Three blind mice

Sorry it's been a while since I've managed a "real" post (although the nature of this whole blog is futility, so... I don't know, draw your own conclusions, I guess). You'd think I'd have a good excuse, but you'd be wrong. I have THREE good excuses!

First: I worked practically full time last week because Stacey was out of the office (and in Texas, where her son was graduating from Boot Camp). Lots of everything at work, and then home again to Mt. Laundry. Apparently I am the only one who is qualified to run the washing machine, by the way. Sometimes I throw fits about that, and you know what happens? Right, I am still the only one doing laundry. What to the evs, family.

Second: We spent the Fourth of July in Salem because our nephew was invited to play in the "First Annual Futures Tournament." People, there's no such thing as "First Annual." Quit saying that! You're driving English Majors everywhere insane. It's "First Ever," and then "Second Annual." Don't look at me, I didn't just make this all up, those are the rules! I had to listen to that announcer say "First Annual" all damn day, which was not as much fun as you'd think it would be. I made a point to complain loudly as a teaching opportunity for all of those seated around me. And the good news is when those strangers in front of us changed seats, it really opened up a lot of leg room.

Um, what was I talking about?

Volcanoes Stadium.

Oh, right, Salem. My brother Tim lives in Salem, so we arranged to meet him before the games started for lunch. We never get to see him, and here we've seen him twice in less than a month. Wicked awesome. The baseball tournament started at 4 p.m. It was a double header, but it wasn't so bad. I finished the second Harry Potter and made good progress on the third. (What? Abby finished the fifth and started the sixth.) And afterwards they had this completely amazing fireworks display. It's just a stadium, so I wasn't expecting much, but it ended up being like a half-hour of totally legit fireworks. It was gorgeous. And fun. We never did get to see Kam except on the field, but I'm pretty sure we all cheered loudly enough that he totally knew we were there.

And then we spent the night at Tim's. His neighbors showed their patriotism by blowing stuff up all night.

Third: We've had a bit of a mouse infestation which has left me emotionally scarred and in need of some serious therapy. A pregnant mouse was loose in the house (poetry!) and had her babies under our bed. Side note: Mice babies are actually pretty adorable, just not when they're trying to murder you with their rabies and plague. I watched Skilly clamp down on one and walk it out of the house like a champ (that was actually kind of awesome) and Eric scoop up babies into my mop bucket (not quite as awesome, I made him bleach the bucket afterwards, I am not even joking, but it's still infected and that stresses me out).

But the worst part was when Skilly caught one last forgotten mouse baby and went to show it off to his best friend Abby. At 11:30 p.m. With her screams echoing down the hall, my mommy instinct kicked in and I saved Abby's entire life by grabbing the dustpan and catching the bastard and flinging it out the door (took two tries, freaking out again just thinking about it, living in the country is overrated). I must really love that kid.

...And so that's why I haven't been writing real posts. The end.

P.S. Today is the 20th anniversary of my first date with Eric. I'd do one of those little heart emoticons but I don't know how.