A fly in the salad dressing and a dead lizard

I would like to start this entry with a thank you to my dad. When I was very young, my dad insisted that he not have a squeamish daughter so when I found bugs or spiders in my playroom, his response was "Either make friends with it or learn how to kill it." This was quite possibly the best lesson I could have learned. I am proud to say I don't scream or freak out when I see a bug. I guess if I did I wouldn't make it in Thailand very long. Regardless, this parenting tactic has served me well throughout my life in so many random ways.

Last night, a woman and her husband from my office took me to a buffet-style restaurant about 45 minutes from our village. They had a "salad bar" so I was thrilled. As I was about to put some dressing on my salad, my co-worker yelled "Stop!" and scooped out a dead fly in the dressing. Now in the US, this would be reason to shut the whole restaurant down. Instead, my co-worker just scooped it out (with her hand!) and I said thanks and proceeded to put the fly-less dressing on my salad. A part of me wanted to walk right over to a waiter and point at the fly in the dressing with disdain and disgust, but honestly, it was just easier to scoop it out. I'm still alive today, so what's the big deal?

Moving on to the dead lizard, which is yet to be taken care of....

I may have mentioned that my house is full of lizards. They vary in size from tiny to decent sized, like if you smushed it, there would be blood and guts. I think one of them had babies because recently there have been a bunch of really small ones. It's odd how used to them I have gotten. They climb all over my walls and ceiling and I don't even really notice them anymore. Sometimes when I'm really bored I sit and watch them. They feast on all the other bugs in my house, so I really can't complain.

There were 1 or 2 of them that seemed to reside in my bedroom. I never bothered to name them because there are so many of these little guys. Anyway, I woke up this morning to find a pretty big lizard belly up on my floor next to my bed. I'm not sure what happened to him, but regardless he is dead. Now I must admit, as anti-squeamish and tough as I am, this is kinda gross. It's an upturned dead lizard next to my bed and I just can't quite figure out how I should dispose of him. I have paper towell, but the idea of picking this big guy up seems really gross. I might sweep him out with my broom and push him off my balcony. That seems like the most likely option, but I just know that I'm going to find the neighbor's dogs or one of my Thai kids playing with the dead lizard that I swept into my yard down below. I have to head to the office so I guess I'll deal with the dead lizard this afternoon. That's something to look forward to...