My week - my semester

Only two of the first five weeks of the semester have been full five-day weeks.  First we had a hurricane (Week 2), then we had Labor Day (Week 3) - this week (Week 5) we had a bomb threat! I'm just going to link some interesting tweets from Heavy.com (note, supposedly Mike the Tiger was evacuated before the faculty and students were notified). The perpetrator is in jail, and I'm just assuming his motive was to spend the next 35 years there.  Because seriously, this crime is somewhere between yelling fire in a crowded movie house and domestic terrorism. You just don't do that!

Mike the Tiger (Wikipedia)

Last Friday I had my own excitement (see below). I've spent most of this week helping a friend and neighbor move. I'm giving an exam tomorrow, teaching, then I'm coming home to collapse!

Success?

Wednesday night - spring trap sprung - suspect possibly injured.
Thursday afternoon - entry holes filled with industrial foam; five sticky traps set. Maintenance on alert.
Thursday night - no nocturnal visitors. Yay!

I'm not wild about sticky traps, but I wasn't about to share my apartment with anything larger than an m-o-u-s-e with the leaping capabilities of Rocky the Flying Squirrel.

Friday night, 12:27 am (technically Saturday) - Scratching noises in the front room.

oh. no.  I'm going to have to deal with this alone.

Put on shoes and a long sleeved sweater for protection, pick up an old telescoping curtain rod. Turn on the light in the front room.

Eww.
It's a dirty, filthy [rodent that's larger than an m-o-u-s-e]  -- sorry, Dad!

Screw courage to the sticking point (pun intended)...

Set up paper sack (with handles!) on the porch. Stick curtain rod onto sticky trap.  Slide sticky trap to door.  Lift gently into sack. Consider leaving sack on porch til morning. Decide to take a little walk to the dumpster -- keys and pepper spray in one hand, sack in the other.

Compartmentalize... rationalize... justify... it's my apartment, damn it!

Moral of the story:  Sticky traps work.  I hope I only need one of them.

Guess that critter!

Hint: it's not Mickey!

Two nights ago I was awakened by a noise in the front room. I went out to investigate, but found nothing. Figuring someone had walked past the open window with heavy boots, I went back to bed. Imagine my surprise when the next afternoon I discovered that something had nibbled my $2.79 per pound Jazz (tm) apples in the fruit bowl on the table!

This has happened once before, in 2010 -- at the time, I accused my houseguest of importing a foreign mouse into my apartment. Immediately I went out and bought two kinds of traps: the traditional "I'll snap you in two" trap and the humane live trap. The critter could decide which one he'd rather nibble from. The spring trap was tripped one night but nothing was caught. Whatever it was got a little bolder and nibbled some Zotter Matcha drinking chocolate. But the disturbances didn't last, and I figured s/he just got bored with the offerings in my apartment.

 Last night I awoke to a crash -- dreading what I might find, I peered into what passes for a dining room in my third story 1-bedroom flat. A small glass bud vase had toppled from a shelf, and took a piece out of a larger flower vase below. Whatever it is is herbivorous, preferring apples and house plants to peanut butter in the spring trap. It also jumped onto the shelf, a distance of 2-3 feet. I'm not convinced it's a mouse... other suggestions are "that rodent bigger than a mouse" (I don't dare write it out, 'cos my murophobic dad reads my blog), a squirrel, a bunny, an escaped ferret or the ever popular "nootria" (the one that lives in the garbage disposal and eats leftover pizza).

 Any other suggestions? I'm going to have my camera ready tonight -- and a list of symptoms for bubonic plague and the hantavirus bookmarked on my computer!

Random thought of the day

SINCE WHEN did this come back in style?! The gym shorts that we abhorred in junior high (in Central Baby Hawklet red and white, of course) are now some sort of fashion statement. Everyone is wearing them - at least all the girls on campus. Oh sure, they call them "running shorts" and they have other colors (neon is hot these days). But you can't fool me... they're freakin' GYM SHORTS! How is that at all appropriate to wear out in public? I confess, I think I'm getting old. I don't understand pajama pants or sports bras or Crocs or flip flops as fashion statements. Anyone want to add to the list?