At Christmas, The Boss gave me a $50 gift card for an online store. I knew right away that I would spend it on art stuff. With all the holiday goings-on, I haven't had much time to think about what I want. Tuesday night, I decided to window-shop to see what's out there. I saw a lot of things I wanted, but didn't buy anything.
Yesterday, I had to make a quick run to the get-everything store. There were two things on my list, breakfast sausage and a mouse trap. While I was hunting mouse traps in the get-everything store, I made a quick detour through the craft aisles ("since I'm there"). One art-related thing I've been wanting is a pad of pallet paper, and there was actually one on the shelf. I couldn't use my gift card, but the pallet paper was only $5, so . . . . It fit nicely in the load of stuff I'd already gathered in my arms while looking for mouse traps.
A couple of weeks ago, as I was web-surfing on the back porch, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Something seemed to have fallen from the rafters and zoomed across the floor, but it was too fast to really see. It could have been a reflection on my eyeglasses, but I figured it was a mouse. The next day, I noticed a wadded-up paper towel in the corner where I work. It appeared to have been shredded a little. The vinyl siding at the floor in that corner somehow got cracked a long time ago and is missing a little chunk, and my guess was that a mouse was living in the wall and was using shredded paper to build a nest. The next day, the paper towel was gone. I asked The Husband if he had moved it; he had not. I was certain that the mouse had dragged it completely into the hole. Over the next few days, I began to smell mouse, but I had used our mouse traps to annoy Jose back in the summer, and he had broken them all, one by one.
The first thing I did last night when I got home with the new traps was bait one of them and set it in the corner. The first thing I did this morning was to check it.
Got him!
And, look...it knocked the cheese right out of the trap. (I think that white patch on the floor is 6 months' worth of spider sh*t, but I can NOT find the spider, but that's another story.)
I decided I would let The Husband deal with the mouse disposal when he gets home tonight.
Meanwhile, as I have been writing this, I heard a noise in the wall. Um-hmmm...another one. And there's a piece of cheese just lying there, free for the taking. OH, HELL NO!"
I steeled myself and disposed of the mouse and re-set the trap with the same cheese and put it back in the corner. Not 5 minutes later, the trap snapped again. Got another one! I got up to dispose of mouse #2, but as I reached for the trap, I snatched my hand back, thinking I'd better wait until I'm sure this mouse is all the way dead before I mess with it. Might even wait and let The Husband deal with it. ;)
* * * * * * * *
On YouTube, I follow a watercolor artist who uses ceramic dishes for mixing her paints. I bought a couple of small, compartmentalized dishes and love them (paint doesn't "bead up" on them like it does on plastic pallets), and I've been wanting a bigger one, a tray without compartments. As I was watching one of her videos last night and saw the mixing tray she was using, I was reminded that I wanted one and remembered the gift card. Below the video, there was a link to the pallet supplier's web site where I could order one - and even with a 10% discount! - but I couldn't use the gift card at that site, and it was more expensive to order from the gift card site. It didn't make sense to spend more money just to use the card. What the heck; I bought the pallet with funds from my business account, since I really will use it in drafting my embroidery designs.
So I still have a whole $50 to spend on art stuff. ;)
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