Ahnnies

We had a hobo in our house the other day. Now, before you get too excited it wasn't a Depression-era, rail-riding hobo who called me missus and ma'am and did a few chores for some grub. It was this:

If you're wondering what in the name of God this thing is, so were we. Now I'm not scared of spiders normally, but this was extra creepy and just gave off a vibe of being the kind of spider you don't want to meet in a dark alley. We put it outside and then found out it was a Hobo Spider AKA the "aggressive house spider."
When they do bite the wound can take a month to a couple of years to heal. Yikes. I guess we should have squished it.

Anyway, why am I telling you this?
I am going somewhere with this, you know. So when our exterminator came out for our monthly visit (for our ant problem) I told him about the spider and what looked like the hatching nest of the same spiders out on the deck the day before that I had killed. Yes, a funnel web with a gazillion of these little guys all running around on it. Sadie had pointed it out to me, "Wow! Mama!"

He sprayed for the spiders with a barrier spray. Oh, good. But suddenly the next day we were overrun with ants again. Because that barrier spray formed a barrier, all right, all those spiders outside wouldn't come in but everything that was inside the barrier couldn't leave. So these trapped and hungry ants were coming down the hall, around the corners, into the living room. They were everywhere.
And Sadie loved it! She would point and scream and laugh at these teeny ants.
When we told her they were ants she started calling them "ahnnies" which just killed us. Is that not so cute? And, to boot, I began to picture them like this, which amused me more:

Little Orphan Ahnnies, if you will.
Just wanted to share that.
Oh, and the exterminator came back and the ahnnies are on their way out again.
Sorry, Ahnnies, this ain't Daddy Warbucks' house! You're not gonna like it here! Think of me as Ms. Hannigan. OK, enough Annie references.

It's the Hard-Knock life for you, Ahnnies!

OK, now I'm done.

Oh, and look at this picture:

That's your prize for humoring me.