I've come to the conclusion that you can divide all people into two groups. There are people who like to mix and consume strange food and beverage concoctions, and those who don't. I'm definitely one of the former. So, I'll introduce a new, sporadic Bug House feature: Strange Things I Like To Mix Together and Then Eat or Drink. (It's already appeared twice, in fact; there were the mango slices with hot jalapeno salsa, and later the cream of mushroom soup with buckwheat and tarragon.)
Today's drink recipe is low-calorie, non-alcoholic, and non-caffeinated, and, most unusually for me, cold:
1. Pour yourself about one-fourth of a glass of carrot juice. (Combinations like carrot-apple or carrot-ginger work fine too.)
2. Top it off with whatever flavor you like of cold
Talking Rain Diet Ice. (I've tried it with the orange-mango and pink grapefruit flavors, but not with the raspberry or peach flavors.)
3. Enjoy, unless you hate either carrot juice or Talking Rain Diet Ice, in which case you should drink something else. (Doesn't matter to me; I have no affiliation whatsoever with either the Talking Rain Beverage Company or any carrot producer.)
In the six-legged domain: I now have a queen ant in one of my bug cages. She's a cute little brown formicine, but I don't know her species or even her genus. Because of this, I have no idea whether she can found a nest under the conditions in which I'm keeping her; it's likely that she'll be returned to nature sometime soon anyway. She is protected from predators, though, and I'm providing her with food, although many queen ants don't actually feed at this stage of their lives. Mostly, she hides in the damp dirt, although I've seen her crawl up the side of the cage on one occasion.
On the reading list:
The Earth Dwellers, by Erich Hoyt. It's about ants. Hey, I just can't do enough to stabilize my banner ads.
