I have recently caught two mice in as many days. I find this distressing because it means the problem is three times as serious as I originally imagined. I haven't yet found any droppings or signs of gnawing on anything inside the house which leads me to wonder if they are finding their way in one by one or are hiding under the house or in one of the walls. Tomorrow I'm going to call the contractor who leveled my house back in October to fix the creak in my floor but also double check his past work to see if the leveling created any gaps that may be letting the mice in. Until now I have never had this sort of problem & I definitely want any holes plugged up before it gets any colder. Oh, & for those keeping track, the current score for the traps is Victor: 3, Tomcat: 0. (Bonus photos!)
Thanksgiving weekend was great. Allow me to explain. No, is to much. Lemme sum up.
Thursday was the usual food thing with relatives. We gathered at my parents' house so little travel was needed & I was home by mid-afternoon. I spent the rest of which fading in & out of consciousness & waisting time on the internet.
Somewhere in there I had the crazy idea to actually do some impulse shopping on Black Friday so I called to invite
matt_william along. After lunch at China One we bummed all around the east side, hitting most of the used video & game stores & some of the new. Among the finds were a collection of lesser-known Hitchcock films (hey, Colin!) and a pristine copy of the Rocky 25th anniversary DVD set. We returned later to the east side to pick up crabmoon from work (having spent 5 hours with one pair of customers!) & I treated them both to Noodles.I left them earlier than I normally would have because I had to get up early the next morning. Wayyy early. I mean getting up at the time I normally go to bed early. This was due to a planned get-together with the old gaming group which we only seem to do once a year these days. Unfortunately Josh couldn't make it due to car troubles that needed to be taken care of that day. Fortunately
shimatta1 drove, saving me the peril of risking both our lives. We arrived at the Triple Rose Ranch in good time & we visited for a few hours until James had to prepare for work. -- Such as it is, our schedules prevent us from conveniently getting together more often.Of course, we couldn't visit long without bringing up one subject that filled us all with dread & caused an uncomfortable silence. No one has heard from or known the whereabouts of Chad for over a year now. Jon was the last one to have direct contact via Jabber until they were cut off one afternoon last fall. He contacted Chad's parents last spring via an emergency email address who said they heard from him as late as December. Nothing has been learned since then. Later that day when I returned home & had gained a degree of consciousness from an experiment with an energy drink I spent an hour or so searching the internet for things like missing persons bureau in his home state, police records & local white pages. I was relieved to find that his full name appeared nowhere in any of the searchable obituaries I could find, but this still did not lead any closer to his current location or situation. The only information I did find was his address & phone number, but his phone has been long disconnected, as well as his email. The only thing left to do is contact his folks again & try the street address with snail mail. I'll send a SASE to make it that much easier. Dammit. All I want for christmas is to know where you are, Chad.
Sunday was a lot more active but much less tiring. Earlier in the week Jon contacted Matt & I regarding a trip to Mitsuwa before christmas. Translation: "this weekend." So Matt & I adjusted our schedules & we both wanted an opportunity to spend more time with
henrietta1 now that she's back in town so we soon had a full car. The day was delightful despite the fog & I surprised myself by not overspending When we got back to town & dropped Jon off I still wanted to do something so I invited Matt & Sarah over to my place to watch Plan 9 From Outer Space in colour with Mike Nelson's commentary. We ate lots of popcorn & shivered in anticipation for B-fest. That pretty much brings us up to today which I covered with the first paragraph.
With the mouse problem still at large I'm going to try to make time tomorrow to wash all of my dirty dishes & mop the kitchen floor, hopefully eliminating any food smells that may be drawing them in. It's a good thing the torrent of Liquid Television hasn't finished downloading or I'd be staying up too late again. It's time to get domestic!
- E V I L O U T -
Update
Aw crap. Make that Victor: 4, Tomcat: 0
Current Music: Belmont Lounge ~ Daniel Baranowsky
