"THE TAIL! THE TAIL"

Of course there is always much excitement in the Barlow household. Yesterday was no exception.

We decided that while there was a few moments of free time before The Well (Wednesday night's youth group) we should finish planting the flowers we had bought. We bought marigolds, impatiens, and begonias. We also bought a flagpole. We tried to buy a flagpole back in the fall because we have a bracket on the house for a flagpole and a UK flag. But, the man at Lowes said they only have flagpoles in the spring and summer. Now that it is the spring, we bought the flagpole.

After we finished with the flowers we decided to finally hang up the UK flag. Great timing, seeing as basketball season is OVER. But, I am still willing to fly the flag, especially in celebration of the hiring of Billy G.

Ben stayed outside to open up the flagpole and I went in the house to retrieve the flag.

The flag was being stored in a plastic storage box on the top shelf of the closet in the guest bedroom. I promise that as I stepped into the doorway of the guest bedroom that something feel from the ceiling to the floor, right next to the closet. I walked around the bed, fearing the presence of a mouse. (How a mouse would be on the ceiling, I have no idea, but there have been mice in our house before...see previous blog entries.)

It was no mouse. It was a lizard! Okay, maybe not a lizard, but one of those gecko/salamander things. At any rate, I did not like the look of it. So I ran to get Ben of course. You need a guy around to kill things.

"THERE IS A LIZARD IN THE BEDROOM! COME QUICK!"

"What?"

"THERE IS A LIZARD IN THE BEDROOM!"

"No there isn't."

"YES THERE IS! IT'S IN THE CLOSET!" I had seen the lizard/gecko scurrying under the closet door.

Ben started sliding the closet door around. He was complaining that he didn't see anything and that I had made it up. He picked up a pair of shoes. There was the lizard.

"Oh crap! There it is!" This was Ben's response.

By this time, I was standing on the bed. Maggie joined me. (Did you catch that? A bassett hound with metal pins holding her leg together jumped on the bed, which is on risers. How she cleared the bed I do not know.) We were both jumping on the bed while Ben tried to trap the lizard.

Ben started thinking about how to trap the lizard. "Go get me something to catch it in." Like what?!

"Go get me a paper towel or rag or something, unless you want a big blood spot on the floor." Maggie and I went to get a paper towel.

We returned, and jumped back on the bed. I threw the paper towel at Ben. "CATCH IT!!"

He went in for the kill. Or at least the trap. I screamed. Then Ben screamed: "THE TAIL! THE TAIL!" Ben had half of the lizard in his hand and half was flopping around on the floor. While he was pointing out the tail, the rest of the lizard started crawling out of the paper towel. "AAAAAAHHHH!!!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

I hit my head on the ceiling fan when I jumped. Maggie's ears were at full alert. "GET ANOTHER PAPER TOWEL!"

I went to get another paper towel.

Maggie and I returned and jumped on the bed. Again.

Finally, Ben trapped the tail.

Never a dull moment. And the flagpole didn't even fit in the bracket on our roof.