can we all just agree that snails and slugs are awful?

they're the bane of my gardening existence. the nasty little snot-based organisms love more than anything to snack on just-grown sprouts, and they also have quite the uncanny knack for knowing which plants are a little sad and discouraged anyway, and then focusing all their energy on those. and sometimes you step on them by accident. and sometimes you're barefoot. and it is awful.

i used to use this expensive-[it was imported from germany]-but-not-poisonous-to-people slug bait, but then i ran out and didn't get around to getting any more, so the other day i went to one of the many liquor stores in my neighborhood and bought a large bottle of the champagne of beers* (because it was the cheapest) because i've heard from several people that if you put a dish of beer in your garden, the snails and slugs will either drink themselves to death or dissolve themselves by accident in it, and i'd finally become comfortable with the idea of destroying them in that way. but then it kept raining and raining and raining (and raining), and my brilliant plan was foiled again and again. and then finally on saturday, i decided that i was going to put some out because it looked like it was clearing up [apparently that's how the weather works around here lately; during the week it's rainy off and on, and then during the weekend {when you want to go to the beach or at least on a hike or at the very least run around and play frisbee} it rains like it's going out of style] and the next day i went to look at the dish, to see what had happened...but it was dry. not just empty, but dry. it couldn't have all evaporated, and it didn't spill, so i think that i accidentally got someone's cat drunk. i didn't mean to do that, but i'm hoping that, if in fact the feline was inebriated, it resulted in something as cute as the first photo here. because that is some cute, my friends.

(oh, and it didn't seem to do anything to any of the snotters; they're still going after my plants with abandon. sigh.)

*which, actually, tasted alright to me when i tried some before putting it outside.