Today

[lawnrrd]

Today is packing, organizing, and otherwise getting ready to move next Saturday. The movers themselves will be doing the bulk of the packing, but we are putting most stuff in storage, which means we have to set aside the stuff that goes to the new apartment.

We keep an umbrella stand outside the door to our apartment. Somehow it got moved from the place where it has rested for three years. This revealed a large pile of dust containing a mouse skeleton. I don't want to think about what that implies.

Last night we saw Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, which was riotously funny. I recommend it. After the movie I went to pucette's wedding after-party.

Meanwhile, the floodgates of the heavens have just opened and the thunder and the lightning and the downpours of doom. So it's back to packing.

Comments

[starkyld.livejournal.com]

this is probably an awful question, but did you happen to save the skeleton?

[lawnrrd]

You know, my best friend in college was a physical anthropology major who had a pet cat skeleton whom she named Henle, after something called the "loop of Henle." She practiced taxidermy as a hobby (I once visited her after college and she had a badger in her freezer) and is now an internist in Horseheads, New York. After that, I'm supposed to think it's awful that you want my mouse skeleton?

Unfortunately, the skeleton was not intact, having been jostled for an indeterminate time behind the umbrella stand. Besides, no matter how I feel about the matter, there was no way Lauren would tolerate keeping the skeleton around. So it has been disposed of.

Sorry.

[starkyld.livejournal.com]

drat.

s'okay. thought it was worth checking. ;-)

[rosemarymint.livejournal.com]

I can give you some live mice (or fresh dead, however you prefer). They contain the skeleton though it would require some excavation work

Lemme know

this message brought to you by the serious house of mouse -- where all the rodents live like royalty

[starkyld.livejournal.com]

nah, s'okay. i'm no good at skeletonising corpses. i just thought i'd ask in case there happened to be a suitable and available one. if i get a serious jonesing for anatomical displays, i can just go down to evolution in soho to buy one (or swipe one from the lab in my department...kidding! just kidding! really!).

[lawnrrd]

When my physical anthropologist friend needed a corpse skeletonized, she went to her department's "beetle bin." I always thought it best to ask as few questions as possible about that bin, but maybe someone on campus could help you out.

[rosemarymint.livejournal.com]

That sounds similar to how some shellers clean their haul.

Generally it involves a hole in the ground and a few weeks.

[starkyld.livejournal.com]

we don't have a beetle bin. we boil our bones down instead.

[rosemarymint.livejournal.com]

I guess your rodents liked your place so much that they never wanted to leave.

[lawnrrd]

The whole block has a mouse problem. The buildings are old, Union Square is across the street, there's a restaurant, a grocery, and a Petco (think bags and bags of pet food), and there's construction, which always sends the little critters scrambling.

A shared dedication to rodent control would be a big help and would lighten the burden on local kitty shelters, but that's not going to happen. So we fight the good fight and do what we can. Every few months we cat-sit, getting some professional mouse control help as a bonus. It's not a perfect world.

[rosemarymint.livejournal.com]

I've got an infestion like you wouldn't believe. Just last night I was woken up by one little moving brown furry turd that ran across the back of my bed, squeeking the entire time.

[lawnrrd]

Sounds as though you need to call in the Marines.

[rosemarymint.livejournal.com]

I'd love some military back up, but it's against my lease and the landlord would be the type to do something really shitty if I did bring in the troops.

You'd think, that in a neighborhood full of stray cats, that this place wouldn't have the trouble it has....

[lawnrrd]

Actually, it makes perfect sense. Any mice outside probably flee to your building any way they can, frantically squeaking, "Sanctuary! Sanctuary!"

[rosemarymint.livejournal.com]

So that's what they are screaming in the middle of the night.

Must learn to speak mouse.

[medusadreaming.livejournal.com]

hey, i'm in minneapolis... i slept in the airport last night because my flight out of new york was delayed and i missed my connection. anyway. it's cool to have wireless in an airport. hope the packing goes smoothly and the moving, the same.

see you and lauren when i return!

jenn.