1-2-3 -- 4-5-6 -- 7-8-9 -- 10-11-12 -- ladybugs came to the ladybug picnic!

our household is being overrun by ladybugs. see a beetle? stomp! spider? splat! centipede? smash! ladybug? aww... isn't it cute... so you pick it up and try to get it outside and back into it's natural habitat. and then you turn around and see another. and, another. and a-freakin-nother. pretty soon you're flicking them at each other and washing them down the drain. drown, little speckled bug, drooowwwwn!!!

evil? eh, perhaps. but if it were an ant or silverfish or - heaven forfend - a cockroach... would it be as evil? are you offended that i am using the ladybug as a projectile to ping off my old man's head b/c a ladybug is innately cute? they're still bugs, and they bite, and they leave little yellow pee-trails, and they causes allergies, and if you don't get them out their little carcasses will start to pile up and get all stinky pewpew. so, all's fair in love & bugs and i am therefore going to warsh the little ladies down the drain.

we do tend to get particular about animals, including bugs, based on their attractiveness. i've read fast food nation in its entirety and enough bits & pieces of other works of that genre to know where food comes from, and i know it's not pretty. but we're willing to sacrifice cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys to the mass masticatable manufactories. why? they're not pretty, either. yeah, yeah - you'll get the occasional singing cheese-commershal cow and there's that chicken at the state fair that can play tic-tac-toe, but on the whole - cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys are not cute and are therefore disposable. ducks, deer, and doves are borderline. i mean, they're sort of cute & all, but we're okay with it if you want to eat them. goats, squirrels, frogs, pheasant, and most fish - all unattractive and all fair game, as it were. horses? woah, there buddy! dogs? cats? ack! no! no way!

you realize there are parts of the world where they eat puppies? mmm... schnauzer stew. pug puffs. labrador lasagna. chihuahua chimichanga. olé!

okay, now i've probably completely grossed you out, and i'm really not sure how to wrap all this up. let's see. in this scenario, ladybugs are puppies. but i am warshing them down the drain anyway. the end.