Oh, Rats!

So yesterday morning while we were on our way to work, I suddenly got this terrible crawling sensation, like there was something running up my leg.  THAT's what I get for wearing pantyhose for the first time in a year - it was actually my tight, spandex stocking laddering its way up my thigh!

But it turned out to be an omen, a harbinger (since I've ALWAYS wanted an excuse to use that word.) Before the day was through JTM had called me to say that "something" had been eating the fish food and leaving small black turds in the corner of the tatami room.

Well, some gals have their hairstylist on speed-dial, I've got an exterminator.  Gordon, the rodent-whisperer, met us at the house and delivered the prognosis with all the gentleness of a kindly doctor telling us that the test results were back and it wasn't looking good: "It's a rat," he said, as gently as he could, after examining the fresh turd trail. A rat likely hanging out in the closet where I keep my knitting and craft supplies, more of them in one of the basement storage rooms, and in the crawl space, and a good old rat party going down in the shed. Four out of ten on an infestation scale, he said.

So he laid a bunch of traps and is coming back on Thursday. In the meantime, I heard a funny snapping sound from the closet last night but no way was I going to look in there - some gals don't cut their own bangs or do their own colour, I don't set or check my own rat traps.  I'm funny that way.

The rat thing doesn't come as much of a surprise - I thought I saw something scuffling around in the courtyard one night a few weeks ago, and JTM is convinced he saw something bigger than a mouse and more sinister than a squirrel dashing across the driveway towards the neighbors' place a few days ago.

So the plan for this weekend is to clear as much junk as possible out of the house and clean up the property  outside. I'm trying like hell to be cool about this as , but I am honestly completely grossed and freaked out. Thank God for Gordon!

UPDATE APRIL 1: One rat trapped (so far), in basement crawl space, and silence from the craft cupboard.  Will steel myself to go in there this weekend and make sure no rat couples have shacked up in my yarn box.

I blog as well as I keep house

...which is to say wildly inconsistently!  My commitment to decluttering and staying on top of the laundry (rather than being buried under it - mffft!) has pretty much fallen by the wayside, along with the regular blogging, tweeting and healthy eating. But hey, since I've last checked in, I've been to the Olympics (three times! On the ferry just like Mukmuk!), renovated a bedroom, had my sweet old parents from Winnipeg for a visit (Dad's 80th!), rocked a series of really important technical proposals at work and been to the gym more than a few times. 

Turns out the laundry will wait and the dust will quietly settle while I'm busy living, but always there is the niggling, nagging in the back of my mind that won't let me sit through an entire episode of ANY tv show without leaping up to take care of some household business during commercials...I just cannot seem to shake the notion that if I can just get it under control I can keep it that way!

On a more interesting note, I'm following JTM on the blog he just started, dreaming about a vegetable garden, leaning toward the concept of eating a little less wheat and much less meat, figuring out a lot of little ways to save money, and planning an extremely inauthentic Mexican feast for Easter. Eggs: Mother Nature's little pinatas!