update on the little ratties

haley coined the term of "little ratties" and now i can't get enough.  and also reminded me of a time way back when, when we worked with dan black (who we all, despite our various attachments, had a wee crush on) at the state house and because he kept his desk so rife with food crumbs and half-eaten bowls of oatmeal, mice were flocking there.  he opted to catch it with a snap trap, much to my, abbey, and haley's protest.  we even offered to buy a catch-and-release trap for him, but dan black seemed more hell bent on getting us worked up by harming the mice, than actually just catching the mice and being done with it.  when the gauntlet came down on the first mouse, our crushes instantly went away and we, as haley so aptly put it, "realized that he was a douchebag."  which is a bit of a shame, because he was a whole lot of fun.

i arrived home this evening and, of course, because i am a glutton for punishment, went and checked out the basement to see if the landlord had removed the bodies of my deceased buddies.  grossness.  the trap is still there, but wait, only one rat is on it.  weirdness.  a closer inspection shows the other rat's leg to be partially gnawed off (i have heard that glue traps make them do this, which hey, if i was in the same situation and freeing myself from my leg was the kicker between life or death, i'd probably start gnawing away, too), with no sign of the missing leg parts anywhere and  no sign of the other ratty anywhere.  this is a gruesome business, people.  so nasty it is, that i have packed a very vegetarian lunch and do not plan on buying meat for some time.  i mean, this is pretty much what goes on in slaughterhouses, we, the fortunate ones, just don't have to see it.  wherever you are, little rat, i hope you're okay.  then again, brian sent me a wonderful cheer up email (thank you!) citing how the life span of an undomesticated rat is about 1 year (probably because the glue traps, snap traps, and poison eating seriously fuck with the median life span) and they chew on people's (babies, he said specifically) faces and stuff.  so, that made me feel a little less bad and now seeing the wild cannibalism (for survival - i'm giving freed ratty the benefit of the doubt) of the basement situation now, i can see they are truly out for themselves, these rats.  moreover, i'm wondering if freed rat is limping around with his bro's leg/foot still stuck to him (this is the only reason i can imagine he'd gnaw it off)?  imagine that in real life, guys (or don't, if you're feeling particularly chipper today...).  like, i love my friends and stuff, but i don't know if i could bear walking around with abbey's severed arm stuck to my side.  actually, the latter half of that sentence sounded like something that could be a title of a morrissey song.

it's autumn and chilly and wonderful outside.  it's so lovely, i can walk around sans ipod accompaniment and simply delight in the deliciousness of the weather.  and of course, i'm still madly in love with provolone the dog.  i want to call and inquire about him, but since my move is still quite awhile away, i don't want to get the shelter's (or his, really) hopes up.  if it is meant to be, it will be.  but that picture still cracks me up.  i want that face (though not exclusively that face, just so we're clear.  i love animals, but not in that creepy tote-bag-with-a-face-of-my-dog-on-it-to-hold-my-reader's-digests way) waking me up every morning to go running.

speaking of running, i need to start doing it again.  working next to flour bakery has enabled a ritual of getting something delicious with veronica almost daily.  today was apple snacking cake, which is a heavenly combination of locally-grown apples, lots of cinnamon, dark chocolate chips, cakeyness, and powdered sugar.  oh, and most likely lots of butter, which gives it its golden richness.  the other day, it was a southern peach corn cake (cake cake cake).  all are delicious and hard to resist.  but without running, this ritual is making me feel a bit rolypoly, so i plan on getting it crack-a-lackin' again this weekend.  veronica and i are in talks to go apple picking, which i've never done before, but am ridiculously excited about.  this means that i will likely be making lots and lots of homemade apple pies and cobbles.  i am also thinking of taking a stab at making and canning my own apple butter and giving jars as little stocking stuffers for the holidays.  canning is serious business, though, and i feel like i will need assistance.  perhaps i will enlist some of my epicure pals for a canning party come october/november.  go about canning the wrong way and all your jars can be contaminated with weird, sickness-inducing buggies (bacteria), and that is really no way to make/keep friends - over the holidays especially.

i am excited for the weekend.  this week has been utterly grueling at work, what with the submission of spending plans looming and my pseudo-supervisor (not the cool one i've mentioned before, but rather the aforementioned "going postal" one) having full-scale weeping sessions at the drop of a hat.  it's not the weeping that weirds me out (i usually console her), it's the odd, desolate, psychopathic demeanor she has afterwards (she often speaks in riddles, keeps to herself, and sighs A LOT).  Basically, she's super mentally and emotionally unstable and it shows.  pair that with managing ~$1B dollars at the granular level and you've got a catastrophe on your hands.  so, when she doesn't do her work, i cannot do mine, and this week has been an example of me doing both of our work, because she's consistently losing her shit over something small and throws in the towel.  i'm not trying to bash her - i actually feel kinda sad that this is SOP for her.  but, hey, it's a job.  compose yourself from 9-5 and feel free to act bat shit crazy the rest of the day/night.  so, i'll be glad to sleep in and actually experience the sun.  it also looks like there are some cool pub crawls going on in my friend sphere, so i might also get reacquainted with the world of booze and having fun.  wild concepts, but i think i can handle it.