Various stuff and things!

Mouse #5 is a fast little blighter. Dark brown fur, and apparently uninterested in the food on the traps. I'm thinking of investing in a) an anvil or b) some black paint; (fake mouseholes of course! It'll run into the wall and concuss itself!) but I can't work out if the ACME website do deliveries.

There's been actual genuine sunshine today! I ventured, bleary-eyed, into the big wide world in less than a jumper for the first time in what feels like forever. I bought ice-lollies for all my housemates to celebrate the occasion.

"Some women wear foundation... other wear a sensation!" Adverts SUCK. I mean seriously. I dreamed a better advert last night. It involves an incredibly long twisty straw, and two colours of slushy liquid, carefully alternated to spell the company name when it's all been sucked through the contraption. Genius.

And, to complete the quartet of things that very few people are interested in, I'm currently watching Forrest Gump. Yay!

Jeffers, my Boy, and Technical Difficulties

The sky broadband at our student house, unreliable at the best of times, finally broke completely last week. We're trying to get it sorted; unfortunately, this makes no difference to me since my laptop's finally given up for good. It's been hopelessly crash-tastic for a long time, and my techy did the decent thing and put it out of its misery. ;)

Thank God for university computers.

So it's been a wonderful few days! My boy came down for the weekend, we went to see Pendulum, we explored Plymouth looking for a cinema (trickier than you'd think when the maps don't have a You Are Here), watched TV with my housemates, made (burned) lasagne, ate jelly and ice cream (two colours of jelly, OGM!) and went to Mutley Baptist which earned a thumbs-up from Gavin.

I'll be seeing him again this weekend... my gosh, I'm terrified. It's a beatboxing jam in Bristol. WARGH. This is the first time I'll be meeting these guys in a situation where I might be reasonably expected to actually make some sounds with my actual mouth. :S STILL, what's the worst that could happen! ...

I evicted Jeffers on Friday. I didn't want to. Michelle came upstairs and said "ANNA I think Jeffers is in the recycling, I was wondering if you could..." So I obliged, went downstairs and moved cardboard boxes around until I found him tucked inside a Fab box (remember those? David's been buying loads of them lately). I then, VERY reluctantly, took the box outside, had one last look at his tiny whiskery adorableness, and sent him running off up the road.

Which I then proceeded to feel very very guilty about for two days, until Gav told me that he'd seen a mouse in the kitchen. I saw him yesterday too, Jeffers is officially still with us. (Ok, maybe it's another mouse, but this way I don't have to picture Jeffers dying of hypothermia in a coke can.)

Anyway! Hope everyone's ok, there should be more to come soon, although how soon I don't know. Don't suppose any of you have got a computer you don't need...?

Jeffers

I'm updating my blog for two reasons; firstly, it was requested; secondly, I was mere moments away from doing it anyway; and thirdly I have something vaguely interesting to write about. I know I said two, it doesn't matter, pay attention.

There is a mouse in our house. Somebody arbitrarily called him Geoffrey, but we all call him Jeffers now. He's been living here almost as long as we have, so it's got to the point where it would be awkward to ask him to move out, you know? He keeps himself to himself, is very rarely seen, mostly stays out of everyone's way; but occasionally someone will point excitedly towards the kitchen and leap out of their seat, attention suddenly diverted from Jeremy Kyle's pearls of wisdom, and say "I just saw Jeffers!"

I've only seen him once, a brief glimpse of his furry hindquarters disappearing behind the freezer.

He's truly a remarkable rodent. Lives on air, apparently, since there's absolutely no food kept at ground level and we're generally very tidy. (Unusual for a student house, but Ben is Very Neat, fortunately for us.)

The plan was originally to have him killed. Which is, of course, the rational thing to do with vermin. But this isn't vermin, it's Jeffers, and I readily confess that I'd quite like the little chap to stay around. Thankfully he went missing presumed dead for a few weeks after that idea was suggested. Oh yes; Jeffers is smart.
That's been downgraded to the idea of a humane trap now, which I'm much more keen on.

Tonight was the most he's ever been sighted; Michelle saw him vanish behind the fridge, and Ben and David were kind of gently poking things with spatulas to see if he was behind them. There was a rather fantastic moment when he showed himself and Ben yelped. I'm jealous, I want to meet him. I want to hold him the way I used to hold the voles and fieldmice and shrews we used to see back in the days of science camp (it wasn't as geeky as it sounds, mostly we lay around in hammocks or watching sunsets from the cliff-edge). Holding rodents is amazing because their little hearts beat so fast that they actually vibrate.

I don't know whether it's wise to tell my boy that we have a mouse this way. He's been round ours for the weekend before but I'd honestly forgotten about Jeffers, his appearances are that rare. But I took Dave texting me saying I should update my blog as a green light, so here it is. Honey, I'm really looking forward to seeing you this weekend, I hope you don't mind the mouse.