The beaver is a proud and noble animal

I felt like crap on Friday so I stayed home from work. I still have a major case of the lurgie and I’ve been feeling off and on all weekend. I blame the new grad student at work for giving me his Ebola.

We had to go to Saffron Walden in the afternoon to go meet our solicitor and sign some paperwork. On the way back, we stopped at the duck pond. BenBen was completely out of it, but we had a bit of fun with Katy’s new phone.

When we got home, BenBen went into a major meltdown. We think that, between his teeth beginning to play up, his last round of shots and a bit of a cold, he’s been feeling very under the weather and has been feeling very tired and grumpy and has been a cast-iron bugger to feed. So, when we got home, he decided that he was most decidedly not a happy camper and wailed. Solidly. For close to two hours. As soon as we brought him upstairs to start his bedtime routine, he settled down and had a good night but Katy and I were rather traumatized because – for all our griping at times – he is normally a really good baby and rarely kicks up a fuss.

Just as we were going to bring Ben upstairs, Reenie barged in the house with another mouse – still alive – and ran to the shoe rack to drop it in my boot. Again. Except this time, she missed the boot and the mouse got away from her. We so didn’t need that extra little bit of aggravation when our nerves were still frazzled from all the crying. I tried to look for it but I couldn’t find it and we had to go get the boy to bed.

Once things settled down and there was blessed quiet again in the house, I was able to shift some clutter around and find the wayward rodent. Lo and behold, it was the same mouse as two days ago!!!

We freed it in some bushes. If it comes in again, we’re keeping it as a pet.

We spent most of the weekend packing stuff away in boxes and got some good progress done. Most of the mice that Reenie brought in over the weekend were deceased, so we didn’t have too much aggravation. She did manage to drop a live mouse in my boot though, and Katy had to use some fancy penmanship to get rid of it. I just hope it didn’t pee too much in my boot.

Such are the joys of cat ownership.

Current Mood: Sick

So, tonight, Reen-pig broke her own record and brought in three mice. One, we think, was an escapee from the Sanger, even! It had either been ear-tagged and tailed or had some very coincidental scars. That one was still alive and was released back into the wild (and hopefully won’t be back tomorrow). The other two were less fortunate. And yes, both of the dead ones ended up in my boots.

Gotta love our pussycats.

Katy thinks it’s because the weather is warming up and the mice are getting more active but are still dopey. Hopefully they’ll be able to give the cats more of a run for their money before my mom gets here or she’ll really freak out :)

Current Mood: Amused

Oh dear, Reen-pig has a mouse. Keep an eye on her.
Well, it’s still alive and it’s currently in your shoe.
*laugh* somehow that doesn’t surprise me.
Now it’s alive and in my boot.
/cut to picture of cat madly trying to stuff her whole head into a hiking boot/

In the end, the mouse was still in good enough shape to be chucked out of my boot into the front yard.

Current Mood: Amused

Last night, as we were watching television, Katy does a double-take and proceeds to ask me: “Are you aware that there’s a live mouse in the living room?”. Apparently, in a house with two cats that regularly bring in mice and the occasional robin (we’re still finding feathers all over the place), a tiny field mouse had managed to come in undetected and spend a large portion of the afternoon hiding in some newspapers that live right next to the cats food bowls!

.

Katy managed to trap it in a glass and I chucked it out on the front lawn. That was dose of excitement for the evening.

Current Mood: Amused

We were in Leicester this past weekend and we had a pootle in the town center. The High Street is a magnet for God-botherers. There’s always a gaggle of Krishnas, and generally more than one dude-with-a-megaphone vying for your attention (and your money). It’s fairly innocuous. I overheard a reggae band singing a “remixed” version of Don’t worry, be happy. These guys though caught my attention:

I know they were probably going for the shock value to start a discussion, but something tells me that – by the looks they were getting – a lot of people were thinking of letting their fingers (or fists) do the talking.

Current Mood: Amused

I have recently discovered Motivated Photos, a mash-up site where people can submit demotivational posters. This is not good :)

As a side note, for those reading this on LJ, there’s a syndicated feed here: http://syndicated.livejournal.com/motivatedposter/profile

Current Mood: Rushed

This is a classic example of Rule 34, though not the best. This is still reserved for the Black amputee toilet hardware handjob pr0n (link NSFW, obviously). Though, to be honest, I have still yet to see gay midget bondage pr0n. On that day, I will have seen all of the internet :)

Current Mood: Amused

I recently went to see an exhibit of ukiyo-e woodblock prints at the V&A Museum in London. It reinforces to me the fact that I love Japanese design and art. We’re going to try and incorporate touches of it when we decorate the house. I’ve seen some lovely noren on Ebay that I have my eye on for the patio doors.

Current Mood: Contemplative

Interestingly, he’s wearing a 3-6 month undervest, 0-3 month jogging pants and t-shirt, and a newborn hooded jacket. Baby clothing sizes make absolutely no sense to me.

More new pictures online: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/ben/

Current Mood: Amused

So, a few things have happened since last I blogged. Our personal loan has – finally – been approved so we’ll be able to buy some new furnitire when we move. The house purchase is ticking along. We’ve had a valuation survey and a home-buyer survey done on the house. The HB survey didn’t find any major gremlins, though they do recommend that we have the electrics inspected because they’re a bit dated and might not be up to code. I’ve contacted a certified electrical contractor and they’re going to do a Periodic Maintenance Inspection report some time this coming week.

The solicitors have been informed of our preferred completion date, though I’m less than sure that we’ll be able to make it. Ideally, we’d like to complete on the 1st of April. That way, we could give Bidwells our month’s notice and still have the whole of April to do the necessary DIY in the new house and then move in without having to pay rent and mortgage in the same month. Right now, we’re still in the middle of the searches and our mortgage app is still in progress. We’re keeping our fingerrs crossed. Sadly, there’s still a whole lot of things that could still go wrong.

We’re trying to keep a positive attitude and, in a mad spree of optimism, we’ve started packing stuff this weekend and breaking down the bigger bits of furniture that need it (or won’t fit in the doorways or the stairwell otherwise). We’ve gotten some removals quotes as my folks have kindly offered to finance our movers :)

My citizenship application is with the UK Border Agency and the solicitors tell me that the waiting time has come down from 6-7 months to 2-3, so I could be a bloke come May.

In other news, we have the world’s first Siberian coodle. Tolstoy got so matted in the last few weeks and hated being brushed so his backside turned into one giant mat. We decided that enough was enough and took him to the vet to get sedated and brushed thoroughly. We expected that he’d lose a lot of fur, but not to the extend of having his entire hind quarters shaved. He has, and a kid you not, a poodle fur cut. And those legs! SKINNY! We burst out laughing the first time we saw him. He, on the other hand, seems to feel a lot better and has been more like himself since his make over.

On a final note, we have moved BenBen into his own room at night. We bit the bullet on Friday night and it went rather well. Same again for last night. He falls asleep like a rock and will wake up grumbling a few times during the night but settles himself back down after a while. He tends to wake up and stay awake around 6-ish but is happy to stay in his cotbed until 6:30 or so when we manage to drag ourselves out of bed. And he’s getting big. And vocal. And he giggles a lot. This makes us happy. The ladies at the nursery are amazed at how vocal he is.

Current Mood: Amused & Productive