Of mice and memories

A few weeks back, we had an unwelcome visitor of the rodent persuasion. (a mouse in the house) Jim had set several traps around the house with cheese and a few with peanut butter. None of them worked, they sat out for a day or so with no nibbles, no snaps, not even near-misses.

Apparently we had a lactose-intolerant mouse who didn’t like peanut butter. What animal doesn’t like peanut butter???

Anyway, I tried a different tactic. I took a small piece of one of the butter cookies my mother sent to us. I had a hard time keeping it on the trap, so I secured it with a small dab of butter.

*SNAP!!*

That little sucker took the bait within 20 minutes of me sitting it down and leaving the room. I felt bad for the little thing though. (I don’t like killing another living thing unless it’s necessary … and let’s face it, it’s very necessary here!) Jim remarked that it seemed odd to have lived out here all this time and to have never had the slightest hint of mice problems until now. I replied, “That’s because we had a cat.”

You wouldn’t know it by looking at her, but Hobie was quite the mouser. She always kept this house free from ANY form of unwelcome visitor. Don’t get me wrong, she was THE little diva who liked getting her way and living the good life inside a nice cozy house. But when it came to anything invading her “domain”, the unfortunate critter was history in a heartbeat.

She passed away two years ago today. It doesn’t seem like it’s been that long. I still think of her often. Many nights, when the house is dark and quiet, I’m almost sure that I’ve seen or heard her …

… and with this, I know her spirit still dwells here, with us.

Shopping power, I has it

Chico’s is one of my favorite places to shop. Not only do their clothing hold up and wash well, they fit and feel great. Even better: their unique sizes will make ANY woman feel good about herself (no matter what size you wear!).

I was overjoyed when I got home yesterday and read my mail. My membership has finally been upgraded!

Basically what this means is I’ll get extra benefits now, like: previews to sales and new collections, 5% off all my future purchases, free shipping (basic), and more. They also own Soma (think Victoria Secret), so it looks like I can use the card there too. My folks gave me a gift card to Chico’s for Christmas, and I’ve been itching to go get some new “going out” clothes and a few frilly numbers (”unmentionables,” LOL!).

I showed the card to Jim and said, “Guess what I’m doing this weekend!”

Humpday Hilarities

Today’s funny bit comes courtesy of one of my co-workers:

Toilet Cleaning Instructions:

1. Put both lids of the toilet up and add 1/8 cup of pet shampoo to the water in the bowl.
2. Pick up the cat and soothe him while you carry him towards the bathroom.
3. In one smooth movement, put the cat in the toilet and close both lids. You may need to stand on the lid.
4. The cat will self agitate and make ample suds. Never mind the noises that come from the toilet — the cat is actually enjoying this.
5. Flush the toilet three or four times. This provides a ‘power-wash and rinse.’
6. Have someone open the front door of your home. Be sure that there are no people between the bathroom and the front door.
7. Stand behind the toilet as far as you can and quickly lift both lids.
8. The cat will rocket out of the toilet, streak through the bathroom, and run outside where he will dry himself off.
9. Both the commode and the cat will be sparkling clean.

Sincerely,
The Dog

New Neopets petpage template: Fairy Dust

I had originally designed this for a Blogger template, but ported to Neopets petpage format by request. I have several other designs that I will be (hopefully) porting soon.

Preview:

Code:

Download here.

To install:

Go to your Neopets’ homepages index. Click the “Edit” link under the pet whose page you want to modify. Copy the contents of the template’s code file into the edit box. Scroll down and click “Preview Changes.” After the preview page loads, scroll down and click “Save Changes.”

Out of context, out of line?

This afternoon, Jim (unintentionally) gave me quite a scare. When last I saw him this morning, he was going to head by the house then on to work. I remember pulling onto the highway and watching him roll onto the lane going in the opposite direction. Fast forward to this afternoon, John called me at work asking me if I knew where Jim was. “What? He’s not there?” My mind raced. John had spoken to him not long after I last saw him and hadn’t seen nor heard from him since.

Long story short: Jim had sat down “for a few moments” at his desk and apparently had fallen asleep — he had been at home the whole time.

I was able to get a hold of him after calling the house a few times and he explained what happened. I fussed a small bit (not wanting to yell at work) and got my things together to leave for the day. A few co-workers had overheard and came by to make sure everything was ok. I was still pumped up on adrenaline and my blood-pressure I’m sure was through the roof. I jokingly replied, “Yeah. I’m going to beat him upside the head when I get home!”

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I say that in jest. In fact, I say that I’ll “beat his head in” all the time. I don’t beat my husband. I don’t beat my child. I laugh and carry-on, but it is entirely in jest. I do as my mother did — joke about it to keep from pulling my hair out and going crazy.

But what if someone had heard what I said, took it out of context, and called the police?

I ran across a Google Reader item shared by Ike Pigott linking to a post by someone who had something along those lines happen to her. Thordora had (in jest) commented on Twitter about bringing harm to her child, who wouldn’t go to sleep.

What NORMAL parent hasn’t uttered a snarky or humorously ludicrous remark out of frustration, annoyance, and dare I said it … love?

Someone following her tweets had local police notified of the “threat”. Officers arrived at her home and demanded to see her children (who obviously had not been harmed). Understandably, Thordora is upset with this person. (As I would be too!)

To me though, this reinforces something that I had come to realize through my experiences on other social networking services (mainly MySpace and Facebook) — careful who you “friend”.

They like me, they really like me!

My day started off pretty crappy. I didn’t hear the alarm, so I overslept. Then I finally get it together, get ready, and hop into my car to leave — only, it won’t start.

Great … what a way to start the week.

I go wake Jim up (God love him for putting up with me!) and start pacing because the car parts store wasn’t open yet, I was going to be way late for work, and I just knew that it was not going to be something as simple as a dead battery … it’s probably something catastrophic, or expensive, like the alternator, etc.

Two hours (and a hundred bucks) later, I have a brand new battery and am told that my car’s alternator is fine. Yay. I finally make it to work just in time to discuss lunch.

The day has gotten better as it’s gone on, though … I was reading through my email and received the following:

Congratulations you have won the “World Web Award of Excellence” for web site design, creativity, and ease of navigation. Keep up the good work. You have obviously worked very hard investing your time, and skills into making a great web site.

Regards,
Art Space 2000 Awards Department

Very cool.

Though it’s now occurred to me, I have no place to display my accolades. I guess I’ll just have to create something and add it to the sidebar!

YAY — something to keep me busy for the rest of the day!

Things overheard in the office …

Someone walks by my cubicle while talking on their cell phone and I hear:

I wonder how much a radar gun is around here?

links for 2008-12-31

• SSL broken! Hackers create rogue CA certificate using MD5 collisions | Zero Day | ZDNet.com
  Oh. F—.

  A group of hackers in the U.S. and Europe have found a way to target a known weakness in the MD5 algorithm to create a rogue Certification Authority (CA), a breakthrough that allows the forging of certificates that are fully trusted by all modern Web browsers.

  (tags: web Security news exploit internet technology ssl md5 article computer-science hacking geek Geekery WTF)

Humpday Hilarities

Welp, here it is … the last funnies for 2008. The following are some of my favorite funnies from I Can Has Cheezburger and I Has a Hotdog:

A reminder: Why I do it

The following was received from a soldier and was posted to the Soldiers’ Angels Wingtip 2 Wingtip blog:

I would like to take this time to say thank you for all that you have done for me and other Soldiers like me. Thank you for your letters, cards, calling cards, heartfelt prayers and thoughts.

Our force, however strong, needs encouragement, especially when our will is weak. Your kindness has healed our sad souls and our longing for our homes.

With reminders every day that we are not alone …

We have you!

Thank you Soldiers Angels!

It makes my heart smile to see our efforts appreciated by those we love and support. Because of this, I’ll gladly keep doing what I’m doing … as long as it takes.

“May no soldier go unloved,
may no soldier walk alone,
may no soldier be forgotten,
until they all come home.”
– Patti Patton-Bader

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