Warning, Scary picture of large insect:

So, I wanted to post about another excitement that happened at the beach, but did not want to ruin all of the cuteness in the previous post by adding this following story and picture. So it goes like this. Alex, Charlie and I are at the house, showering and getting ready to hit the boardwalk and the outlets (Alex and Charlie to the boardwalk, myself to the outlets). I had the sliding doors open because all three dogs were lounging out on the deck. Charlie was playing cars (of course) and I was relaxing on the couch, Alex was showering.

Suddenly something large and back flew into the house and it was so big that I thought it was a giant butterfly. Eager to show Charlie I followed it into the kitchen where I realized with horror that it was a monster insect. Huge, buzzy and had a large stinger on the end of it. I guessed it to be about and inch and a half long...horrendous. So while I panicked, the first thing I did was call my dad who was relaxing on the beach a block away but who would certainly come save me. I told him he had to come home so this monster didn't kill us all. While waiting for him to come (Alex was still showering), I armed myself with a fly swatter. I seriously don't think the fly swatter would have harmed the wasp in any way but I felt more powerful with it. So the wasp lands on a window screen and is frantically trying to get out. After about five minutes of debate, I decided to throw a cereal bowl over it and at least trap it. SO I did. I got close enough to it to slam a cereal bowl over it (after displacing all of the furniture to have a better angle) and then started to hyperventilate. The thing was shaking the bowl, that's how pissed off it was. This is what it looks like (according to Google): Long story a little shorter, my dad came, took over the bowl, slid a plate under it and placed the whole trap on the deck. I have serious issues with bugs of all kinds, but especially large prehistoric ones like cockroaches and Great Wasps. I was quite proud of my bravery...had I not trapped it, it may have hid in someone's bed or in the bathroom. It could have killed a small child, I'm sure of it. I googled wasp and after panicking because of seeing too many blown up pictures of wasps, decided The Great Wasp is the one that scarred me for life. I can now add this to cockroach in my list of bugs that make me want to crawl out of my skin. So, that's it, the drama for the weekend. No one else seemed shaken by the incident, no one else is still talking about it, but it left a mark on me and I won't soon forget my tangle with this big boy.