I made the bees so mad they had to attack me viciously. My friend from the gym, Lorraine, a seasoned beekeeper, had come over to help me with this project. She said go head, lift the top box, which I did, and then soon after I was saying to her, “Oh my God, Lorraine, these bees are stinging the shit out of my ankles!”

She replied brightly, “You’re doing so great!” as I was bending down and swiping as many bees as I could off my ankles. However I had to keep going, put the hive back together, and hurried back to the house where I made a thick paste of baking soda and water for my smarting ankles.

The attack occurred around 11:00 AM and by 3:00 PM my left ankle was very swollen and I couldn’t put any weight on it. This went on for about three days, and then ended with a spell of mighty itching on both ankles. The left was a lot worse than the right, as it was the one with an actual bee beard on it.

The bees release a pheromone when they sting that calls all the other bees to that one weak area. Brilliant when you think of it. However what I found as a result of all that is I’m no longer afraid of the bees!

A few days later I went right down there, smoked the hell out of them, opened the top and just basically felt confident. I was wearing knee-high boots over my bee suit, which I believe helped bolster my confidence.

A few days ago Luke came to show me his ‘new’ BMW which he bought in Alberta, and to work on his website for his new business. It was tremendous fun to do it, and I hope you’ll check out our handiwork at http://www.freehighdef.tv.

When he told me his website’s name, I said what’s the rest of it, dot com or dot ca? He said neither. He said dot tv is a new suffix and when I Googled it, I see it’s often chosen by companies who are in some sort of video-related business, so that makes some sense.

Writing copy for a website or choosing appropriate fonts and photos is far preferable to my attempt at hanging a curtain rod yesterday. Mom got funky bamboo curtains, not blinds, for her back deck, and I just loved them, so I ordered four panels for my bedroom.

I like all wicker-themed things, as I like to pretend I live in Hawaii. I think that’s also why I buy plants like plumeria and bougainvillea. Totally ridiculous for here, but for some strange reason they provide hope in the depths of a Canadian winter.

I had to Google how to screw in those plastic things, and then went ahead and measured and installed the brackets. The next part was hilarious, as when I hung the curtains, first the rod bowed in the middle from the weight, and then all three brackets came right out of the wall! Much better for me to stick with that I know, so I immediately called Denis who said he’ll install a rod for me tomorrow.