Yes, I do have other things going on in my life other than rodent problems! On Saturday I am heading up to Seattle for 10 days to visit with Kevin, Soula and Robin and to help celebrate Robin’s second birthday. I can’t believe he’s two already! I got him a sandbox for the backyard as one of his gifts. It’s already built and ready to set up and fill with sand. Hopefully it won’t be raining on his birthday and he’ll get to play in it.

Haven’t even begun packing yet, but don’t think it will take too long. Since I went shopping for new clothes last week, I have plenty of clothes and will just have to do a bit of laundry and sorting tomorrow night. Patrick and Veronica will be stopping by to care for the cats and do some watering. I’d like to clean the house a bit before leaving, but won’t be doing lots of cleaning since no one will be staying here while I’m gone. And, I’ll still have 3 days of vacation time (plus a full weekend) when I get home from Seattle. I’m planning to do lots around the house for those 5 days.

Work has been totally crazy! We’ve had another case of identity fraud with our checking account. Someone got one of our checks and electronically reproduced the signature onto a facsimile check. It wasn’t an exact duplicate and the numbering was completely out of sequence. The bank caught it and called me to validate it. After getting a copy of it, I had to go to the Pasadena Police Dept today to file a police report. And when I get back from vacation we will have to implement something called Positive Pay where we report every check written to the bank. It’s all a pain in the butt because some asshole thinks he can get something for nothing. In addition to all that, I’m trying to get 3 weeks worth of work completed in one week! I sometimes feel like I’m being punished for taking a vacation.

A stage 1 drought emergency has been declared in Pasadena. As a result, we are only permitted to use our lawn sprinklers three days out of the week (T,Th,Sat) before 9 am and after 6 pm. I can water with the hose at any time but cannot hose down my driveway or sidewalk. We are charged a premium rate for water usage over a certain amount, and I always have to pay this because of refilling the pool due to evaporation. Oh well.

The cats are doing ok. Baby is fine and Loki is doing a bit better since I started feeding him wet food. He was extremely dehydrated and seems to be putting on a small amount of weight due to the liquid in the food. No other side effects from the food so far. Also Loki seems to have gotten over his upper respiratory infection finally! No more sneezing or snotty nose after being on antibiotics for about 2 weeks.

I’m pooped and need to get to bed. Since I have a laptop now, I’ll be taking it with me to Seattle so may be able to find some time to write a blog or two…or at least post a few updates on Facebook.