Mice Update

Fort Scott House: 2                           Mice: 1

You know that mouse we caught this morning that "the exterminator" was going to take care of?

Gone.

Somehow that little guy fought his way off that sticky strip because all that's left is gnaw marks on my Harris Teeter bag and leftover fur on the strip. (Sorry if that grossed you out. Luckily there was no blood. That would have grossed me out.)

But we caught another downstairs in the basement. I will be setting more traps after a visit to Wal-Mart tonight.

Gross.

Also, I should stop reading The Tale of Despereaux that was lent to me by a friend. It's hard not to picture the little guy dying on his sticky strip when I read about cute little Despereaux!

Mice

Have you seen the movie or read the book, The Tale of Despereaux?

Have you seen Ratatouille?

If you have, you will think they are cute.
And you will think the little mouse with the big ears, or the little mouse who loves to cook are cute.

Fictional, personified mice are cute, adorable, teensie little creatures.

Real mice who you only ever see their dropping or gnaw marks are not. Finding their droppings is disgusting. Finding gnawing on your sleeve of multi-grain saltine crackers is gross. And hearing that your roommate saw one run across the floor of her bedroom is slightly terrifying.

But seeing a live mouse caught on a sticky strip mouse trap, looking up at you with his terrified little black eyes is heart wrenching and almost cruel.

And having guy friends that will come over and dispose of that mouse--without waving it in our faces or telling us they were going to run over it with their car to put it quickly out of it's misery, well not until after it was done that is-- was really awesome.

Unfortunately we caught another mouse in the same spot sometime in the middle of the night and will need the "exterminators" to come again tonight. But in the meantime I put a shoebox over the little guy and hope that he will accept his fate and stop trying to get away.

PS. The "exterminator" told me the first two times are free, but the third time isn't. I'm thinking, cookies or cupcakes are sufficient payment. Quinn? Thoughts?

Whoops

A few weeks ago went into the bathroom at work to fix my hair. This resulted in an examination of my earring-less earlobe. One earring in, one earring out. I searched my pockets, the area around my desk, my purse, and even my jewelry box at home. That earring was no where to be found. I figured it must have fallen out somehow on the commute to work.

Well, last week when I cleaned my room I threw away the lone earring.

But, this morning while messing around with all the chords under my desk/organizing the small pile of shoes down there, I found that missing earring that I thought had been lost forever; it was under a shoe.

I was excited at first, until I realized I threw the original away last week.

Shoot.

I may not have that cute earring anymore, but I do have this cute picture (taken on my phone) of me and Jess from last Thursday. We went to Amsterdam Falafel in Adams Morgan before walking down to Dupont Circle for dessert (Mr. Yogato, evidenced by Jess' stamped forehead).

I'm adoring this warm weather and am really excited to walk around DC and find good places to eat, lounge, and relax this summer.

Rompers

Today at work I took a poll amongst gchatters. "What do you think of rompers?" Accompanied by two links: one to Jcrew, and the other to Urban Outfitters. Then I sent the following email to my roommate/co-worker who is contemplating purchasing one as a swimsuit cover up:

The Great Romper Poll*

Like: 6 (this includes you and co-worker)         Dislike: 7 (this includes me)

Think you can only wear them if you have the right body: 5 (one of those votes is me)

*Note: some people polled have not returned comment.

Some important quotes supporting the numbers above:

• "I like them for the comfort factor, it's like the same feeling I have when I run into military people on the metro and am envious of their one piece jumpers." Erin 
• "I just think they're hideous, I mean, the jumpsuit is never coming back in why would you think that a sleeveless sort version of it would work? Not too mention, unless you have the perfect body all that will do is accentuate the mid section and expose the upper leg which is not always pretty, indeed, rarely is it pretty." Lee 
• "I think they're kind of cute, things usually grown on me, I don't love them now, but I also hated skinny jeans at first." Debbie 
• "Yikes. Pass." Andrea 
• "I think the right body type can pull them off, but would I wear them? Absolutely not." Amy 
•  "Not a big fan.  People can get away with it, but generally not the most flattering on anyone.  If you bought some I will still be your friend though." Holly 
•  "Cool. But your garments will show" Laney 
•  "I'm not into the whole hipster scene. Suit yourself. I don't care for it. Not cool." Quinn
• "Although they are clearly making an entrance into the summer 2010 scene and becoming less of an eye-sore each time I see a skinny girl rocking one, the risked camel toes and accentuated cellulite far out way the seldom romper success(-ish) story." Carly

I think I'd keep going but in reality it seems to be split about 50/50. But I still think they're ugly. 

Thoughts?

Jess' East Coast Weekend Extravaganza

Picture taken at Portland airport right before I headed back to DC and Emma was heading to Provo last month.

 Or at least that's what I entitled the joke itinerary I made for Jess' trip this weekend. It's including lots of eating. Me at work. Us in NYC with Carly and Liz. Me "sick" on Monday, a bus ride with Jess and a bus ride without Jess. 

She just landed in DC. Now she has to figure out her own way to get to to Pentagon City. (I'm still at work and can't pick her up and it was cheaper to fly into a far away airport.)

But, I'm excited. 

And kind of wishing Emma and Cami and Rach were here too.

Lifetime to do (Post 7)

I was talking to a friend today about how he liked my lifetime to do posts. Which reminded me that I've been neglecting those and my blog. (Actually, that's pretty presumptuous of me to assume that any of you actually want to read these either. But here ya go!) As I sit here and think of something to write and procrastinate filling out a taxi voucher for my boss I realize that what I'd really rather be doing here is the next post on my list.

Number 7: Be an art museum tour guide. 

(Or just tour guide somewhere cool.)

 
(Painting from Belvedere Museum in Vienna but I got the picture from THIS blog. Found via google image search.)

At BYU I took the docent class at the Museum of Art. I wanted to be a tour guide. Actually, I took some career test in a class my freshman year at BYU and it had a few options of things for me to be. Only two really stand out right now. 1.) Counselor 2.) Tour guide. I crossed counselor off that list within the first month of taking psychology. It was terrible. I hated that class so much. But being a tour guide has always kind of stuck with me. Yeah you'd probably have to deal with stupid tourists and people who don't really care what they're looking at because they're only at the National Gallery to see "that one famous painting that their coworker told them they should see" blah blah blah, but you'd also get people who love history or art, who are so excited to finally see a painting by Monet or DaVinci or see the chair George Washington sat in. (you get me right?) Unfortunately these jobs are volunteer. Meaning I don't want to work 40 hours a week and then spend my Saturdays volunteering. But I can't exactly quit my job either to do it. 

I don't love my job right now. I don't hate it either. It's kind of like, eh, it's my job. People don't always love their jobs. But I'd rather have a job that I love. But being a tour guide would probably get that way after a while too right? 

Maybe I can just quit my job and start making books again and sell them on etsy. Or maybe I could figure out how to be an event planner who specializes in weddings. (Do I even have the organization skills for something that involved? I don't even know.)

This is now a jumbled post. 

And if you want to see funny pictures go to Google image search: tour guide. For some reason all the Asian ones are extra funny. See:

But, I might have to wait to be retired to do this one. Makes sense why they always seem to be old...

Weekend Notes

The theme of Saturday seemed to be, "Who says money can't buy you happiness?" Because Lisa and I were certainly happy with our weekend purchases.

• Bought curly hair product at the beauty store. My hair looked good Sunday.
• Bought a bookshelf for my room. I like how it's coming together. (One of these days I'll show a picture.)
• Bought a croquet set for Sunday Summer evening games.
• Had a delicious dinner at 2 Amys and tried a pizza with anchovies. (I wouldn't recommend it, and the thought of it almost made me gag, but at the same time, it didn't actually taste bad, it was just salty.) I actually got the margarita pizza but ate some of the anchovies one.
• Got rear-ended. Well, Lisa got rear-ended and I watched the car coming from my side mirror and may have screamed before we even got hit! But Lisa's Subaru dominated that little Miata and we walked away with only bumper scrapes and bruises instead of smashed headlights, a puckered hood, a cracked windshield and deployed airbags like the car that hit us. 

On Sunday we went to church, took naps and had a competitive game of croquet in the front yard. I will admit that despite talking the talk before playing, my team collectively came in last despite one member coming in first. I was one of the last. And I was slightly ashamed. Maybe I'll start practicing...

Hope you had a good weekend too!

PS. Jess is visiting this week!

One of those weeks

Do you ever have something happen on the first day of the week and then everything seems to follow in line with that?

I didn't have a great Sunday. I left my phone at home and didn't get to talk to Cami who called from Finland. True, it's not the end of the world, but I was already slightly on edge and when I realized my mistake, I cried. She'll be home in August, but it was still a major disappointment.

So, that just seemed to set the tone for the rest of the week. Embarrassing moments yesterday (not funny ones either). And rain today just kind of locked in my sour mood. I'm annoyed (but I don't know why) and frustrated (but I can't figure out the cause) and just want to quit my job and travel the world.

I do have things to post about though. My Saturday visiting the European Union Embassies (probably another reason I just want to travel the world); the three layer Vanilla, Strawberry cake I made Sunday; and maybe some day I'll actually post about my room...

Lifetime to do (Post 6)

Last night I went to the Nationals/Braves game. Nats lost 7-6 in the 9th. And we actually stayed to the end of the game! That may be a first. Anyway, as I watched the people get up on that jumbotron I thought, "Someday, I'll get on the jumbotron at something!" So, that leads me to my next lifetime to do.

Number 6: Appear on the jumbo-tron.

First things first. I will not be proposed to on a jumbo-tron with "Lauren will you marry me" flashing across the screen while my boyfriend pulls out a ring and sets his knee down in the beer the drunk behind us spilled. Nope. Nor will I be on the screen because I decided to paint my face and body while wearing pompoms in my hair (my hair's big enough as it is with this humidity hitting DC). Nor do I want to be mocked on the jumbo-tron like this guy. But I may be ok with a kiss cam. But that would ONLY be ok if I was there with a significant other. And even then I'm pretty sure I'd look like this lady (slightly embarrassed but slightly pleased and that just looks kind of dorky).

So I just went through google images looking for awesome jumbo-tron pictures, but there really aren't that many. I guess it makes sense. People are just way too happy to be on the jumbo-tron that they don't take a picture of themselves. They have no documentation to prove that they were actually on the tron. That really is kind of tragic if you think. It's probably the pinnacle of your sports fan attendance career and you have no real documentation. But wow, still sounds pretty great. 

I could also be on the jumbo-tron for having a cute baby all decked out in it's home team gear, like a little girl in a cheerleader outfit, or a little boy in a football jersey. Cute huh? Or maybe I could be on because I was dancing really awesome to a really great classic rock song (actually more likely a 70's funk song) or a popular pop song, because I'm known to really like the awful ones. (cough, Lady Gaga, cough) 

Anyway, so, the criteria for appearing on the jumbo-tron:

1. Non proposal
2. Non decked out in dorky team gear/face and body paint
3. Kissing cam with a significant other
4. Cute baby in cute home team gear.
5. Because I'm an awesome dancer.

Why would I want this? Because jumbo-tron + your image on it = happiness (happiness in a totally non-lasting, temporary, but-I-will-always-have-a-story-to-tell-my-grandchildren kind of way) and that sounds pretty awesome.

Awesome

I'm a really bad blogger lately. I think it's because I'm not getting enough sleep. Or I think I'm not getting enough sleep. I'm loving the weather. I'm loving waking up when it's light. I'm loving the fact that I can go to baseball games, or sit on the grass, or eat lunch outside and get sunburned while I eat with friends visiting from Utah.

I don't have a picture of the big event of the day. Michelle Obama came to USAID. And she was fabulous, and gorgeous, and I loved hearing her say, "My husband, the President..." or just using Barack in such an informal, personal way. And it was pretty exciting.

Anyway, that's all for now.

I'm headed out to the Nationals/Braves game tonight. It's beautiful weather!