Have a safe and fun Halloween!

Courtesy of my daughter Dani and fiancee' Dan.

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I can only hope.

Still no sign of the varmint. Mouse. Critter. The cats aren't sniffing around or freaking out, I haven't found any droppings or chewed paper or food packaging. ?? Do mice ever die of natural causes? Maybe he was just visiting and didn't like the reception he got. It's not like the cats weren't excited to see him or anything, but ... maybe he wanted a greeting that was a little more low key.

Whatever. I'm keeping my eye out but I'm hoping he took a hike.

Maxine Monday

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It's here! It's here!!

I've been waiting! Vista has been frustrating for me. I am counting on Windows 7 to be closer to XP, except better. Let's hope!


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WHAT was it thinking???

I could hear Norah scratching around in the kitchen and I could tell it was different than her normal weirdness. Going in there to investigate I found her scratching around the base of a free-standing pantry I have, first one side and then the other. I watched for a minute and remarked "oh Norah, did you find a spider??" She was excited, I could tell. She started scratching on the side against the wall where I had slid some paper shopping bags so I pulled the bags out to hopefully help Norah find her prize. After all, whatever she wants to be chasing isn't something I want in my house.

I was holding the shopping bags in one hand and a flash light in the other, looking between the pantry and the wall and I couldn't see anything. Nothing alive anyway. Norah looked at me and kind of kitty-whined at me. So I shook the shopping bag to get the cobwebs off it and whoops! Out dropped an itty bitty tiny little black MOUSE. Now in the interest of full disclosure here, I am not afraid of mice. I will get skeeved out much more quickly if there is a spider involved. And while I know I don't want mice in my house, they are unclean and their droppings carry disease, it doesn't stop me from thinking they're cute. It makes me sad because this little guy must die.

Norah chased it (like it needed to be chased at that point) into the utility room where the washer and dryer and 3 ginormous litter boxes live. There was no way I was going to catch it in there, once it got under or behind the washer and dryer - well - the mouse is way faster than I am. It won. For now.

Sigh-h-h. The bad thing about mice is that they can get into a house so easily - and once they do - they are hard to get out. And I hate killing them - maybe I'll use a no-kill trap, we'll see. But oh my gosh I have 4 cats! While they are pretty useless at actually killing insects and the like, they sure will detect something like that in the house! What was that little guy thinking when he came in here? I know, it's warm. But there are 4 cats! Didn't this little mouse have any sense of smell at all?

So it begins. Looking for mouse poop, anything chewed on or scattered where it shouldn't be. I will have to figure out what to do about the cat food - since that is the only food product that is even close to the ground in my house.

When I saw the mouse honestly - my first thought was - oh no, this is going to take some work. Ugh. My son is completely unfazed and appears perfectly willing to live with a mouse or mice in the house. Not a problem for him. So I will become - the mouse hunter - da da da dum!!! Except without the leotard or cape. Wish me luck.


**Added - That only food that pantry holds is cat food in cans. Otherwise it is mostly plastic containers, paper towels, garbage bags, etc. If he's looking for something to eat in there, he's out of luck!

Maxine Monday

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Have a wonderful day!

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It IS October, after all.

Last week at work, I found myself hunting for a contact at a particular hospital. I needed to find an I.T. contact to work with for a change being made in our system to correct a problem this hospital was having interfacing with ours. We just needed to do some tests. The woman I had been working with the week before (the lab manager) was out of town. She mentioned the name of this other gal who turned out to be the honest to goodness I.T. person I needed.

I will call her Sandy. When I reached Sandy the first day she sounded like one of those 'tell me what you need and I'll get 'er done' kind of people, she understood what I was looking for and went ahead and produced it for me. I thanked her and hoped I wouldn't need to track her down again, she was very very busy.

A day later though, I got an email asking for something else from Sandy so I called her again. This time I got her voicemail saying she was working from home that day. I didn't want to push her, I mean, who knows why she was working from home that day? So I left her a message explaining what I was looking for and asking her to call me back when she could.

Late in the day I got a call and it was Sandy. She apologized to me, called me Angel, said she was so sorry it took her so long to get back to me but .. *sigh* .. she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and had had a bad night the night before because of her chemo. And she was apologizing to ME! Such a sweetheart of a lady. She once again produced what I needed and I thanked her profusely, hoping she would start to feel better soon. Lame. Lame I tell ya!

This lady was not a regular client I talk to all the time. I only talked to her for the first time last week. And I really don't need to talk to her again, at least until something else comes up - and any one of a number of people other than me may handle that issue. So I may never talk to her again. But I want to call her again. I want to ask her if she uses the internet, if she has come across the many "families" of breast cancer survivors, fighters, and their loved ones all over the internet. People who put themselves out there to tell their stories to help others who may end up in that place.

I don't know her. But, I think I'm going to call her back anyway. Please - I know you have links I can give to her, resources for information and for strength and camaraderie and commiseration. Please share them with me, so I can share them with her.

Thanks!

Maxine Monday

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Eavesdropping

Oh my gosh this just made me laugh.

<a href="http://www.cmt.com/video/" target="_blank">Tom Mabe: Eavesdropping</a>

Tom Mabe: Eavesdropping

Maxine Monday

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Dietary restrictions

Mom called today. She called to tell me she's on her way to see me. Yeah, on November 19th! She scared me for a second there. First thing she asked me was
"Will Dani be home?"

I answered, "I don't know Mom, she doesn't live at home anymore, and she's in school y'know."

"Oh." Disappointed.

"Well, I asked her if she wants to come home for Thanksgiving, but y'know she and Dan are both vegetarian so I'm not sure what we would make."

Mom informed me "Well I'm a partial vegetarian."

"Okay Mom, what's a partial vegetarian?"

"I don't eat beef."

I was surprised. I mean I knew she was never a big meat eater, period. But she never really showed a preference for one kind over another. And she's always liked Burger King!

"You don't eat beef? At all? Don't you like steak?"

"No, I don't like steak. Well, I like medium rare ... um ... rib eye?"

"That's a type of steak Mom. Roast beef?"

"No, I don't eat beef."

I tried again. "What about pot roast? You used to love pot roast. That's beef."

"No. I don't like pot roast. I like chicken."

"Okay Mom, well when you get here we'll go shopping and decide what to buy. What do you like to eat?"

"Stouffers. If it's on sale. That's good."

"Uh . . I haven't been eating much frozen food at all lately, Mom."

*crickets*

"Well what DO you eat?"

I answered "Well, I've been eating a lot of salads and fruit . . . "

*crickets*

"You mean ... you cook REAL food?"

Oh good Lord.