Mostly Annoyances

If there is one thing all rats have in common, it is obsession. When a rat discovers something they like, they get really obsessed about it, and nothing you do or say will make them think about anything else. Q-Tip's obsession is freedom -- but freedom with all the conveniences of life in captivity. And, to that, I say: NO FUCKING WAY!! (at least not unless she pays rent, food, and utilities.)

So here's what happened:

We were patiently trying to rehabilitate her after her 2-week escape (which is when her obsession for freedom began.) I would take her out with the Whites for their evening playtime on the couch, keeping my eyes on her every second. After her two "accidents" falling from the cage a week ago, John built some sort of high enclosure around the cage, in case she tried to escape again.

One important detail for the rest of the story: the walls of that enclosure are rather high (they come up to the middle of my thighs -- sorry, I still don't know US measurements after 10 years living here.) Also, they are not right next to the cage -- there is some distance between the cage and the walls around it. The top edge of the cage sitting on its stand is almost as high as my neck (John said about 4 and a half feet high.) So, you'll agree, it would be pretty difficult for a rat to go in or out of this little castle. Now back to the rest of the story...

Unfortunately, on the same night the pen was built, she escaped during rat playtime. I had all the rats on the couch, next to me, and I only took my eyes away from her for 1 second, and she was gone! Climbed down the couch and then went inside it! At this point, we were so tired of this crap we decided to just leave her there to die and rot.

During the same evening, as I was in my office, I could hear some weird noises coming from the living-room -- sounded like the large plastic sheet one of the walls of the enclosure is made of. I went to look a few times and would see nothing unusual, except one time I saw Q-Tip running back to the couch.

Around midnight, as I went to put the Whites to bed (that's when I go turn the living-room light off and tell them goodnight,) I decided to place the trap John had bought for Q-Tip when she was away for 2 weeks in the living-room. I figured it couldn't hurt, even though Q-Tip knows how to avoid being caught with the trap. So, I was on the floor, in front of the rats' cage, trying to place the bait (a tiny bowl of water) in the trap, when I looked up at the Whites in the cage. Imagine my surprise when I saw Q-Tip in there, walking around with the Whites!!! The top edge of the cage is about 4 and a half feet high, and there's a high wall all around it!!! Regardless, she found a way to go back in there to have a snack and a little drink! (when we studied it more closely, we saw there was a path to the cage, sort of, although we had to think a while to figure out how she could possibly have done it!)

She seemed happy to be back in. When I left the living-room, she was being groomed by Bristle, laying on her back in the "Parlor" (a small cardboard box they like to sleep and groom each other in.)

We were so amazed of what she'd had to do to get back in that we didn't think further... BIG mistake! At 1:30 AM this same night, she was out again!!! Back in the couch! So I thought, fuck it, I'll get you next time you're thirsty, you bitch!

The next morning, as I was in my office, I heard some noise coming from the living-room again. I went to look and, oh surprise, Q-Tip was back in the cage for breakfast. She really looked like some kid caught doing something wrong when she saw me -- I could have sworn I heard her say: "OH SHIT!!" :) I grabbed her and threw her in jail (a small cage equipped with a lid.)

There was a quick trial where I was both the judge and the jury, and I sentenced her to life in prison without parole or playtime. That sucks, and she's rather depressed alone in there, but what else can we do? If we brought her back to the store where we got her, they would just sell her to a snake owner for sure -- she's just a "brown rat" after all... and an annoying one at that.

What? Me in the mens room?

I was barely sitting down when I heard a voice from the other stall saying: "Hi, how are you?"

I'm not the type to start a conversation in the restroom but I don't know what got into me, so I answered, somewhat embarrassed, "Doin' just fine!"

And the other guy says: "So what are you up to?" What kind of question is that? At that point, I'm thinking this is too bizarre so I say: "Uhhh, I'm like you, just working!"

At this point I am just trying to get out as fast as I can when I hear another question. "Can I come over?"

Ok, this question is just too weird for me but I figured I could just be polite and end the conversation. I tell him, "No........I'm a little busy right now!!!"

Then I hear the guy say nervously...

"Listen, I'll have to call you back. There's an idiot in the other stall who keeps answering all my questions!!!"

1. What does it say in the signature line of your emails?

Depends on which address I use... but usually my name, and URLs to sites related to that address. Nothing fancy.

2. Did you have a senior quote in your high school yearbook? What was it? If you haven't graduated yet, what would you like your quote to be?

"Senior" quote? "High school yearbook"? Hey, not everybody was born in the US, you know... (well, you probably don't know.) Nothing called "high school", or "serior" stuff, or "yearbook" in Switzerland. So, how about we rephrase it to a more international question, such as "Did you have a favorite quote/motto in your teenage years?" Okay, now that's better. And the answer is "No, I didn't" :)

3. If you had vanity plates on your car, what would they read? If you already have them, what do they say?

Mmmh... "Ratsrule", maybe (except for Q-Tip, but there wouldn't be enough room to specify that. Goes without saying though.)

4. Have you received any gifts with messages engraved upon them? What did the inscription say?

Probably so, but I don't remember...

5. What would you like your epitaph to be?

What a cheerful question. Let's see...

"Now she has a good excuse to never use the vacuum cleaner."

Or:

"Covered with rats in life - Covered with worms in death." Nice, huh? :)

Just when I thought Q-Tip was going to turn out okay after all, there she goes again being a BAD girl! She had made so much sociability progress lately...

So, two nights ago, she fell off the cage -- again. Don't know how or when exactly, because she just wasn't in the cage in the morning. We found her at her usual hiding place in the living-room: inside the couch. It was so difficult to try and catch her this time, even shaking the couch up and down, that I had to cut the bottom of the couch open even more than it already was! Finally caught her and put her back with the Whites.

The same evening, I heard loud noises in the rat cage behind me, while I was watching TV (I had just put the Whites back in the cage after their nightly play time.) I turned around and saw Q-Tip hanging on the side of the cage, and then falling down! This didn't look like an accident, as I thought had happened the night before! After all, The Baby (Jigsaw) has only fallen off the cage once so far, and Bristle (who spends 90% of her waking time perched on the edge of the cage) has never fallen at all! So it's becoming obvious that Q-Tip is just misbehaving and not just falling by accident... So she's back in jail: a small and lonely cage, sitting on the floor near the giant skyscraper-equipped main cage where the Whites happily reside.

This is so annoying... I really don't like to separate a three-pack of rats like that. Now I have a single-pack and a two-pack! Not quite the same, as you will sure agree!

Well, I had a scare with my computer the other day! All of a sudden, right-clicking a file/folder in Explorer, or on the Desktop, on in the Start menu (or even when deleting a file pressing the Del key -- not when pressing Shift+Del, strangely) would take between 10-15 seconds to open the context menu! That really drove me insane, since I'm a big Right-Clicker!

I went to look on the web to see if I could find this symptom described anywhere. Found two entries on Expert Exchange that suggested wild things, from uninstalling Winzip and all Norton programs to remove their context menu entries, to reformatting the hard disk. Ridiculous :)

So, of course, the thing to do is to ask oneself what happened between the time all was working fine and the time the problem started. The only thing I could think of was that my game Petz crashed (happened many times before.) So the first thing that came to mind was obviously to check the hard disk for possible errors, with a dreadful Registry corruption coming second in line.

Sure enough, I ran Check Disk and it found free space marked as allocated, and a few other things. I ran it again with the /f switch to fix the problems and, WOO-FUCKING-HOO, my context menus are opening instantly again! :)

Oooh, the same thing happened to you and you reformatted your hard disk first? Sooo sorry to hear that! *grin*

A man walks into his psychiatrist's office wearing nothing but underwear made out of Saran wrap.
The psychiatrist says, "Well, I can clearly see your nuts."

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A skeleton walks into a bar and says, "Gimme a beer and a mop"

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Why don't chickens wear underwear?
Because their pecker is on their face...

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Yeah, that's right. I'm usually the one screaming at the "suspects" on all the cop shows. "Lay down you stupid bastard! Do you want to be beaten with a club? If you rob someone, or assault someone, etc., you should be beaten (at least). Think this is harsh? Well, fuck you. If someone were to (God help them) assualt me or someone I love, they better hope the police deliver the beating before I regain conciousness. That sort of assholish, lionhearted, puffy-chested attitude aside, police did a very bad thing in Naples Florida on New Years Eve.

Read this from the Toronto Star Newspaper (opens in a new window.)

Funny, if any of the security or police had known who he or his son were, they would have gladly let Justin sing.
Scenario: As the Hotel owner wrings his grubby little hands, his eyes shift left-to-right, a large green dollar sign dancing in his thought-bubble, a sardonic smile on his face. "This is what we need", he says. "The thousands he's spending on entertaining his party and the publicity of an international rock star's unknown son singing a happy song to my other patrons can only be positive. Let's get them a round of drinks on the house, and call the media." But no. They probably thought it was someone like you or me. Just another person having harmless fun on New Year's Eve. "Let's smash their faces in (especially the soft-spoken one with the big smile) and don't spare the Taser!", is what we get instead. Of course, it's obvious that I've gone from sad to pissed. I've been a devoted Rush fanatic since 1975. I was 15 then, and was already defending them from almost everyone around me. Strange how constantly changing things stay the same, eh?

Happy New Year

What one thing are you most looking forward to...

1. ...today?

Dinner.

2. ...over the next week?

My birthday (well, it's in one week and two days, and I'm not so sure I'm looking forward to it since I'll turn 40, but I can't think of anything else.)

3. ...this year?

Maybe the company I work for will start climbing the slope back up and give me a decent salary again?

4. ...over the next five years?

Less money problems/worries (hopefully.)

5. ...for the rest of your life?

Dinner? :)

My... our blogging activities have been rather low lately! Not a blog in sight for over a week! Not that it matters, since we probably are the only readers of this blog :)

Well, Happy New Year to us! :)