Friday quiz

You Are a Realist

You don't see the glass as half empty or half full. You see what's exactly in the glass. You never try to make a bad situation seem better than it is... But you also never sabotage any good things you have going on. You are brutally honest in your assessments of situations - and this always seems to help you cope.

Are You An Optimist or Pessimist?

Mickey has left the building

A week or two ago, we discovered that we have a mouse. Or mice, as it were. Though we did not have visual evidence of the actual creature(s) in question, we were finding plenty of droppings in our kitchen and living room to prove that if they weren't living in our house, they were at least using it as a dumping ground.

I have a co-worker with the same problem, and he tipped me off to what looked like an ingenious creation on the Internet. This is only one example, I wish I could find the exact one I used because it had funny drawings. Anyway, I set up a trap in our kitchen and our living room, complete with "ramp" and bucket o' death, but to no avail. At this point, I realized that I was dealing with a smart mouse, a la Jerry.

Kevin hit the home improvement store and returned with poison packets that the mouse will have to gnaw through, ingest the poison and die at a later point. Kevin pointed out the beauty in this method, as we would not have to clean up the mouse carcass if it died outside our house. I pointed out the flaw, in that it would probably end up dying in our house anyway, at which point we would never know until we detected an odiferous scent at a later point in time. This always ends up on an awful search for the carcass, with fingers crossed that it's not in a wall or some other unreachable place.

After finding a singular pretentious dropping squarely in the middle of a couch cushion yesterday, the gauntlet had been thrown. I went to Home Depot and after reviewing the options in the Rodent and Varmint section, I decided on the standard Victor mousetraps. Since I grew up in a farm area, we had a mouse in our house once or twice. These were the traps my parents used, baited with peanut butter and set inside a paper bag for easy disposal. Since they're so cheap, you can afford to ditch the whole trap along with the catch.

After spending many minutes trying to set the sensitive traps, resulting in flying peanut butter and snagged fingernails, I finally got three of the four set - two in the kitchen, one in the living room where we were seeing the droppings. I placed them along the walls, since the package indicated that is where mice like to run, along the baseboard. While we were settling into bed last night, Kevin said, "I don't want to hear you screaming in the morning if there's one down there."

So this morning I went downstairs and checked - our first trap had a mouse! It was curled up like it was asleep next to the trap; I didn't explore close enough to see what got caught in the trap. I also didn't touch it, for fear that it was asleep and would run away. I calmly went back upstairs and told Kevin there was a mouse in our trap. He emptied it before he left for work and called me to say that "Mickey has left the building."

But you know what one mouse generally means...a mouse family. Better set those traps in the basement too.

Edited to add that we caught another one on 9/26. I'm hoping that's the last of them, but we'll see!

Touche

Conversation at home last night:

Me: You smell like a deli.
DH: Your hair looks like a bird's nest.

Touche.

Pottery

In celebration of our Virgo birthdays, my cousin Meg and I went to a paint-your-own-pottery place and spent about four hours painting cool stuff. Here's what I made; of course, it's all totally functional items for our kitchen.

That's the ball game

Here's a picture of Kevin in his last night at the Riversharks. Many of you know that he's been MIA this summer, having to spend 180 hours in Camden doing an internships for his master's degree. On his last night, they let him throw out the first pitch of the game! Of course, we didn't know ahead of time so I didn't get to see it, but it was exciting nonetheless.

Take Out the Trash

Gather up your withered week,
Empty cans of time,
Burnt bagels and dry tea bags,
Wrangled worries as dead vines.

Rusted fantasies, old with tears,
A twisted peel of lime,
Calls returned and rumpled away,
Chocolate wrappers numbering nine.

Gather up your withered week,
Choke it in a knot.
Condemn it to the curb alone,
Soak your mind and scour the rot.

-jb, 1999

Scientific Evidence

From the very best source, of course...

Your Depression Level: 24%

You may be depressed. While you can be moody, your moods generally fall within the range of normal. It's up to you to decide if you're depressed... or if you're simply having a bad week.

Are You Depressed?

Permission Slip

I think that sometimes, you are allowed to be in a bad mood for no real reason. Apparently, I'm not allowed, so I'll have to remember to ask permission in the future.

Tomorrow, from ten until three,
I plan to be in a bad mood.
Then, it will all be about me
Preparing for an intense brood.

I may appear lazy or free,
But don’t let yourself be a fool.
I’ll be harnessing my dark inner chi
And drowning it in a pool.

My brow will settle into a V
Posture slump to messy S
Nothing will be done to a T
Except my calendar marked with an X

Since I shall be lost in an emotional sea,
This note is to let you know
Of just how sulky sullen I will be
With my leaky creaky boat to row.

It’s clear your permission is needed
For me to be cranky and cross
In future this rule will be heeded
My mood will not cause you a loss.

-jb, 2007

To a tea

In the maturity that is now my 27 years, I have grown into a tea snob.

I realize this because I no longer shy away from requesting it at restaurants when a waitron comes up to me with a coffee carafe. Whereas I used to respond, "no thank you," I now boldly ask for tea. This past weekend, when my request was overlooked, I went to the bussing station and poured it myself. Granted, this request usually nets me a small cup of tepid water and a Lipton tea bag (the worst in my opinion due to a bitter aftertaste), but I feel I've scored a point for the Leaf Team. The Beans are still dominating the game though.

When I have thoughts like this, I also feel my Aunt Joanne tendencies coming out. The blood we share must be ripe with antioxidants, because I sound more and more like her when it comes to tea. She goes so far as to carry her own tea bag in her purse to avoid the cheap ones at restaurants. While that used to sound crazy to me when I was younger, the idea sounds like a good one now.

While my dad was on the Bean Team, my mom played for Leaf. She was by no means a starter, as she only drank tea in cold weather, or occasionally at a full breakfast. Last year I found myself needing a cup every morning while I waited for my car to warm up. That scared me so I turned to decaf for a while to break the habit. Now I only drink the caffeinated stuff when I really need a jump start.

Though I haven't matured into loving the loose stuff, I definitely have branched out as far as the pre-bagged types. My favorite everyday black tea is Tetley, but I like the Twinings brand for some different types of black tea. I love the Snapple white tea bags, and their herbal berry one is so delicious it's like a dessert. Traditional Medicinals are good for what ails you. With all, I take Splenda, sometimes a little honey, sometimes a little lemon depending on the tea, and milk, or luxury of luxuries, cream if it's available.

There's a little storefront for rent in our hometown, and I've often dreamed that it would be a great coffeeshop, with cute desserts and a homey feel. I think if I owned it, the featured item would be tea, and we'd have a little coffee on the side. Maxwell House.

And many more

It's my birthday...I'm 27. I'm not really sure how I feel about that. It's very much on the other side of 25, and kind of committing to 30. I know 30s not old, and all people older than me are now scoffing at this post, but it's the first time I've been 27, ok? Lay off.

My dad's mom used to tell them every birthday, "This is just like the day you were born." I get a kick out of that, no matter what the weather was, it was always the same. My dad said that today's weather truly was like the day I was born. Ha. I couldn't really find an evidence on the Internet to corroborate his story.

My wonderful co-workers made a little deal over me and we had ice cream cake.

So far, 27 feels like 26, only fatter.

A time to fall

Well, that's it. Pack it in. Warm up the bus.

I saw a turned leaf today on a skylight at work. It was bright red.

All the other green leaves on the trees waved back and forth in the breeze, and I heard a light chant of "Na na na na, Na na na na, Hey hey hey, gooooodbye." Maybe it was just my 'magination.

I love summer, but I'm glad that autumn is on its way. I really do love the change of seasons.