The Obma's

i'm still scratching my head over how it got there, exactly.

i mean, i guess it must have come in our apartment when i opened the back door for the dog to go pee last night. it was only open 2 minutes or less, and i was standing right there, but i suppose that's plenty long enough.

but exactly how or when it got to it's final destination--where i found it--AND without me noticing......??

i was lying on the couch last night watching flay vs. boucher on iron chef america. I had just let the little dog out to go number one and laid back down on the couch in my pajamas with a blanket to see who won "battle arctic char." Either the blanket or my pants were touching my leg in such a way that kept making me....not tickle exactly, or itch either--more subtle, like (for the ladies, anyway) when it's been a few days since you shaved your legs and the hair is just long enough that it over-alerts you that something is touching you--but really there's nothing there.

i readjusted both the blanket and my pants a couple of times, and resolved to shave my legs the next day.

AGAIN--the sensation--and for a split second i had a flashback of when i was a kid, staying overnight at my cousin's house once, looking down at my stomach in my pajamas at something making a tiny tent between my skin and the cloth. when i shook it out, it was a curled up dead spider.

*shudder*

i pulled back the blanket and thought i saw the cloth on my upper leg near my hip actually move. I must be hallucinating, but i was starting to feel panicked. I started picturing giant cockroaches the size of my thumb since we had seen three in our apartment since moving in.

*shudder*

i swept my hand over my leg, under my pants, just to be sure that it was just all in my head--that it really was just my leg hair setting off false alarms--and saw legs?! a tail?! i think they were....green?

*SCREAMING*

utterly panicked, i flung whatever it was out of my pants, not even sure i'd really seen anything. maybe i hallucinated a glimpse of it scurrying away to who knows where across the carpet, too.

of course by then padraic was up, jolted awake by his nine-month-pregnant wife's shrieking, expecting to see--i don't know, exactly--a pool of blood? something horrific that indicated his baby was in danger.

i was standing in the middle of the living room in my underwear, pants ripped off in panic by then.

"what's wrong? what's wrong? are you ok?"

"there was A LIZARD!!!

there--was--a--LIZARD--in my pants!!"

still half sleeping, he kept telling me to stop talking so loud.

"but there was A LIZARD!! IN MY PANTS!!!"

i felt like he didn't believe me.

"you scared me, laura, i thought something was wrong with the baby. stop talking so loud."

"BUT THERE WAS A LIZARD IN MY PANTS!!"

does he not hear what i am saying?

he disappeared for a moment--to the bathroom, maybe?--i was focused on the lizard, since it had to still be there...somewhere.

i gingerly started looking for it, under the coffee table, under the couch. padraic came back into the room.

"did you see where it went?" i asked him.

he didn't. i don't think he ever saw it at all. i don't think he believed me.

i rubbed my leg where it had been.

"there it is!" i pointed to the wall near the ceiling.

[it more or less looked like this, only it was light green, and about 6? inches long, including its tail.]

I felt a little triumphant and a little relieved, since the proof i wasn't crazy was clinging right there to the wall. relieved, because it wasn't a giant cockroach or spider after all.

and yet i stared at it in disbelief.

how does a lizard get into your pantleg??

we caught the lizard in a plastic container, threw it back outside, and went to bed.

I never did find out who won "battle arctic char."

Since there are only pictures of me so far, here're some of Pad

Padraic and Dr. Andrews

Don't be fooled...that's not a Bears tie. Padraic is covering Auburn this year so it's an Auburn tie. But it will probably be burned after we leave. Since it looks like a Bears tie and all.

Lifestyles of the rich and famous. Yes, Dr. Andrews has his own plane.

(that's Mrs. Andrews' brother in the background)

And here's the Padman hard at work. Stop coveting his sweet shrimpin' boots. I know you want some, too.

And I can't forget the "big brother"

Sligo is not a fan of apartment living. And he's not going to like sharing mom and dad with a baby, either. This is going to be a hard year for the little dog.