Mer: 3 (!); Mice: 0(ish)

Yay!!!!!! Success!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our curator was upstairs near the collections storage rooms and heard a rustling noise. She yelled for me because part of my job description is official rodent remover. My two missing traps? Found. One with a dead mousey and the other with one still looking at me. I hate that. Both had just put one paw in the trap and had been caught by only one leg. Horrible. I managed to get the still live one outside and the last I saw of it, it was sitting in our front yard licking its leg. I don't think it will last long since we also have several cats in our area and one in particular that likes the pigeons that roost on our building. We found a present on our front porch last week with a tell-tale bloody cat paw print.

Anyhow, success with the mice. I left the traps and we will hopefully have no more unwelcome visitors.

Do you remember my post about hunting? I couldn't even bring myself to kill a mouse, how could I kill anything larger?

What the Bleep!

Another mouse trap went missing. Same room, same area as before.

I think I need to invest in a rat trap.

I will kill this rodent if it is the last thing that I do before dying of the black death from rat bites. So help me, God, I will get this thing.

Mouse: ???: Mer: 1

I had a lovely present waiting for me this morning. A dead mousey. Yay!!!!!!

And a fantastic way to start a Monday!

Now, we don't know how many more we might have. But there is one little (actually, he was kinda plump) mousey who is now in mouse heaven.

I recommend these: Better mousetrap
I find mine at Walmart but the principle is the same. And no danger of fingers getting in the way with the old fashioned wire snap traps.

And that is the end of today's session on mousehunting!

The wonder of email

Email just fascinates me. It has completely changed how we communicate as a culture. Whereas written notes used to contain "frilly" phrases and words like "whereas," now with email, it is cut and dry. There is a meeting at 10 a.m. Did you receive that memo? You're fired. Things of that sort. However, it also allows us to communicate with people that we might not have ever had the chance to meet. For example, on Monday I received an email from the curator of the New York Botanical Museum. He had a question regarding our county. Now, I get plenty of work related emails but rarely from someone like this. We email chatted a couple of times about spring coming, the weather, issues with museums regardless of who or where you are. Now, in my professional life, I will never meet this man. Our paths would never cross. But because he had a question about Jo Daviess County and my email is on our website, I got to meet him. Fascinating.
www.galenahistorymuseum.org If you are interested. info@ is me.

I'm in the middle of war. With a mouse. He or she is leaving mouse artifacts all over our collections storage rooms, the absolute worst place to have a mouse. So far, I have lost one trap and the other was sprung with the bait gone. On the missing trap, it's just gone. I placed it on a shelf and now it's not there. I looked on the floor, behind the shelf, under the shelving on the other side of the room and nothing. If I did catch a mouse, I'll know in a couple of days....


Anyhow, I have yet begun to fight! More traps and PB are on their way!!!!!! The mice might have won this fight but I'll win the battle!!!!! It's Friday and I always feel more militant on Friday:)

A Beautiful Sight

Yesterday as Matt and I were headed home from church, we passed 6 wild turkeys and at least 40 deer. Deer are such an amazing sight to me. They are so graceful and beautiful. Roughly 25-30 of the deer that we saw yesterday were all in one cornfield and it looked like someone had turned them out to pasture. It reminded me of something that had happened to me last summer.
Last summer, I was picking wild berries on my in-laws property when I heard this odd little moan. I had no idea what it was but it clearly wasn't a cat or dog. Then the bushes about 10 feet away from me started to shake. I suddenly realized how far away from the house I was and the fact that I was completely alone, minus the berries and flies who were not likely going to protect me much! Then I heard the noise again but it was closer this time. The bushes shook again. I tried peering through the bushes and then I caught sight of a pair of brown eyes. The noise I had heard was a fawn calling for its mom. This fawn was all alone walking though the cornfield and fence line when apparently it thought I was its mom and came within about 5 feet of me. I was trying to think of how to adopt a deer when it ran away. It was so cute!! I'm not certain why it was alone. I hope that its mom was alright and that they had just gotten separated. The fawn looked exactly like Bambi!!!
When I see deer, I don't know how a person could hunt it. Sure, I understand all the logical reasons for hunting: food, keep numbers down with lack of natural predators, and while I'm certain I could hunt if I had to, I don't have to. The supermarket does all of my hunting for me. And shooting such a noble looking animal as a deer seems like a travesty to me.

Now, hunting for the boxelder bugs that have somehow survived the winter in my house, that is a different matter!!!!!

I have spring fever. I want to plant flowers and veggies, open all my windows, and turn off the furnace. I am also missing my flipflops, skirts, and open windows while driving. Is anyone else feeling this way or am I just crazy???

If I have one more meeting...

Honestly, how many meetings can one person have? Yesterday I had meetings at at 4:30, 5:30, and 6:30. That's insane. When I came home, I tried to give Matt an agenda for the rest of our evening and teach the kitties Roberts rules of order. They didn't get it.

On a happy note, our Christmas cactus is blooming. Just three months late. It's beautiful right now. There is one bloom right now and about 6 buds. Gorgeous and nice to see something in bloom right now.

Just in case you were worried, our sidewalk is still clear. No violations there. And, yes, I quoted Alice's Restaurant. It's a family tradition to listen to it at least once during Thanksgiving. And then quote it excessively the rest of the evening.

Last Saturday we had a business trade show in town and the museum participated even though we're not really a "business." We ran the 50/50 and "What is it?" We had three artifacts from the museum that people could try and guess what they were. We, of course, picked the three easiest artifacts, hah! We had an ancient wringer mop, carpet stretcher, and tobacco plug cutter, that I demonstrated multiple times without loosing a digit! Yay for me!

However, I did fail a very easy test: can I change a lightbulb? No, is the answer. I thought there was something wrong with the bulb or the socket but our handyman said he got it in just fine. I must have stronger points elsewhere, I just know it!
We tried to install wallpaper at the museum but it's not going so well. We worked really hard to find pretty, time-appropriate but affordable wallpaper and found the perfect stuff. Unfortunately, when our contractor tried to install it, the wallpaper started curling on the edges. Drat. He tried everything but what it comes down to is, we need to pick new wallpaper. The worst part is we already painted the ceiling to match the wallpaper so we have to stay in that color range. Wednesday was not a good day in the museum.

I know that this post is all about work but it's kinda what I've been all about recently. I called Matt to ask him out on a date for tonight because I've been so busy in the evenings. I have Subway and Pizza Hut coupons so we get to pick from one of those!! Yay for coupons!!!