Updates that probably warrant their own posts.

1. I am getting married in several months.

2. Evidently, I have anxiety regarding racing that has phobia-like qualities.

3. Despite several recent bouts of nice weather, I cannot bring myself to stop using the trainer for all rides.

4. The mice are still alive. They run on their wheel for approximately 75% of each day. The wheel squeaks loudly 100% of the time that it is in use. I am down to 0.01% of my original desire to own mice.

5. I am leaving my current job this Friday and starting a new one on Monday.

6. For the first time in my life as a dog owner, I wished fiercely that I would come home to a pile of poop on the floor today. No luck.

7. These are my new favorite shoes: http://boutique.vanillabicycles.com/product/the-pit-boot

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March 23rd 2010 | Posted in Biking, Bobby, Employment, Life, The Mice, The Pups

Mice Capades

The mice are alive and well. They spend the majority of their time running around underneath the bedding in a network of shifting tunnels and burrows, but occasionally venture out to play and eat. And eat and eat and eat. Those two little rodents eat a few tons of seeds every week. It must be why their ears have grown so big. Like little elephant mice.

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At least I have a back-up plan in the event that I lose interest in the pet mice:

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That’s only a joke. To be honest, I’m such a stupid sucker for little animals that I already feel sad when I think about either of the mice reaching the end of their short lifespans. I almost wish it would turn out that I have a male and a female, and thus an unending succession of baby mice to love, but that would create its own problems. Two mice are cute; two to the Nth power mice sounds like something that would put me on the evening news. “The smell became so overwhelming,” Lindsay’s neighbors told CNN Reporters, “that we finally had to call the Health Department. They carried out cages of thousands of mice, while Lindsay chased after them pulling at her clothes and screaming, ‘My babies!’”

In other news, my dreams of them spending hours running on their wheel have been crushed. They are too small to make the wheel turn.

3 Comments

January 30th 2010 | Posted in Life, The Mice

Dead Animal Scarf

I love (loved? do you change it to past tense after someone dies?) my grandmother and always thought she was a dignified, classy lady with nice style. In helping to clean out her house, however, my mother and I came across a fur coat (pretty, except for the whole ‘souls of countless slaughtered little animals’ part) and a mink stole. The stole was atrocious:

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Where do I even begin? The intact faces, complete with little beady eyes and noses? The complete presence of three gutted animals, attached together head to tail? How can somebody want to walk around with dead animals strapped around their neck? More to the point, these things have their buttholes intact. Actual buttholes.

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Fortunately, this style seems to have died (no pun intended originally, but now I can’t resist) and does not appear to be making a resurgence. Shame, too, since my mice have such soft fur…

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January 19th 2010 | Posted in Life, The Mice

Of Mice and Me

The good news is that the mice are safely settled in their new cage and are still very cute.

The bad news is that they smell a little more than anticipated. Three also ran up the sleeve of my bathrobe the other night when I was trying to transfer him to Moose’s cage, and for a minute I panicked because (a) there was a mouse inside my bathrobe and (b) Kobe was watching this process anxiously, waiting for me to drop something edible. The last thing I wanted was my dog tearing around my small condo trying to catch a fleeing mouse that I’m supposed to be protecting. It ended well, though; Three dropped out of my sleeve, fled into the egg carton house, and cowered there all night.

Yesterday morning when I went to make sure nobody had died, Three and Moose were curled up together in a single egg pocket. This morning during the daily Pulse Check, they were snuggled into their bedding inside their newly-purchased mouse hut. It was adorable and I think they’re pleased to be miserably captive together.

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2 Comments

January 9th 2010 | Posted in The Mice, The Pups

You say pest, I say pets.

Because my life isn’t complicated enough, what with the full-time job, the cycling ‘career’, the living alone, the two dogs, and the pseudo-ex-fiance-current-boyfriend-person, I now have a mouse. Actually, as of sometime this afternoon, I will have two mice, and then if nature has its way and the conditions are right, I may have many, many mice. I’ve only included photos of the one I have currently in my possession, but I’m told they’re indistinguishable anyway so it shouldn’t matter.

This is Moose.

Mouse 2

Moose is a deer mouse that was caught in Bobby’s house. Moose will be joined shortly by Three, who was also caught in Bobby’s house. This makes me sad because it means living with me was less preferable to living with rodents. At least they are very cute rodents. Even when I blow-dry my hair, I am not this cute:

Mouse 1

Before you fuss that I am keeping a wild animal in captivity, let me explain. 1) These things are so effing adorable that as soon as I saw a picture of one, they were as good as mine. 2) Mice, when caught in a home, need to be released at least a mile or more away from the home in order to prevent their immediate return. However, if you release a mouse at this time of year with no immediate food or shelter available, it will die. Moose’s fate was either to be released outside the house, at which point he would return and begin the cycle again, or to be released into the frigid wilderness to die. I suggested (begged, really) that he be permitted to join me in my home, and the next thing I know, I’m at Target buying bedding and yogurt drops.

Moose took a shine to Bobby and the two bonded yesterday over Special K flakes and back scratches. I’m a little bitter, considering that Moose has spent his time with me thus far buried in a ball of cotton or quaking in fear. My mother saw him today when she dropped some things off at my house and commented, “He is very cute….except for the tail.” She’s right; I could take or leave that stringy little thing, but I think Moose would prefer that I leave it.

Three was captured at some point late last night, and will join Moose today. Updates will follow.

3 Comments

January 7th 2010 | Posted in Bobby, The Mice