OOOOOOkay

Yet another wild kingdom episode in the Johnson household tonight...
Monday they started to put a new roof on our house, and tore off all the shingles. Tuesday they ran out of new ones, so they finished up Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday night we began hearing noises in the exhaust vent over the stove. We called the Chief, because he's the handy go to guy, and he said it was probably just the flap on top loose and blowing in the wind. All day Thursday we kept hearing noises and it didn't sound like a flap on top of the house noise. It sounded like something sitting right on top of the hood in our kitchen. Thursday night Caleb climbed onto the roof and, lo and behold, no loose flap. So we're thinking if a bird has flown into this vent it's been in there at least a couple days now and is probably getting close to death. So tonight after another whole day of scratching and flapping noises, Caleb pries open the exhaust tube and peeks inside only to find himself eye to eye with a giant mouse.
For the time being, he closed back the tube and we prepared the kitchen for battle. Towels under all the doors, gloves on our hands, and tried to get Sasquatch to pay attention. When everything was ready we opened up the tube again and waited. The first attempt the mouse made to climb out Caleb tried to grab it, but it freaked out and fell back to the bottom. We then got a stick and put that into the tube... sort of a ramp apparatus for the mouse. This time it made a run for it with gusto. It jumped out of the tube, bounced off the coutertop and then hit the floor where Sasquatch quickly took interest. It got hurt bouncing off all the hard surfaces from such a great height, so it wasn't really running. This gave Squatch the chance to play with it in the kitchen. Then we had to try and keep Squatch back, get the mouse in a towel, and throw it out the back door.
One of these days I'm going to get the video camera for one of these episodes. We get all jumpy and scream and yell and I'm sure it's hilarious to watch. When we finally got the mouse outside, my heart was beating like crazy.
Here the story goes from slightly entertaining to kind of sad. The mouse was injured and Sasquatch just kept playing with it. So Caleb went to the garage and emerged with a big stick. I stayed inside for the rest of the story, but there was yet another mouse casualty in the Johnson house making the score Johnsons 2 - Mice 0.

Eco Sites

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Peace Out Mac

Tonight I am boxing up the Mac and shipping it off to its new home.  I have never quite forgiven it for dying on me last month, so I have sold it on Ebay.  I feel very good about my decision, and have already used the money to buy a non-Apple laptop that will arrive the day before Thanksgiving.  If you put that together I will be sans computer until then, so won't be quite so Johnny-on-the-spot with email.  Bon Voyage Mac.  

Here are some random pictures of B.  Taking pictures of an 11 month old is a sport unto itself.  She's quick and wants the camera, so most of my pictures of her end up like these...

http://www.bailoutsleuth.com/

Adding together the $170 billion that the Treasury Department has currently agreed to provide banks in additional capital, the $150 billion that the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve are providing to AIG and the $2 trillion that the Federal Reserve has provided banks in emergency loans brings the total assistance to $2.32 trillion.

If the estimated savings from the new tax breaks are included, the assistance would climb to $2.46 trillion. That total does not include other measures not focused directly on banks, such as Treasury Department's $200 billion in support for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration's $300 billion HOPE for Homeowners program.

I apple-ogize

I have to take it back.  They explained the whole bench thing on Saturday night.  Apparently, the Tech kids all stand on the stadium benches.  When they all start jumping up and down and what not the benches break.  So when a bench breaks they simply pass it out of the way.  Makes sense.  So I apologize (yes, I know how to spell it).

However, I really want them to catch on film the moment one of these benches breaks with 20 people standing on it.  That's gotta be at least a little funny!

I Blame Yale

This will be the first time in 40 years that Yale will not have one of its former students on the ballot as president or vice president. Not since Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew battled Hubert H. Humphrey and Edmund Muskie in 1968 has Yale been shut out.

Happy Halloween!

It's Bumble B!!

I must also comment on the Texas vs. Texas Tech game.  Not on the game itself but on the insanity of the Tech students.  Did anyone notice, sometime in the 1st half, the students passing one of the stadium benches down??  Lets walk through this...

1.  Those benches are bolted down.  So either you had to use a ridiculous amount of brute force... or you somehow smuggled some sort of drill into the stadium.  Either way it took some planning.  

2.  Those benches hold 20-25 people.  So you had to convince 19-24 other people to remove the bench they were all sitting on.  Who are these people that when some drunk frat kid goes, "Let's tear this bench out!!" you all go, "Heck ya! Lets tear this bench out!!"  And are probably a little mad they didn't think of it themselves.

3.  It was their own stadium.  Why are they always destroying their own stadium?  If you're so excited tear somebody else's stuff up... idiots.