Yet another sign of impending spring:

Since Rick and I are both shockingly inefficient at getting our take-home brainwork done at home, we often join the hordes who take said work to Panera and finish it over a cup of coffee and a pumpkin muffie. We had just settled into our seats, and I'd just popped open my laptop, when Rick yelped an expletive and jumped up. At first I thought he'd spilled coffee on his notes, but the culprit was something much more solid. A somewhat sluggish but definitely mobile Polistes dominulus queen was crawling on his thumb.

Yup, like many of its fellow polistine vespids, P. dominulus seems to have a thing about sneaking into buildings to warm up. As usual when one of us has a close encounter with a potentially scary bug, the bug can count itself as being very, very lucky. Rick scooped up the wasp on a napkin and dumped it outside. If it hasn't since been stomped on by a more hymenopterophobic passerby, I hold the anthropomorphic hope that it's properly grateful now.