Worm vs. Salt

We had our JV Softball Christmas Party last night. We were supposed to bring a gift that started with the first letter of our last name. I brought Chocolate Chip Cookies, Cocoa, and Cheese Nips (hey, it's finals! everyone needs junk food!). :) All in all, the party was pretty uneventful. When it came time for doing presents we did a Chinese Christmas, or Dirty Santa, or whatever you call it. I was one of the last people to go and as soon as I picked up the bag I was going to open a few of the girls started snickering over in the corner. I knew the girl who had brought that gift and I knew it was probably something ridiculous but I got it anyway... I thought it might be fun. Well... her last name starts with "E". I took my time opening the nicely wrapped present (it was in a Braums paper bag) because I was kind of afraid of what might be inside of it. In the end, it ended up being English Muffins and...

Earthworms. Not just ANY earthworms, but GLOWING earthworms. The girl who gave them to me quickly notified me that I just need to keep them in the fridge and give them some water to keep them alive. It was pretty funny at the time, but what in the world am I going to do with a box of earthworms?! Whereas fishing would be fun, I don't exactly have the time or materials or the place to do that right now. We laughed about it then I headed back to the apartment trying to figure out what to do with them. Kirby and Jessica thought that it was pretty odd that I came in with earthworms, but they insisted that we open up the box and check them out. Apparently we are very easily entertained because we stood around playing with eartworms for who knows how long! Kirby and Jessica both refused to actually TOUCH one at first (though Kirby did it later!) so we moved them around using... a bobby pin. Here is a picture of Kirby and I being disgusted by the sliminess that was stuck to the pin after playing with the worms.

So now I have a story that is pretty sad... we killed a worm. His name was Willie and, really, for all we know he COULD still be alive, but our guess is that he is not. Kirby (for whatever reason) wanted to put one of the worms outside on the concrete... I guess to see it crawl around instead of squirming through a small box of dirt and eleven other worms. So we took the box outside and Kirby PICKED up one of the worms and put it out on the concrete. It was pretty boring and wasn't moving around too much. Well then Jessica says, "What happens when you pour salt on earthworms? Is it like a slug?" Now I KNOW this is mean, and its torture, and that the worm didn't do anything mean to us.... but it's the end of the semester and we are all desperate for distractions from our schoolwork. So, Jessica got the salt and, well... it IS similiar to a slug. It wasn't quite as disgusting as a slug though. It did make the worm start moving around more though. It also left a lot of slime everywhere. We were actually even lame enough to video tape it.... I had the video on here, but the more I watch it, it really makes me kind of sad. Plus, it isn't the most flattering video so I decided to leave it off. :)

Ater a few seconds we started feeling really bad for our little friend, Willie. (Jessica decided that Willie the Worm had a nice ring to it) Since we felt so bad, we decided to take him downstairs and put him in the dirt somewhere. Kirby picked him up and we carved out a little hole for him in the dirt and left him there. He crawled away (even though he was moving a little slow) and for all we know he found a new family and is really happy! :) But we think that most likely he died... :( who knows.

When we went back inside the other earthworms started going nuts! We think that they heard what happened to Willie and were really upset with us. They were crawling all over their little box and some were even trying to crawl out! Even though it is a silly worm and can't hurt us, you wouldn't believe our girly reactions when one would pop out of the box all the sudden!

Ok, ok... I know that is a horrible story, but we took a vow to not kill anymore worms (on purpose anyway). We still have eleven earthworms that we're not sure what to do with though... any suggestions? :)

Here is a video of Kirby being brave and picking up Willie the Worm.

*EDIT* I was just thinking... taking the worm fishing and sticking a hook through it and letting it get eaten by a fish isn't THAT much nicer....
:) that's all.