Three Hundred Fiftieth Entry

I didn't blog yesterday! ADM!! Sunday can be day of rest, journaling included?

Maybe Sunday is a day of journaling rest, but not for any other kind of rest! Amy and I had a very busy day. Whilst Amy was cleaning and cooking, I took on the task of taking down all of the Christmas decorations. We must have had 846 ornaments on the tree because it took HELLA long to take down the tree. Once the ornaments were off, I removed the lights and packed everything away. I made the mistake of trying to put the ornaments into their original boxes. It was quite an ordeal. I should have just shoved everything into random boxes. it would have saved me half an hour. We decided we needed more decoration storage, so the decision was made to go to Target and get some! We also decided that we would go to Target in Emeryville, and in the same trip go to Bevmo and Ikea.

We first went to Bevmo. There was no parking! We had to park in the back by all the dumpsters and stuff. After walking an hour and a half to the store, we strolled every aisle in the store. They have so many different beers, wines and liquors. I got a bottle of Flor de Cana rum. One of my old co-workers brought me back some when he visited Nicaragua, and I've had a taste for it ever since. We also got five six-packs of beer, a bottle of cachaca for caipirinhas and a couple other things I can't remember.

Then we went to Target. They didn't have hardly any parking either! I couldn't believe all the traffic there. I was shocked at how little parking there was. We parked over by the Panera and made the hike to the store. They didn't have any more ornament storage boxes! Boo... We still got a few boxes to put the other decoration boxes and wrapping paper into.

Finally we made it to Ikea! It was 6-ish, and we were staving. So we headed to the restaurant first. The meatballs and potatoes were delicious! I had some Lingonberry juice and almost immediately regretted it. I had a headache all afternoon, and since I hadn't had any coffee all day, it was almost certainly a caffeine headache. I should have had a Pepsi or a Dr. Pepper. I probably would have had trouble sleeping if I did have the soda. We got a very nice looking buffet to match the table and chairs we got the night before.

Once we got home, I started to put the buffet together. That was at about 8pm. I didn't finish putting the furniture together until 12:30! It took me like four hours to put together the stupid thing. Meanwhile, Amy was shredding chicken and chopping up the pieces of the soup she had started making earlier in the day.

About halfway through putting together the furniture, I hear a shriek and "come here!" Amy had seen a mouse run into the kitchen! It was hiding under the oven. Our oven has the main space, where you bake stuff, a broiler drawer underneath, about two inches of hollow steel underneath that, and then about a one inch gap between the metal and the floor. I got down and looked under, and it wasn't there. I opened the oven and broiler and it wasn't there either. It's in the hollow metal space. I tried to scare the mouse out, but it wasn't coming.

I went back to work on the furniture. But it would be interrupted work. Every two or three steps I would get summoned urgently to the kitchen because the mouse would be sticking his head out and walk around a little bit. Every time I went into the kitchen, I would take some sort of weapon with me. The first few times was with a hammer, and when I couldn't locate it, I'd take a flip flop.

When I finally did see the mouse, he was a cute little thing! Big ol' ears, long tail...he looked like Jack from Cinderella. We (mainly me) call him Ralph. Remember Ralph and the Motorcycle? That was a fun book.

One time I just stood there behind the barrier of boxes we placed around the oven and Ralph came out. He was sniffing around, and cautiously scoping out his "pen". I had a flip flop, but I knew that by the time I got down low enough and was able to hit him with the flip flop, he would be under the oven. I did a slow wind up and flung the flip-flop at him. I just missed him as he ran under the oven. Ralph lives to fight another day...

It's late and I'd like to write about today, but I'm tired. I didn't sleep much last night and have to get up early tomorrow. Let me know if you have any sure fire mouse elimination systems. I was thinking about the hammer and there is no way that would have worked. Maybe if he was on one of those sticky pads and couldn't run away, the hammer may be a humane and painless way to kill Ralph.

Good night!