jenwren's blog

All work and no play makes Jenny a very dull girl.  When I'm not feeling quite so brain dead, I'll post something worthwhile!

I have been really, really busy over the last couple of weeks.  I even have proof: I have repeated an overuse injury to my right foot that I last did two years ago.  By the end of Wednesday (the third absolutely working flat-out day in a row) my foot had started to ache.  By Thursday morning I could barely put any weight on it.  I hobbled off to school anyway, and during my first lesson off all week, went and saw the doctor.

The doctor put me on prednisone (a steroid).  Last time I took a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory and it took a few days to take effect.  The prednisone acted pretty quickly and I could walk normally again by Friday morning.  But unfortunately the darn stuff has me feeling pretty wired - I 'm having a hard time trying to relax, especially when I want to go to sleep.  So I'm really glad the dose was dropped to half today, and I'm only on the stuff until Monday.

So that's the mania, how about the mouse?  Well, yesterday it rained properly for the first time this month, and the temperature finally dropped (it's been a warm February and March up to Thursday).  In the evening I thought I could hear some sort of rustling noise behind my oven.  Every time I turned down the TV and went to listen, it stopped.  I thought perhaps it could be a mouse trying to get in, but then I decided I was hearing things.  Then I thought I saw something dart from my sewing pile to under the wall unit in the living room.  I decided perhaps the prednisone was really affecting my sense of reality.  At some point during this (yep - vague would be another effect...), I decided to spray surface spray right around the oven.  I thought if it was something other than a mouse it might be killed, or if it was a mouse, maybe it would dissuade it from coming any further.  I moved some biscuits I bought at the bakery earlier in the day from the cellophane bag they were in to an air tight container, just in case.

I woke at 6am this morning to the sound of rustling within my bedroom...  I lay motionless until it sounded really close.  In fact it sounded like it was beside my pillow.  I jumped up and turned on the light.  I saw nothing mouse-like.  I jumped out of bed and looked under it.  No mouse.  I looked around everything.  Still no mouse.  About the only evidence was some possible droppings on the bed head (so if there was a mouse, it really did want to get into my bed - arghhhhh!).  But the droppings could also have been the remains of a moth (the bedside light is usually the last off at night so I sometimes have to kill the bugs that are attracted to it).  Okay, so by now you can add paranoia to the mania.  I was out of the house for much of the day, and finally did my weekly shopping.  I thought about getting mouse traps but decided I was being silly.

So I'm eating my dinner tonight, and I thought I saw something dart under the fridge.  I looked under the fridge.  Nothing.  I went back to eating my dinner.  Then I thought something dart from the direction of the fridge to behind the recycling bag.  This paranoia is pretty bad isn't it?  I got up the nerve to actually shift the recycling.  No mouse anywhere.  Feeling really stupid, I went back to my dinner.  Then I saw it.  It started to run from the corner near the recycling where the pantry cupboard is, towards the oven.  It saw me and darted back.  Okay, now I'm not seeing things - it's an adult-size brown mouse.  Bugger.

This is the third autumn I've lived here, but the first time I've had a mouse.  Perhaps that's because the previous managing agent was finally successful in getting rid of all the cats in this block about six months ago (then management changed in December).  So what's a girl to do?  Ring her Mum for advice, of course!  While I was on the phone the mouse made repeated attempts to dart across the kitchen, but every time he saw me he darted back - this is one fast mouse.  I think he's got a hole beside the pantry cupboard into a narrow void between the kitchen wall and the cupboard.  I hope he's not getting into the pantry (I did look there for any mouse evidence earlier in the day, so I don't think so).

Considering my paranoid state, I needed to prove I have a mouse with a photo.  So there's his head poking out from the corner behind the recycling bag.  I'm sure my Mum got enough of my babbling to believe I'm pretty loopy on the prednisone...  We decided on mouse traps, so after doing the dishes, I went to Coles and bought some traps.

I went for new, high-tech traps and old-style low-tech traps.  I hope this is a high-tech mouse because the high-tech traps will kill and conceal the mouse within the trap so all I have to do is dispose of the whole lot.  I'm not all that keen on removing a mouse from the old-style trap.  Since the traps were set an hour ago, nothing has happened - while I was out the mouse could have gone anywhere in the kitchen, living and dining areas (a downside of open-plan living - another is heating costs...).  The bedroom door is closed, and will stay that way tonight!

And the prednisone had me climbing the walls before I knew there was a mouse...  I'm off to try knitting for half an hour before trying to sleep.  By the way, the Bob and Weave is at the end of the third ball of wool and going well.

Here's a picture of Bob and Weave in its 75% complete state.  It's just under 140 cm long and so it is keeping my legs warm while I knit - very snugly now the weather is actually cooling down.  I can't wait to wrap myself up in it once I've finished it.

You can perhaps make out where each skein of wool was started.  I didn't bother alternating balls.  The first and second balls are nearly indistinguishable, while the third definitely has more blue in it.  I'm not terribly worried since the ribbon to be threaded through the dropped stitches is likely to draw the eye away from these variations, and they are much clearer in the photo than in reality.

And the mouse?  Hasn't been seen or heard since I went out to get the traps yesterday, with the exception of some possible noise in the kitchen this morning (before I got up and that I didn't bother going and checking).  I hope to get any holes behind the oven blocked up (contacting my landlord's agent tomorrow), and if I detect no mouse activity for a week then I'll block up the passage it was using beside the pantry cupboard with space-filla foam.  I moved any food that wasn't already in a jar or container into air tight containers (including the Easter egg stash - the marshmallow eggs, Lindt bunnies, and Pink Lady wombat are all mine and he's not having them!).  At the moment he's called "bastard mouse!".  Suggestions for better names welcome...

Now I'm off to sit in front of the telly, watch one of my recently purchased DVDs I've been trying to find time for (Yes Minister: Series 3, The Goodies: A Tasty Second Helping and Monty Python's Meaning of Life), and continue knitting.

Mid Goodies episode, and Mr Mouse darted out from under my sofa (on which I was sitting) and across the room to somewhere behind the TV.  Not happy.  Not happy at all.

Edit (five minutes later):  I wish he'd gone for the mouse-squeamish-friendly high-tech trap...  But he's now a low-tech trapped ex-mouse, so I'll just have to deal with it.  Hooray!

Thank heavens for long weekends.  I finally feel on top of my school work and all my marking is up to date - well, for the next 48 hours anyway.  Two more bundles of marking will come my way on Wednesday...  But it is only two weeks until the school holidays.

The Bob and Weave shawl seems to be on the home straight too.  I'm around half-way through the last ball of wool.  It isn't really a portable knitting project anymore - it takes up all the space in my felt carry bag.  I got a lot of knitting done while selling raffle tickets for my spinning and weaving group on Sunday morning at the local markets.  But it was the spinners who got people interested in us and buying the raffle tickets.  Knitting is pretty pedestrian when next to a woman with a spinning wheel and another with a drop spindle.  Kids were especially mesmerised by it.  But no, I'm not about to take up spinning.  I'm still playing around with weaving (and my yarn stash has expanded a fair bit over the last year or so without me spinning too!).