ROUS meets his Match

First Let me appologize for having to post this.. with any luck I will never have to post something like this again! But the whole event was just so comical that I had to write about it

Quote from Princess Bride 1987:

Buttercup: Westley, what about the R.O.U.S.'s?

Westley: Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist. [Immediately, an R.O.U.S. attacks him]

It has now been proven that the laundry shed appears to be an attractive nuisance for all ROUS's. As mentioned in a previous post an Opossum had wandered in there and made a nest out of a laundry basket full of rags. Based on the advise of several well respected opossum loving sites….and that fact that I’m a self proclaimed pacifist by nature and don’t enjoy conflict especially with rodents…I did nothing.. and hoped it would wander away to greener pastures…

Well it did… it wandered to opossum heaven.. and left me with the lovely parting gift of a unimaginable stench and the duty of disposing of it’s rotting carcass…Never did I think that these words… let alone this comparison… would come out of my mouth… but I much prefer a dead rat to a dead opossum.. Pet Louie I miss you!

So I mentioned my predicament to my BFF (Best Friend Forever).. and low and behold he came to my rescue.. ..again..

Also might I mention that Saturday happened to be the hottest day known to man.. at least so far this year in the San Diego Area.. it reached 100.. and I’m fairly near the coast!

Anywho.. we headed first to Home Depot.. where we were really thinking that they should have a isle for Rodent Removal.. apparently I would frequent that section. We had a somewhat persistent sales person come up to us to sell us a new roof…(boy have you got the wrong crowd) and Mark told sales guy what he was really interested in was if they offered opossum removal services.. cause we’ve got a dead one and he’s really stinking up the place… the sales guy backed away slowly and extricated himself from that conversation rather quickly.

So what kind of supplies does one need for rodent removal…here is what we came up with.. keep in mind we had to improvise a little

A Gas Mask---Budget option=Painters Mask ($5 for a package of 3--something tells me I should keep these on hand)

Industrial Strength Gloves---Budget Option=Rubber Cleaning Gloves ($2)

Robotic Arm (to lift the laundry basket)—Budget Option=Twisted Coat Hanger (Free)

Toxic Waste Suit---Budget Option-Trash Bag Converted to Plastic Body Armor ($0.70 per bag)

Anti Stench Chamber—Budget Option= 3 Commercial Strength Trash Bags thrown into a dumpster ($0.70 per bag)

One Brave Soul with Gag Reflexes of Steel ($2 …that only cost me a 32 ounce slurpee for payment.. best Two Dollars ever spent!)

Stench free laundry room PRICELESS!

See picture above of Mark modeling this marvel of ingenuity.. which had me laughing for hours..

Mark ventured out to the laundry area, hooked the laundry basket with the twisted hanger and dragged it out to the patio.. then he did the unthinkable.. he actually looked underneath the rags in the basket.. and found what can only be described as an opossum explosion.. which he said (at the time.. he now has retracted this statement) was the grossest thing he had ever seen and that never had his gag reflexes been so strong. (Now he says it was definitely in the top 5 Grossest). I of course did not look. We (and when I say we I mean Mark.. cause I was still inside watching from the sliding glass door) tripled commercial trash bagged the entire laundry basket threw it in the back of the truck and dumped it in the a neighboring dumpster (a couple block away). Never to be seen again!

After the horror was over we wondered what could possibly have happened to this thing? I thought it might have been poisoned by the rat bait stations and tried to find a confortable place to sleep it off.. maybe another animal attacked it?... Come to find out when I described these events to Alycia her dad said that dead animals can actually explode due to the gases in their bodies mixed with heat. You learn something new everyday…somethings you don’t even want to know!


See above for comic strip that Mark made to put this in perspective… I think this is worth 10,000 words…

But all I can say is EEEEEEEWWWWWW!

Marvel Less Technology

So I have a virtual fax line for my consulting work. If you are unfamiliar with this concept.. your faxes go through your email and are saved there until you decide to delete them. If any of you have a need for such a thing it is marvelous.. not to have to get up from your desk to fax... priceless!

Today I got a mysterious fax …. I usually don't get random faxes.. and of all things it was a order form for a raffle tickets?.. Obviously this was a case of mistaken identity or mistaken fax number.. but now I have all this unsuspecting persons credit card info including their name, billing address and even... the security code on the back of the card...Big Oops...(hmmm...if only I knew their limits.. just kidding:)

So 2 thoughts sprang to mind:

1. Wouldn't it be interesting if this was some sort of psychological honesty test.. you get someone else's credit card info on accident.. do you go on a shopping spree?.. do you try to contact them?... do you do absolutely nothing and go on with your day? I now am very curious about how the percentages would turn out? I like to think I live in a bubble of fairly honest people... so I wonder what it's really like out there in the REAL world. Maybe I should take a poll.. or test this out?

2. Makes me wonder how much confidential information gets into the hands of the common person by mistake... seriously with the slip of one digit on the fax machine or one mistaken email click you could get into some serious trouble.... how much of my information could be floating around? Scary thought!

Well I did what any responsible person would do... I sent a fax back letting them know they'd mistakenly sent it to me.. If I got a fax like that I think I'd cancel that card and change my name...

Tribute to Fathers Day

Picture Entitled "What Dad's do with kids action figures"

Got this picture emailed to me this weekend and thought it was appropriate for a post on Fathers Day. For the only daughter in the family I thought it was hilarious cause this seems like something my dad and brothers would appreciate.

Happy Fathers Day Dad! Love you!

Opposum, Oh Possum

Apparently I shouldn't have been fretting about what to write about last week... something crawled up to my lap.. or into my laundry basket...again...

So Alycia told me that she saw something in the laundry room (is this sounding vagly familar?).. not sure what it was.. but she promptly high tailed it out of there as soon as she saw something fuzzy in the laundry basket. She's always seems to be in the right place at the right time.

Next day...I braved it.. and went out there and sure enough an opposum had curled up next to the dryer.

So I went online to see what kind of advice they have for a situation such as this.. and found the opposum lovers crackpot club..

Just in case your up for some facinating reading here are some of the gems I came up with When you type "what to do when there is an opposum in your garage" into google (keep in mind that this is only searching for 2 seconds.. who knows what else is out there)

"I wouldn't get to close to it because it could have rabies. Get a Labrador dog and he will do that opossum in! Your problem will go away if you get a Labrador Dog."--Yet another reason to get a dog.. perhaps the main reason?

"Opossum in your garage: If an opossum wanders into your garage, it will also wander out. If you need to, you can encourage it to leave by making a trail of food leading out. Once you are sure the opossum has left, just shut the door."--Shut The Door! Now why didn't I think of that?

"They rarely have rabies and actually help to “clean up” your yard since they eat pests (cockroaches, rats, snakes, spiders, snails, slugs) and dead fruits from trees. The opossum will likely be moving on in short order and will not be of concern. "--Pest Control.. unfortunatly opposums are still pests?

"Just give them a chance. You might enjoy the benefits that they have to offer you. After all, they not only help control pests but are also living time capsules"--Still not invisioning where this is going.. time capsules?

And my personal fav:

"Opossums are solitary, reclusive animals that often are not understood or appreciated and the result can be traumatic and disastrous for them. Because they are basically defenseless, despite giving the appearance of being able to defend themselves, they have often been the target of unnecessary cruelty, especially in urban areas. A better knowledge and understanding of opossums and the benefits of having them as neighbors are essential to a peaceful coexistence."--More words are hardly necessary

And the visual... friend or foe.. you decide...

Here Kitty Kitty

So a friend of mine just emailed me a bunch of pictures from the last couples months... FINALLY.. I had been begging for a couple weeks at least.

Anyhow in the batch was the one above.. I was at a Farmer's Market in Santa Monica and they has an adopt a pet section... and aparently I got really into it...making kissy faces to the cats and all... and the sad thing is I don't even remember doing this!

Wish I could have taken a pet home... maybe some day when I'm older and can handle that kind of responsibility or when I get a backyard... one step at a time :)

Kicking off June 2008 San Diego Style

San Diego is the Best! This is how I kicked off June 2008...beach walk and sunset at La Jolla Shores. Sometimes I still can't believe I live here. :)

Cupcake Bliss

So Designer Cupcakes have been all the rage lately.. so much so that I even named my wireless network Cupcake (how’s that for super cutesie?!)…if you haven’t heard about the cupcake craze.. it’s time to get educated.

But for all those that could care less…the cliff notes version: there have been know to be Bakeries in swanky places like Beverly Hills (Sprinkles) and New York City (Magnolia Bakery) were you can get ONE normal small size cupcake for $3.00 or more.. I know I thought it was insane too. Yes I admit I have fallen prey to these places…I have been to Magnolia Bakery and the cupcakes really are good.. I don’t know about 3 dollars good.. but you’re also paying a premium for the designer reputation and bragging rights… so I'd like to think that evens it out?

Well I volunteered to make the dessert for my friend Lisa’s Bridal Shower BBQ (That’s all the rage now too.. j/k). And I decided to spoil my friends and went all out at Williams Sonoma which has the “Sprinkles” Cupcake Mix.. which is like $14 a box (personally I think they spend a lot of that on the sleek packaging which is a cylinder, not a flimsy cardstock box like normal cake mixes… See above picture comparison and tell me what you think). I did my decorative frosting job on these babies and even frosting monogrammed them for the Bride to Be. (Ya I know I went a bit overboard)

And to that end I had a lot of extra frosting... so bright idea...why not make some more cupcakes for Break the Fast tomorrow for church (Break the Fast is a potluck type get together right after church on the first Sunday of each month). Well I wasn’t about bake designer cupcakes for a potluck free for all (Each bite of a Designer Cupcake has to be savored!) so I made the normal cake mix variety but I decorated them almost identical to the cupcakes for the bridal shower sans the monogramming. My roommate (who saw me bake the bridal shower batch but never actually saw me make the imposter batch) was convinced that these were the real deal (until she actually ate one.. she is a dessert conisuier) and she ended up telling some of her friends that these were the famous Sprinkles brand best cupcakes ever... which was awesome... they were gone in millisecond. … behold the amazing power of branding or some really fancy frosting.

And that is how I spent my weekend in Cupcake Bliss