cold and loose

We have a chance of snow flurries overnight; the seasons have finally turned. If that’s on tap for us then I don’t suspect they’ll be able to squeeze in the finish of Game 5 of the World Series today. If I’m a Phillies fan, and sitting nine outs from a possible World Championship, I’d be absolutely crazed today.

I have issues with our pets. At some point this morning our sole remaining rat, Biscuit, was found prancing in and about our kitchen – just on the floor along the floorboard, not in and amongst stuff. There appears to have been some sort of cage transfer issue and he found himself on the loose. Our two cats were napping/relaxing/sleeping on their respective thrones in the living room as Biscuit roamed. Since you don’t know it yet I’ll pass along that this whole portion of the house if basically one big room so one might expect a high probability of cat-on-rat carnage when this situation arose. Luckily, Biscuit was spotted (quickly?) by a non-rodent slaughtering mammal (me) and secured in his cage in the back of H’s room. My questions are these: what was the rat doing wandering around the house? He’s fully aware there are two cats living in the house because they occasionally manage to get near his cage and harass him (read: purring “I’m going to eat you” through the bars) which leads to terror-driven wheel running on his part. If I’m that rat, and I find my cage ajar in the AM, I’m finding the highest, darkest, safest place available; I’m not exploring the open ranges of the house with two killer cats lurking about the place. Second, our ‘killer’ cats are for crap. Don’t get me wrong here – the last thing I want is anything to happen to ratty-rat – but at least they could have shown some ability to sense or recognize there was a meal wandering nearby. What? They can show interest in the piece of string that G wiggles on the floor but an actual rodent does nothing for them? Useless, each and every one of them.

X is being a lawyer suddenly. (I just checked the Mass Bar Web site and they say results should be available by November 7th – not sure how – and mailed by November 15th. We await…) She gets dolled-up every morning and heads in to the Golden Triangle to swish around with the other attorneys. My prime responsibility in the house has once again returned: creating a breakfast sandwich and lunch options for little Ms. Sandra Day. I think she’s finally completed all of her paperwork that will eventually lead to real paychecks, quizzical health insurance, and taxes. She’s all grown up.

I’ll be spending some time over the next few days imagining how I’m going to configure my voting precinct so I can manage to get everyone through in a reasonable amount of time. Believe it or not, my goal is to keep the wait for everyone to no longer than 45 minutes – and that’ll be a drive through for many places. Herding people – it’s what I do.

t

station 51, engine 51

Arlington, Virginia (USA) - Last night at appoximately 9:15 PM (EDT) a mother in the Buckingham area of the city was called out of her house in order to save a treed rat. The rat, Biscuit, owned and trained by her eldest child, had managed to shimmy 25 feet up a courtyard tree. Other members of the household were leary of rats in trees having never heard much about rat packs lurking in the upper canopy of urban parks. It appears from last night's events that not only can they climb but they aren't much bothered by seeing the ground many 'rat' miles below them. The issue with Biscuit on this humid summer night seemed to be an unwillingness or fear to move down the branch towards safety, according to those present. The emgergency- trained mother (aren't they all?) climbed up to the last branch that would support her weight before realizing the rat was well beyond her reach. At this point she decided to tape a box from the rat's cage, in order to provide a familiar smell, to the end of an ordinary kitchen broom and reach up toward the fearful rodent. After twenty minutes of making kissy sounds, talking sweetly to the rat, intermittantly cursing under her breath, and thinking to herself "another five minutes and we're going to a one rat household", the rat suddenly lurched close enough for capture. "I have the rat! I've got him!" echoed throughout the courtyard and quiet Arlington neighborhood. Biscuit was passed down to his owner/trainer and quickly secured in his cage at approximately 9:45 PM. Others in the house often wonder, it was reported.

scurrying through the penthouse

Finally. It’s taken almost a week-and-a-half, but the good news is that we have two additions to North Park Drive: Jefferson and Biscuit. Rats.

X visualized her youth and drew the schematics for the four-level condo that her hamsters populated in her Gill, Mass youth. The boys needed some pets and hamsters are apparently neat, tidy, and easy enough to manage. This led to two trips to Home Depot, one by X and one by me, that eventually harvested the needed wood and screen mesh. Since you asked, I’ll tell you: Home Depot in Arlington sucks the absolute life out of you. The service is horrible, the store is horrible, the parking lot is horrible, the street it’s located on is hell. Put all that together in a blender and figure just how much fun we had getting the pieces gathered. Everything was leaning against the dining room wall on Saturday morning when Laurel and I headed for the cherry blossoms and X headed to the Law Center to study. The boys stayed home with Corey and he put the whole pad together in about an hour; it was perfect. (The Zapruder situation that involves Henry's hand and a staple gun is forthcomeing.) Exactly how my girlfriend gets people to do things for her with such ease is an entire sociological study yet to be done. When everyone congregated back home in the afternoon we decided to set off to PetCo to browse the small animal department. We examined and asked about pygmy hamsters, hamsters, gerbils (not allowed per X), mice, guinea pigs, and rats. They had two males, one light brown (Biscuit) and one almost black (Jefferson). X convinced the boys and girl that rats are actually quite smart, very trainable, and much like dogs…and I generally agree at this point. They’re cute and clearly smart enough to learn tricks and rules so I think it will work out well in the end. I will say that they aren’t as neat and tidy as hamsters. You can think about that. Here’s the crowd watching the rats on day #1…just like Laura Ingalls and her first radio.



T.