bats | Ann Leary, author of The Good House

One Night Stand

October 27, 2009 by Ann Leary 53 Comments

milano-side-white Yes, we have a new feature here at the blog. If you scroll down a little, you’ll see it on the right. It’s called “On the Nightstand”.

Originally I was going to just display the books I am reading, but now I have decided to show one book a month, give everybody a chance to read it as well, and at the end of the month, we’ll have a discussion. Here. On the blog. It’s not going to be a live chat. I’ll just start the discussion and you all can weigh in throughout the day, commenting as often as you wish. I think that’ll work best as we all have different work schedules and live in different time zones.

Name Your Life

October 26, 2009 by Ann Leary 27 Comments

scarehouse It was a spooky, rainy weekend here in New England. I took this photo of my house the other night. See all the rain spots on the lens? Or are they actually ghostly orbs?

Devin is working on her college applications and last night she made the mistake of telling me the topic of one of her essays. It was something like: If you had to come up with a title that would describe your life up until now, what would it be?

Devin joked that she was considering calling her life Of Mice and Bats.

Filed Under: Hags, Bats, etc, Stuff I Did, Uncategorized Tagged With: bats, family, spooky

Where The Wild Things Are

October 15, 2009 by Ann Leary 57 Comments

Awwwwwwww!

We’re having our bathroom done. First, the shower needed to be fixed, and then we determined that the shower needed to be replaced and now the entire bathroom is being gutted and rebuilt. It’s the bathroom next to our bedroom. I really hate the term “master” bath, I always have, since I was a child, but it’s the bathroom attached to our bedroom.

Filed Under: Dogs, Cats, Horses, Hags, Bats, etc, Husband, Just Nothing (really, nothing), Stuff I Did, Very Important Stuff Tagged With: babies, Batman, bats, dogs

Search Me

August 27, 2009 by admin 22 Comments

I am able to check the “stats” on this blog – the number of “Hits” and “Sessions” and “Page Views,” and though I can’t see who exactly is reading the blog, I can see which countries they are reading it from, what time of day most people read, how much time people spend on each page, etc. I really can’t be bothered with stuff like that so I only check the stats every single day. The minute I wake up.

Filed Under: Hags, Bats, etc, Just Nothing (really, nothing), Shameless Self-Promotion, Very Important Stuff Tagged With: bats, books

I Just Adore a Penthouse View

May 23, 2008 by Ann Leary 3 Comments

Remember when I was saying how much I love the country? Well, I take it all back. I want to live in a building. A building in a city with lots of other people in it. And no wild animals.

This is how my day began:

My dogs woke me up at 4:30 a.m, just as they have every morning this week, because there was a raccoon in our garbage. I decided to let Daphne chase the raccoon away. But did it run away? No, It climbed up our house and then stared at me with such pleading, terrified eyes, that I called off Daphne and was tempted to pack it a little “to-go” bag of garbage.

Filed Under: Dogs, Cats, Horses, Hags, Bats, etc Tagged With: bats, country life, dogs, family

Bats vs Learys – Part II

May 1, 2008 by Ann Leary 1 Comment

I just received an email reminding me that I promised another chapter in the Bats vs Learys saga. I meant to do a Part Two to this, but then couldn’t make up my mind which bat invasion I should write about next. I’m a little embarrassed that we have such a wealth of bat stories. We just went through a long period where we kept forgetting to close the chimney flue. If you’re new to country living, please take my advice and never leave the chimney flue open in the summertime. The first time we did this, we were in a rented house. It was before we moved up here full-time and were not so wise about the wild things that fly and crawl and slither into Connecticut country houses at all hours. Our children were very young – maybe three and five years old, and our friends Ted and Amanda Demme were visiting for the weekend. Long story short – I left the flue open and after dinner we saw something fluttering around the living room.

Filed Under: Hags, Bats, etc Tagged With: bats, country life, Husband

Bats vs Learys

April 24, 2008 by Ann Leary 3 Comments

I had Oprah on the other day. I just had it on, I wasn’t watching it. Anyway, as they cut away to a commercial, Oprah said, “Coming up, the words no mother wants to hear from her child…” This interested me because I had already heard the words no mother wants to hear from her child. These words are: “Mom, there’s a bat on your pajamas.”

This happened a few summers ago now, but I remember every minute of it like it was yesterday. It was early morning. I was sitting at our dining room table in my pajamas, talking on the phone and writing something down. When Devin came downstairs, I stood up for some reason, still nattering away, and she said, “Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!”

Filed Under: Hags, Bats, etc, Stuff I Did Tagged With: bats