The scratching in the attic has quieted down.
Last count in Editor/Husband’s trapping project: Bears, Raccoons & Squirrels – 0. Mousies – 6.*
* As in many sporting statistics, context is important and there’s often an asterisk: Editor/Husband has trapped either six individual mousies, or one single mouse over and over. Or, some variation of that. I suggested id’ing the mouse by marking its head with a Sharpie pen before releasing it outside. Editor/Husband is going with the less precise, “This one looks a bit smaller than the last one” method. As usual, my method would be complicated, but far more definitive.
This is what six mice in the attic sound like when accompanied by a stand-up bass. (Fun Fact: mice cannot play stand up stand-up basses, because they are too small.)
I don’t feel too bad putting a mouse outside when the weather is nice. They have their little fur coats after all. Our cats really don’t care one way or another.
(And, yes, we only use live traps. We’re not murderers.)
# # #
This conversation really took place on Christmas morning.
Editor/Husband hands me a gift bag. I look inside.
Me: It’s an orange.
E/H: It’s a Christmas tradition.
Me: That’s nice. (Reaches in and takes orange.) This orange is cold. (Pause) Did you get this out of the fridge? (Pause) Is this the orange I bought at the grocery store on Sunday?
E/H: It’s a Christmas tradition.
Christmas tradition.
Here’s the other gift Editor/Husband gave me.
It is 855 pages and weighs nearly three pounds … which is about the same weight as 88 house mice.
(I am on page 98.)
# # #
While Editor/Husband continues to de-mousify the attic, I’m cleaning things up as well, by going through a few folders filled with this year’s baseball photos.
And, I keep coming back to this little scrum of photos that I took at the indoor batting cage at the University of Virginia.
They make me smile. Because, they are in focus.
All you really need is just one baseball …
And, just one bat …
(Wooden preferred …)
And, a little pine tar if you can spare it …
Maybe a few extra baseballs in case the first one gets hit into the woods …
(And, now I’ve cleaned out my baseball attic … for this season, anyway.)
The Baseball Bloggess 
I have always loved the bottle of tar photo. Please keep it in the folder; it’s a classic. By the way, the mice in my walls don’t sound like jazz drums — they have no sense of rhythm; but, neither do I, so perhaps it’s a match made in heaven.
The mouse jazz combo was quiet all day yesterday, but had a gig in our walls at about midnight last night. So clearly, the trapping project is not quite finished! (We really do need to mark these mousies to see if they’re the same ones coming in and going out … over and over and over.)
There’s a mouse in the house! Better you than I….although, I’ve had my share of things in the house….the rat snake was the biggest surprise….in the office no less! My cat loves to catch things, especially lizzards, and chase them under rugs, then stare at them for hours. :-)
Love the orange story. Creative hubby. Big book! Enjoy.
We used to have a black snake that lived near the pipes under the house … there was some vent near the toilet, so if you flushed at just the right time, the snake would come up into the toilet, swim around, make you scream, and then swim back down. We finally caught him and put him way way out in the pasture (and covered the vent with mesh). Needless to say, I had a bathroom phobia for the next year, even after the snake had gone.
I’m on page 148 … so a long, long way yet to go.
My thoughts on “trapping mice” is that instead of releasing them, think of them as “bird food”!
I thought they were supposed to be cat food, but clearly I was wrong on this.