Jiminy! It's a Photo Essay!

Today I dropped the kids off and came home to check e-mail before heading out for a walk. As I sat in the quiet, I heard a familiar sound, tick....tick....tick... like a pretzel bag slowly unrolling after you have tried to close it or like a full but unbalanced plastic grocery bag that is moving atom by atom towards falling off a chair. Unfortunately, I didn't hear a bag fall off a chair, and I hadn't recently closed a bag of pretzels, so when the sound continued, I began to fear I had a varmint in my house. Here is what I found:

Clearly this cricket has not been reading my blog and doesn't know my feelings toward crickets(they should stay in the corners of the closets) or that I always have a pile of boxes and packing material in the front hall. (This picture also provides a closeup view of the results of the Army paint grenade that is used to paint houses between residents). I felt a little bad for him, but he got himself stuck, and I knew if I tried to free him, I would just end up pulling his legs off. So I left on my walk, and later remembered that I should go get his remains and put them in the trash before the kids came home. Here is what I found:

and this:


"Well good for him," I thought, but I really figured that he had left so much of himself behind on the tape, that he wouldn't last much longer. When I went to find the remains later, here is what I found:


Oh my. I hope he's not angry. I may sleep with one eye open tonight.