Spasms of Sociability; also, Mice

[pameladean]

During the autumn, when I was regularly filling the bird-feeder with thistle seed, a gray mouse used to sit in the midst of the piled seed and eat happily.  There were some little black guys eating the thistle as well, but they would disappear in a flash when I came near.  I think they are probably voles.  They seem to live in the woodpile.  If they have any sense, they will stay there.  The gray mouse would sit in the feeder until I got quite close and then whip around the trunk of the mulberry that the feeder is tied to (no, don't ask) and peer out while I filled the feeder.  It got quite fat.  During our first major cold snap, my brother found the corpse of a fat gray mouse lying in the back hall in front of the cats' water bowl.  I haven't seen my fat mouse since.  I am ridiculously sad about this.  A few days later, Arwen walked into Matt's room and dropped a second gray mouse corpse at his feet.  Then the weather got warmer, and there were no more corpses.  Then it got cold again, and first Arwen spent hours staring intently at one corner of the doiwnstairs kitchen, and then I came into the upstiars kitchen and saw Aristophanes ensconced on the top shelf of the lower cabinet in the corresponding corner, staring intently into the depths of the cabinet.  Later, he was staring intently under a radiator in the library.  Raphael told me that he had been racketing arouind the library very late at night and had probably caught a mouse, at least for a whiile. In the meantime, our 23-year-old washer broke, and the nice man from Sears said that it was the gear case, which would cost $414 to fix.  So after a flurry of research and consultation, dd_b and lydy and I went out and bought a new washer at Best Buy.  When I got home I leaned my head into Raphael's office and said, "Washer!" to which Raphael immediately replied, "Mouse!"  Ari had left the mouse, not quite dead, but unbloodied, in the middle of the library.  Raphael put it outside where it could recover or not.  I hope there's a mouse grapevine and they quit trying to live with us.

On Saturday, whiile the intent staring upstairs was still going on, I went with David to Dreamhaven, which was hosting a tea to celebrate the release of Pat Wrede and 1crowdedhour's new book, The Mislaid Magician.  David and I were late and missed the readings, but we got to talk to people and get our copy of the book signed.  Elizabeth asked me to sign a pile of the reissued editions of the Secret Country books, which was gratifying.  She also made us take the leftover scones, clotted cream, and jams over to the Minn-Stf meeting at the home of cakmpls and Jonathan WINOLJ, where they apparently cut into the amount of chili eaten.  Carol had also made a really delicious vegetable soup, which had no leftovers. (It was lighter than the chili, admittedly.)  I very much enjoyed seeing people, but my conversational skills continue severely atrophied.

The book is getting back on track, though I need much higher daily wordcounts if it is to be finished before 2010.

In the meantime, I need to move almost everything except the dryer out of the laundry room, so that they can take away the old washer and install the new one.

I hope there aren't any murine corpses under the old washer.

P.