If by 4 you mean 4-ish, then, yes, we'll be there

We suck at being on time. Case in point: We went to a wedding yesterday that started at 4 pm. What time did we show up? 4:10. We had to sneak in a side door between between when the bridesmaids made their entrance and the bride's walk down the aisle. We actually saw the bride out in front of the church before we went in. (Sorry, Joanna.) But she did look very beautiful.

Another example: my good friend Kate's wedding (maybe people shouldn't be inviting us to weddings). The event took place up at Peaceful Valley Ranch in the mountains, and the ceremony was up above the complex in a pretty, little outdoor area, to which you had to take a shuttle. We got there so late that we actually had to ride up to the ceremony with the bride. (Sorry, Kate.) She also looked very beautiful.

I remember a conversation Chris and I had one night (before Chubbs was born) as we were driving to meet friends at a bar, and we were late as usual:
Me: I think we're just doomed to be that family that always shows up late to everything.
Chris: Don't be so pessimistic; maybe we can change. We should work on that.
Me: Yeah, maybe, but I'm really not seeing it.
Chris: We could make sure we schedule things really well and start leaving early for things.
Me: uncontrollable laughter. Umm, sure.

Nope, we're doomed.

I think I'm being played

Why is it that every time I put Chubbs down for a nap, he sleeps for an hour, tops, and then wakes up and wants to eat?  When Chris puts him down, he'll sleep for two to three hours without a peep.  This morning he slept for an hour, then woke up all big-eyed and ready to go.  Maybe he senses that I'm a sucker and will go get him the moment he makes a noise.  I should probably stop doing that.

Oh well.  At least we can go grocery shopping before the store gets crazy.

Gross, both outside and inside

It is snowing/sleeting/raining outside today, and there are big piles of slush/snow everywhere, which means I will, under no circumstances, be heading out for a walk today.  Luckily, Morris had a long day at doggie daycare (yes, doggie daycare) yesterday, and is currently passed out in his bed.  Cormac is also passed out in his bed after a long morning of trying out convertible carseats (on which we spent waaaay too much money).

So, since I had a little time on my hands, I thought I'd clean out the fridge.  Here is a sampling of what I found:

A container with a few baby carrots and two cherry tomatoes, with a sell-by date of 2/24/08.  Covered in mold.

A small bowl of chipotle chiles in adobo sauce from who knows when.  I think these may still be  OK.

A yogurt container with some unidentifiable leftovers that look vaguely like cole slaw.  Covered  in mold.

The heels from three loaves of bread.

Two half-used bottles of teriyaki sauce.

And, drumroll please, some cut up winter squash from December of 08.  Covered in mold that  looks like blue cheese.

I took all of this, and more, out of the fridge, got overwhelmed, and put it all back in.  My reasoning was that since it is snowing/sleeting/raining outside, I wouldn't be able to take the garbage out right away, and I didn't want the squash with blue cheese mold stinking up the house.  So everything is still in the fridge, and I am online.

Easter

Because we are lucky enough to have both Chris's and my family close by, holidays are always very busy and filled with massive amounts of food. This year we had brunch at my parents' house with all the Denver family; there were 16 people there, a small fraction of the many, many relatives I have. The food was, as always, delicious. Cormac, however, was interested in something else:

Champagne - my kinda kid!

At least he had some water, too.

After Cormac woke up from a long nap (no, he didn't actually get any champagne) we headed over to Chris's Grandma's place for dinner. Cormac got to meet some of Oma's friends and munch on a bunny.

Happy Easter!

Someone get me a pin before my head floats away...

I'm feeling pretty proud of myself this evening.  I successfully accomplished several necessary and not-so-necessary-but-interesting things today.  I say successfully because sometimes I accomplish things, but they're not terribly successful.  For an example, see the previous post about laundry.

Here are today's achievements:

1. Chubbs slept until 7:15 this morning, which means I accomplished some extra sleep.

2. Combined a walk for Morris with a nap for Chubbs and a trip to the local bike store for a tire patching kit.  I love multitasking.

3. Fixed the tire on our stroller with said tire patching kit.  This also required getting the tire off the wheel, which was no small feat. 

4. Figured out how to make this blog look way more interesting.  Html=confusing.

5. Chubbs napped in his crib for both his morning and afternoon naps, with only one minor awakening.  Hallelujah!  Apparently the kid just wanted to be swaddled.  Although now he looks like a mini sarcophagus.

6. And last, but not least, I wore real clothes (read: not sweatpants) for four whole hours!

I totally rock.

Laundry

Laundry is a never-ending problem at our house.  Not so much the lack of clean clothes as the abundance of them.  In the wrong place.  I don't mind doing laundry because I can put a load in and go do other things; it makes me feel very productive.  But I hate putting laundry away, which is how we end up with situations like this:

Houdini Mice

If you live in an old house, you probably have mice. And since our house is almost 100 years old, this equals lots of mice. I promise we are not gross people; we don't leave food randomly about the house. Actually, that would be impossible because Chompy would get to it before any mouse. Anyway, we do, in fact, keep the house clean (messy, but clean).

At first, I thought the mice were cute, and I was rather upset when I came home one day to find a dead mouse floating in a bowl in the sink. Once I got over the sadness/grossed-out-ness, I disposed of the mouse using a glove, several paper towels, and two plastic bags. But how on earth did the mouse get into the bowl in the first place?

At first, I wanted to find a humane way of getting the mice out of our house. We tried these traps that just catch the mice but don't kill them. But then I realized that I would have to drive a ways away from the house in order to let the mouse go. Otherwise they would just come back. Plus, the day I brought the no-kill traps home, Chompy caught one in his mouth and squished it enough that I had to put the thing out of its misery. No-kill, not so much.

Once I stopped finding the mice cute (because they are hanta-virus-carrying little bastards that poop on my kitchen counter), we moved on to more serious methods of extermination. We tried the snap traps, but the results were just gross. Then Slim suggested the use of sticky traps, as he had had some success with them in his childhood. The problem is, the mice just stick to them; they don't die. So that means you have to pick up a trap with a still-wriggling mouse attached to it. And sometimes the mouse has managed to drag itself several feet while still attached to the trap, which makes the whole situation even more grim.

Even though I find the sticky traps unbearable to dispose of, I will admit that they work. So I put a couple in the basement to catch the mice that are too chicken to venture out on the kitchen counter. When I went to check on them the next day, I found one trap full. One. The other one had disappeared. Seriously. I looked everywhere - under piles of clothes, behind boxes, underneath the furnace. Nothing. I have no idea where the thing could have gone.

So we probably have a dead mouse rotting away in our basement. Awesome. Could explain the smell...