Birds At Your Backyard Feeder

Birds At Your Backyard Feeder, originally uploaded by Matt Bargar.

I just put up a birdfeeder on one of my office windows. It is great fun! Non-stop chickadees! I have seen some cardinals prowling around and I would be thrilled if they could fit on the birdfeeder!

Seven Mice!

That's officially a lot of mice.

I'll Give You a Weave to Dream About

Dreamweaver has decided not to work. I have "repaired" it and re-installed it. It just hangs when it is starting up. It's frustrating since I use it every day, and depend on it to, um, work. I can't think of any legitimate reasons why it would have stopped working all of a sudden. Argh.

Mouse Update

I have now successfully caught five mice. Loren brought one to work for her friend to keep as a pet. Hey, not my idea. I have transported all of the others to Deering Oaks, a lovely park a couple of miles away. The one I just got back from dropping off must have been the cutest one yet; not necessarily the brightest: when I let him out of the trap, he ran right out into the road.

They are so cute, I almost feel bad for displacing them from the home they have come to love. Then I realize whose food they are eating and who they are spreading disease to, and I don't feel so bad.

Enough, iPod, Enough

I know he's funny, but why do you pick David Cross so much on shuffle play? You practically never pick Mitch Hedberg, and he is funnier and there is probably more of his stuff in you. You must only pick comedians whose shows are dead.

Awesome Junk Mail Sender

"Tolerant C. Ferocity"

More Mouse & Television Woes

Mouse Update:
We caught another one last night; Loren accidentally let him escape in the kitchen. I'm sure we'll get him again.

TV Update:
Argh! So the repairman realized that my picture tube is still under warranty. So now I have to take the TV to Best Buy. Here's the catch: I didn't buy the TV; Chris did when he worked at Best Buy, so i could take advantage of his employee discount. How am I gonna explain that one? Stupid bargains, always costing more than you think.

Matt & Loren 2, Mice 0

Second Caught Mouse, originally uploaded by Matt Bargar.

I was innocently working when I heard a very distinctive "snap" noise from the kitchen. I took him to the same place we brought his pal last night; they can be re-united in the stomach of an owl.

Panaphonics... Magnetbox... Sorny...

Mmm.... junk...

My TV, which is only one and a half years young, stopped working the other day. It made a great radio, but the V part of TV, not so much. So I called a TV Repairman. Talk about an archaic profession! He made a house call and brought some gadgets, designed to make me think he was doing something fancy. He couldn't "solve" the "problem" (he thought maybe it was "a diode" that was to blame) so he had to take it back to his "shop" (I am here picturing a shack in the woods with a long extension cord running for a few miles back to civilization). I kid, he is actually a really nice guy. A nice guy who has never seen an HDTV in his life, but a nice guy nonetheless.

He just called me and said that it was either the "flyback transformer" (which was essential to the plot of Back To The Future Part II) or the picture tube, which even a rube like me knows means the big thing you look at.

So now I have to decide -- spend $200 to get a new flyback transformer (if that is the problem) or go out and get a brand-new TV... mmm, new TV....

Hunting The Greatest Prey Of All...

Mice! We have a mouse problem here in casa de Matt & Loren. There, I said it. A few weeks ago we tried these cheap plastic cruelty-free traps. The mice went in to them, ate the peanut butter out of them, and left. Not the intended effect.

Last weekend I went and got a legitimate "Hav-A-Hart" trap. It came with several sets of nearly indecipherable directions, but I managed to set it up, and last night we caught our first mouse! He was so cute! We took him to Deering Oaks where he merrily hopped away, soon to be eaten by an owl but I'm trying not to think of that.

Then we came home and I set up the trap again, but the mice must have an escapist on staff, because they managed to eat the peanut butter and escape my fiendish trap. I just think of that as acclimating them, getting them excited about peanut butter!