ksmith | Sunday, late morning, with mice

I've trapped 5 mice in the basement so far. One on Wednesday, two on Thursday, and one each on Friday and Saturday. There's still at least one left, a challenging beast that sometime during the night managed to chew its way out of the cheap plastic trap. I now have a metal trap in place, baited with peanut butter. I hope this is the last mouse.

I spent part of yesterday capping the dryer vent outlet, which I am pretty sure was the entry. I know that there have been times when Gaby flushed things from under the deck and chased them alongside the house--all the mice would have had to do is hop into the vent outlet and down the vent pipe they would go. I have part of the vent pipe duct-taped, and discovered a few days ago that the tape had worked loose. That would have been the hole they'd have used to get into the basement.

The vent outlet itself was jammed in the open position thanks to an accumulation of lint. I'm lucky that mice haven't gotten into the basement before now.

So. Holes are taped, and vent is capped with screen. Traps are set, including one in the kitchen cupboard justincase. I hope they haven't wandered upstairs. No signs so far, so fingers crossed. I stash extra foodstuffs in the basement, and so far have lost 3-4 bags of dried beans and a couple of bags of brown sugar during this onslaught. Anything with a hole chewed in it got tossed. I washed the outsides of the untouched bags of beans with bleach solution--they're now stored upstairs in a large plastic bin.

I'm having a rib-eye steak for dinner tonight, because I need it. With wine.

Is anyone going to give the new version of The Prisoner a go tonight? I was going to, but then I saw that the Blackhawks are playing the Sharks at the same time. So, I'll be DVR'ing The Prisoner. I've heard it'd gotten good reviews, but Patrick MacGoohan made a strong impression on me during my formative years. Not sure if Jim Caviezel (sp?) is up to the challenge.

Finally, a friend and I have tickets to see New Moon this coming Friday. I know that the books don't have many fans around here, but I liked Twilight the Movie. What I've heard about the books makes me fear I wouldn't like them as much--Bella's whining and Edward's ubercontrolling behavior. I prefer the Harry Potter movies to the books because the story seems more vivid to me on film than in print, and it's possible that the same might prove true with the Twilight books.