Stupid stupid ants

So this is a post I keep avoiding, but my husband says I need to write about it since it is a part of my baking experience.

There are ants that have recently decided to invade my home, particularly my kitchen. Last fall, we found one entry point behind the stove and poured a bunch of cinnamon along the cracks. That solved the problem...for a while. I can't remember where I heard that works, but it seemed to do the trick.

Then it started to get warmer again after a long winter. And back came the stupid tiny little ants. I try to keep the kitchen as clean as possible, but they are coming from all over! They have found a few other places to enter the house, most of which are out in the open, so I don't feel comfortable pouring cinnamon along the floor when I have two dogs. I am not sure if cinnamon does anything to dogs, but I am sure anything like that in a decent volume can't be good. And I don't want to use chemical sprays, especially near the kitchen where I cook and where the dogs spend time. So we are stuck with trying to figure out the exact locations where they are coming in the house and then trying to get rid of them. I bought some caulk the other day and we hope to recaulk along the counters in the kitchen in hopes of at least slowing down their entry. I'm sure they will find another opening once we close that one off.

Usually the ants are an annoyance for us, but there were two instances where I was just mortified. I made some cupcakes and took them in to work a few weeks ago. I put them in tupperware-like containers, but they didn't seal the best. There were a few tag alongs that got into one of the boxes and someone noticed. At least I had another box of cupcakes that I could still give away. But I felt beyond horrible and beyond embarrassed.

The other happened after I made my sugar cakes a few weeks ago. I wanted to bring some over to a friend of mine who had just gotten out of the hospital after having her baby very early. I wasn't sure how much they would want and also I figured that I would use her tupperware containers so no one would have to worry about having to get them returned at some point so I brought the whole cakes.

I took out some of the brown sugar cake and put it in a container. Then I went to do the same with the cherry cake. My husband kept saying 'honey...honey...' over and over. I didn't know what he was talking about and was actually starting to get fairly frustrated with him. I know I spill drinks or drop things on occasion, but he seems to think I am a lot more clumsy than I really am. So I just figure he was trying to get on my cake about picking up a large piece of cake with the spatula and was worried I would drop it. I knew I wouldn't drop it. Then after about 10 'honey's he pointed to the ants. Now I had done quite a bit to try to keep the little suckers out of the cakes. I stacked the cakes on top of a cooling rack and on top of each other and covered them with foil....still wasn't enough. I think I am going to have to go to herculean efforts to outsmart the stupid things.

So we put the cake back in the pan and made sure there weren't any ants on the counter. I felt so completely awful. I was actually on the verge of tears. It was just too embarrassing for me. And my husband kept yammering about whatever when I just couldn't wait to get out of there. And to make matters worse, every once in a while he would smash another ant on the countertop. It was just terrible. We finally got in the car, and I couldn't help but cry from embarrassment. And he laughed...because in reality it isn't the end of the world, which I know. There are much worse things to worry about in the world than a few ants.

So now we are on a mission to destroy all ants and all places where they may get into the house. And we WILL WIN!!!