Of mice and other things

We had an intruder last night. Rick was laying on the floor watching tv and I heard him say (in a calm, yet very imperative voice) "Kristen... please bring me the flyswatter. Now, please." He never addresses me as "Kristen" unless something is going on. So when I delivered it to him, I was preparing for something bad. He wasn't even sure WHAT it was... just that something was behind the tv. How then, I wondered, would a flyswatter help, if we're not sure what it is? And...the flyswatter didn't help. All it did was bolster the courage for us to poke and prod behind the console. Sure enough, a not so little brown mouse dashed out, spun around, and dashed back behind the TV. Great. We have mice. Except at that point, we still weren't real sure it was a mouse because the sneaky fellow was so quick! To make a long story short, the little guy finally reacted to our flyswatter approach and escaped across the room into the coat closet. You know, the closet that is jam packed with stuff that we don't know what to do with. After a strategy session in The Situation Room (aka, living room) we formulated our military attack and executed it in precise formation. We secured the perimeter of the foyer where the closet is and methodically emptied the coat closet. With each piece that was removed, our collective breath sighed out, expecting our intruder to dash out. Finally, we were down to just one last box remaining in the closet. He HAD to be behind that. When it was pulled out of the way (via the hook on our fireplace poker) the little guy blazed a trail out of there. He fell right into our scheme, following the series of levies and retractable walls, corrals and one-way tunnels... right out the front door! My only regret is that I didn't capture any of this on video. The shrieks and shouts would have been funny... in retrospect that is! Other things going on: We had a GREAT 4th of July weekend. Below are a few highlights. Two days at the cabin with relaxation at the top of the list. Boiled some fresh gulf shrimp and treated Dad to a feast on the front deck. Mother was a bit snobby and brought her own sandwich. A full day at Lee & Susan's with the entire family on Saturday... minus Tod and Robyn, Tyler, Lindsey and Kati. We finally get to meet Kati next weekend. That is, of course, if the Dept of Homeland Security comes to their senses and agrees that Kati is not a 4 year old terrorist. Learned a fun new dice game called Farkle Fireworks for our #6 anniversary, back at the scene of the crime! Planned a trip to the Grand Canyon for Mom and Dad, Craig and Carolyn. In the picture below, they are testing out my car for the journey to see if Dad can sit behind Craig. I'm not sure about that... A new week has begun, and I'm already feeling swamped. One thing at a time...