True.
I googled that, and got an image quite different from what we here call stink bugs (which originated in Asia, hence my curiosity). We typically see a few in the house; I have yet to test out their name by squashing one.
On behalf of my species, I thank you.
I crushed a stinkbug today, as a matter of fact. Sorry, @Dung_Beetle. I expected it to reek, but it didn’t! It had a gray, kinda pointy body.
It was on my tomato plants, and I have noticed spots on two of them. They dig a hole in tomatoes for some reason. So I googled natural bug sprays, and sprayed them down with a weak dish-soapy spray.
Uncle Marcus! 
Things aren’t great. I’m just really fucking depressed, and every bit of conflict seems like more reason to give up. I had an unpleasant and unfruitful conversation with my husband about something major in our relationship, which didn’t help. I was an asshole to my kid this morning, which doesn’t help either. So I have this giant unfixable marital problem and I’m a shitty Mom.
I have too much shit to get done today. I’ve been so busy with paperwork and insurance shit I haven’t been able to address my actual job yet. I’m trying in the midst of all this to engage in self-care. I’ve been working on stuff all day. It’s 2pm and I still have to clean the kitchen, write the grocery list and exercise before I can even take a look at work. Usually I would gain some satisfaction from crossing so many tasks off my list, but I feel nothing.
My therapist thinks I’m grieving but I think I’m just really fucking depressed. It’s not like I was never depressed before. This used to be my default state for a long time.
An update, and a quick technical note for technological laggards like me. You are clearly keeping up with the times like a normal person, but some of us (.e.g.- me) are still running Windows 7 (to which I can only add, in the immortal words of Maxwell Smart, “… and loving it!”). 
It turns out that PowerToys, which originated with Windows 95 and progressed to Windows XP, was subsequently abandoned by Microsoft until they revived it for Windows 10 and 11. Thus there is a development gap and there is no version I know of that works with Windows 7.
However, for any poor soul who specifically needs key remapping on Windows 7, Keytweak is a nifty little utility that does the job. I think possibly my best solution, other than getting used to this keyboard’s quirk, is probably to reverse the functions of the left CTRL key and the left Windows key, and switch the keycaps to match. Hitting the “Win” key by accident should be fairly harmless. This provides an extra bonus: for some inscrutable reason this keyboard has a function to disable the Windows key (FN+Win). Since I presume that this disables the physical key, with the remapping it would have the function of disabling/enabling the left CTRL key instead, which would be kinda cool. All I’ve done so far is confirmed on a sandbox computer that Keytweak works.
{{{Spice Weasel}}}
It’s so easy to fall back into depression, especially when one is overwhelmed. I know. And even though it sucks to hear it over and over, go back to baby steps. One thing at a time. Even if one thing falls apart, prioritize and keep taking those little steps. I’m trying to get my life back together and am relearning this lesson every damn day. You cannot do it all, but you can pick something and do that. Okay?
Here, it’s boxelder bugs. Tons of them, which are attracted to lights around dusk. They’re a variation on a stinkbug.
Ok, feel free to yell at me for this.
That said, you’re not a shitty wife and you’re not a shitty Mom.
You’ve got stress. ( OK, you can curse at me now. )
The washing machine was making some pretty weird sounds today. Turns out my husband threw a pair of shorts in the wash that had wood screws and finishing nails in the pockets. I sure hope none of those nails ended up getting into the machine innards.
It’s going around. My dryer stopped working. It thinks it’s drying, but nothing’s happening. It was fine last night, when I did a load of my clothes, but when my daughter tossed in a load this evening, zilch. I tried troubleshooting online but got nowhere. The kicker? We’re going on vacation tomorrow morning, and she’s got two loads of wet clothes now, including stuff she wants to take with. Guess it’ll be a bright-n-early trip for her to the laundromat…Luckily there’s no plane to catch or anything.
This, on the heels of a water heater replacement (@aurora_maire, how is your situation? not sure if I missed an update) and a major major major chimney repair. Why I thought home ownership and adulthood were good ideas is beyond me.
Also, the dog got diagnosed with Lyme yesterday.
Hope your laundry machines survive the nails, @romansperson.
I see we’re on a laundry theme here. I’m happy to contribute, if only to reinforce the deep wisdom of Roseanne Roseannadanna: “It’s always something. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.”
I thought I’d be virtuous tonight and wash all the bedding from my queen-size bed, including the thick mattress pad, just to be thorough. For the sake of efficiency, I threw everything in together. Which turned into a huge load. Big mistake! The high-efficiency (read: “low water”) washer didn’t handle it well. It’s programmed to act as if water is the most precious resource on the planet, and act accordingly.
I’m now running it through a second wash cycle with no detergent just to get the damned stuff properly rinsed, then I’ll put the obnoxiously big mattress pad in the dryer while running the sheets alone through yet another wash cycle to actually properly wash them.
Then I have to deal with washing the oversize thick comforter which is way too big and thick for any non-industrial washing machine, and which will take at least one cycle of removal, re-arranging, and re-insertion into the dryer to actually get dry.
This is turning into an all-nighter. My admiration for the occupation of “housewife” has increased even more. I’ll never understand how they get through these tasks. I suspect they outsource them.
Ha! Thanks to @LSLGuy’s suggestion, even though I couldn’t use PowerToys, the key remapping idea worked out splendidly using KeyTweak. Did it while waiting for the interminable laundry (see above 
). Keys remapped as I had hoped, and keycaps changed to match. And yes, the inscrutable FN+Win sequence now effectively disables the new left-CTRL key, as I had anticipated. I luvs technology!
It turned out fairly well, actually. Two guys from the company my friend recommended came out the next day (Friday). I told them what the plumber had said about the water heater before he ghosted me and about getting the A/C fixed two days earlier, when the guys had broken the water line. They came back down from the attic and told me that the WH had a leak and they didn’t know why the plumber would say it had a bad gas ignition. It was fine. They had already told me that there was no inspection required to replace it where it was and I was very relieved that I wouldn’t have to modify the attic to get this done. They worked up a quote of almost $2500. Yow. By that point, it had been four days without hot water and I knew that if I got more quotes the next week, I’d end up being without it for well over a week. The guys were very nice and the company has a great reputation so I just asked them to please get me my hot water back. 
They came Monday and it took them about four hours. They did a great job and were in good spirits throughout their hard labors. I hope they got to split the extra $250 fee for “difficult access”. The front door was propped open and I spent most the time sitting on the porch and talked with them on breaks. It was actually a pleasant experience. How often can you say that about home repairs?
I still can’t figure out what was going on with the original plumber. I’ve used him three times on other projects and he replaced my mother’s water heater several years ago. So why would he lie to me about what was wrong with mine and then tell me a another lie about inspection? He could have just said he didn’t want to do the job and I would have been fine with that. I knew the job was a lot to take on. It’s just so strange. Still, everything worked out in the end.
I hope you have a wonderful vacation. Don’t worry about the dryer. You can have fun with that when you get back. It’s always something.
Depending on how modern your washer is, there may well be a special filter screen and compartment intended to catch just such debris.
Which compartment should be periodically inspected and emptied of loose change, forgotten keys, etc. And wayward screws and nails. Google up a manual for your make & model; you might learn something new and useful.
I bought a comforter for my queen size bed a few years ago, and hadn’t realized that it needed a commercial washer & dryer to clean properly. Getting into my washer is an exercise in creative origami to get it wrapped around the agitator to get a balanced load. Then I have to run it through the dryer twice, removing and re-loading it between loads.
Fortunately I don’t have to wash it that often, unless my cat decides to throw up on it.
I still have the original manual, and unfortunately, no, it does not have this feature. I did run a strong magnet around the tub and picked up a couple nails stuck in a seam in the bottom of the drum with that. I can spin the tub by hand without it making any more strange sounds so I hope disaster has been averted. We will find out soon enough, I expect.
A year ago I opened mine and found a flash drive.
I drove my 82 year old mother to radiation cancer therapy this week. Four times. She has eight more sessions.
She is very frail and very weak. On oxygen and has problems breathing. I don’t think she’s going to live much longer. 