Current Scorecard

The current tally is 10 mice and 3 moles killed around the house. I am really getting tired of having to dump mice carcasses. I was doing some thinking about it. We have lived here for coming up on 12 years. and we had never had a problem with mice outside until about 3 or 4 years ago. I think it has something to do with our neighbors. Their yard is a mess and their garage is even worse. It is a perfect breeding ground for them. I wonder if I can get in trouble for tossing poison in their yard.

Four Days Later

Milwaukee made the news last week with the floods we had around here after the torrential rains that blew through. We were fine, but the clinic across the street is right up against a small branch of the Menomonee River. Whenever we get a heavy rain it will flood over a small portion of the parking lot. Well when I was driving home last night I happened to look and see the parking lot was still flooded and there was also a car still underwater over there. I thought it was pretty funny that car was still there four days later.

Storm

I took these pictures from the parking lot at work just before the storm hit Thursday night. These photos do not do justice to the actual color of the sky at the time. It was a dark, funky green-grey color, and you could hear the tornado sirens going off in the distance. Then the wind whipped up and I went back inside, which was a good thing because the sky just opened up after that. I ended up staying late at work waiting for the rain to let up. I also figured that based on how hard the rain was coming down, and that the road I normally take was under construction, I was thinking there was going to be some flooding, but I had no idea how much.

It took me forever to get home once I finally did leave. My normal way home was flooded, as I thought, so I tried an alternate route. I got a little way and then ran into a flooded road. Then I tried a different way... also flooded. In all I hard to turn around 5 times before I finally found a dry road that I could take all the way home, and I had to go thru an area where the water was about ten inches deep to get there. I left work at 6:30 and got in the door at 7:12. Almost 45 minutes to go 6 miles.

We got lucky though. We saw onteh news a huge sink hole that opened up in Milwaukee on North and Oakland (just down from where Kris and I met). It ended up swallowing an Escalade and the stop light. There were also shots from many of the north shore suburbs... all about 3-4 feet underwater.

I-43 near Nicolet high school was shut down because there was construction going on and teh drainage grates had been covered resulting in completely flooding out the road. The high school itself had 3-4 feet of water in it (from what I heard). I am just glad I was able to get home. I had heard that one of the guys I work with who had to drive to the south side of Milwaukee spent 4 hours trying to get home (normally about a 30 minute drive). I don't know what the official total was but Kris told me that at 6:00 the weather guy pulled out a rain gage that they had at the station. Its capacity was 7" and it was completely full to the top, which was just over an hour from when it started.

Shopping

The girls had a bunch of gift cards from Christmas that had not been used so we took them to the mall this afternoon to use them. Maybe it is just me getting old but what is the deal with Abercrombie & Fitch? I am not talking about the ridiculous prices, I am talking about the music that they blare in the store. I mean could they have it any louder? I was five feet away from Sarah and I couldn't hear what she was saying. Then, Kris went with Sarah into the dressing room to try on some shirts while Ali and I waited. They came out and Kris said something to me, I assume about how well they fit. However, since I couldn't hear a world she said, I just nodded and said 'yeah'. I just hope I didn't agree to pay $200 for a couple of shirts.

But overall, the girls picked out some cute clothes (no thanks to me). We ended our trip at Barnes & Noble where the girls picked out a couple of new books. Ali got a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, and Sarah bought a Percy Jackson book. Sarah was lookign for Breaking Dawn, but they didn't have it unless it was in a box set,and since she already has the first three twilight books, we didn't need to get them again. So we are just going to wait until they get some more in. Either that of go to a different store. But we were sort of tired at that point so we just headed for home.

I should note, we wasted a beautiful day in the mall. It was 87 today and sunny. Not a cloud in the sky. So instead of taking care of the yard, we went shopping. That sounds pretty smart to me.

Careless

You would think that with having to knock down five wasp's nests so far this year that I would be more on the lookout for them. Sadly, today I was not.

I decided to cut the grass when I got home from the body shop. Kris told me that the forecast was that there was supposed to be rain tomorrow afternoon, so I thought if I could get it done tonight I would be in good shape for having free time this weekend. So I started out with the mower next to the garage walking toward the back lot line. I had gone about 25 feet when something hit me in the neck. It felt like someone had flicked my neck, right behind my left ear. I made it about another 5 feet and then the burning started. I turned to look and on the back of the shed there was a wasp nest about the size of my palm. There were probably about 20 wasps hanging from it.

Normally I am always looking on the sides of the house, on the soffits, in the peaks of the roof, etc. But I was careless and I got stung. This was the first time I was stung by a wasp/bee/horner since I was about 12 I think. I remember getting stung on the arm at Steve Thompson's house by a hornet. I must have been either 12 or 13. But other than that, I have gotten away.

I went inside and Kris insisted I take a Benedryl (which I HATE because it puts me in a fog) and some ibuprofen. Luckily I'm not allergic. It's been three hours and my neck is still tingly. At least I'm not all swollen up.

Oh, and the wasp nest lasted all of 30 seconds. I went and sprayed that thing immediately.

Trip to the Body Shop

Thursday I had to take Kris's car to the body shop to get some work done. A couple of months ago while washing the car I noticed a spot on the hatchback where the paint was cracked, right next to the passenger side tail light. We had some work done there a couple of years ago and I thought that when they fixed it they must not have rust-proofed the base metal properly. Well I was wrong.

When the guy from the body shop looked, he noticed a dent, a very small subtle dent. That is what caused the paint to crack and the metal to rust. So I had the guy work me up and estimate... $700! Just to knock out a small dent that is virtually unnoticeable. I wasn't going to involve the insurance company, but that was when I was expecting the cost to be about $75 to touch up the paint. Well, it is what it is I guess.

The good thing about it is that they got it taken care of in a day. Dropped off the night before and picked up when I got home from work. That was good. I swear though, with the trouble we have had with this car I feel jinxed!

Rodents

A couple of weeks ago, Kris noticed her potted flowers getting all dug up. About a day later, I noticed a chipmunk running underneath the hosta leaves. So I broke out the chipmunk trap, and less than 12 hours later, I had it caught. As always, Kris and the girls won't let me kill it, so I have to drive it over to the Bugline and let it loose.

I reset the trap, and again, within a day I had another chipmunk. I reset it again, but this time, the trap was tripped without anything inside. After looking at the trap, I figured that something must have gotten inside that was big enough to steal the peanuts, but still small enough to fit through the bars of the trap. The obvious culprit? A mouse.

The next thing to do was to set some mouse traps. When I checked the traps i the morning, i had two mice snapped in the traps. I was on my way to work, so I just left them. I figured they weren't going anywhere, right? By the time I got home to toss the dead bodies, I discovered that the body of one mouse was now gone. Oh sure, the head was still in the trap, but everything below the neck was gone. I don't know what happened to it, because in the morning when I checked, it had a body. Something obviously came along and ate the part that was hanging out of the trap.

So far in the last two weeks, I have trapped 5 chipmunks, killed (3) mice and (1) mole. This was the latest prisoner that was captured today and released this evening.:

School Supply Shopping

We hit the store today to start shopping for school supplies. We are going to be on vacation during supply shopping season and by the time we get back we were thinking that things would be very picked over. Sarah is had her list and we started going class by class getting notebooks, loose-leaf, folders, pencils, etc. The experience was great. Walmart had all the supplies out and we were the only ones in the aisle. It was much better than last year when we were picking through binders and notebooks, trying to find the right colors and sizes. I think Sarah is pretty much finished with her supplies. We need a few small items yet, but those will be easy to pick up. It’s nice knowing that Sarah is all finished. Now we just need to focus on clothes for school. That will be next week.

Parade 2010

The annual Menomonee Falls parade went off as it does every year. And every year, it pains me to have to sit and try and stake off a spot ahead of time. But the parade itself was pretty good. lots of bands, lots of flags, firetrucks, people throwing candy... I suppose it was worth it. We sat and watched, talked with friends and the kids all had a good time. I was even nice enough to let a little boy come sit down on the curb.




We heard about a nasty incident a few years ago where some crazy parents went off because a little girl tried to squeeze up front to see the parade. It almost came to blows as the parents went back and forth about their "spot". Ridiculous! It's just a freaking parade! And if you can't let a little kid squeeze up front to see the fun, then there is something seriously wrong.




The only drawback was that we didn't really have a good spot afterward for the fireworks. We just moved out chairs across the street since the fireworks were being shot off directly behind where we were sitting, but we had houses and trees behind us. We figured we would be able to see pretty well just by going across the street. The only problem was that the fireworks weren't shot high enough. We saw most of them, but there were some that didn't clear the trees. I guess we'll plan a little better next year.

That Time Again

It is time for the annual dash for spots along the Menomonee Falls Independence Day Parade route. We are going to sit with a couple other families this year so I wanted to make sure we got a decent spot and had enough room for everyone. The way I figure it, we'll have about 25 people sitting in our group.

I got off of wort at 5:00 and decided I should try and see what it looked like along the route already, so I drove home along the parade route. It's a good thing I did. I wasn't planning on going out until about 6:00, but at 5:15, spots were being taken quickly. Technically parade goers are not allowed to stake off spots until 7:00 PM the night before, but people were sitting in front of the areas they were planning on claiming with their materials for staking off their spots... stakes, string, ropes, tape, etc. So as soon as I got home I changed and just got back in my car and drove back to sit and wait. I found a spot that I think is large enough about 10 feet down from where we were sitting last year. Not too shabby, and I didn't have to fight anyone for the spot (I wouldn't have but it sounds good to say I was ready to throw down.)

Pictures and a report of the parade and fireworks to follow.