In Which An Awful Lot Happens

Bear with me here, this is going to be a long one.

For those of you who are uninitiated (or just missed the post), we have been boarding a mouse for the last few weeks. Like an uninvited uncle, we have tried many tactics to remove this pest from our midst but with little success. A little over a week ago we had an exterminator come, but the mouse would still not take the hint.

Today I was engrossed in boundary and easement laws at a conference downtown when I get the following text from Julia:

Julia (12/2 3:40 pm): HOLY CRAP THE MOUSE IS SITTING RIGHT BY ME.

A conversation ensued.

Me (12/2 3:41 pm): Catch it!
Julia (12/2 3:41 pm): with what?
Me (12/2 3:41 pm): A towel?
Me (12/2 3:41 pm): call the exterminator
Julia (12/2 3:42 pm): I just put a garbage can over it.
Me (12/2 3:43 pm): You caught it! Yay!
Julia (12/2 3:45 pm): now what?
Me (12/2 3:45 pm): Where is it?
Me (12/2 3:50 pm): Is it alive?
Julia (12/2 3:51 pm):

Julia (12/2 3:51 pm): yes, I could see it breathing. The exterminator people have no clue what to do.
Me (12/2 3:51 pm): How about refund us for the poor job they did?

...

Me (12/2 3:54 pm): Get that big piece of board that Audrey draws on and slowly slide it under the can while applying light pressure to the top of the can (don't give it a gap).
Me (12/2 3:54 pm): then get your hand under the board and turn the whole thing over and put it in the garage (leave the board).
Julia (12/2 3:56 pm): where's the board?
Julia (12/2 3:56 pm): found the board.
Julia (12/2 4:01 pm): I flipped the can over so now it's at the bottom, and put a bunch of boxes on top. Darn thing is totally tame about it.

And now the mouse is dead at the bottom of a garbage can out in the garage; an unfortunate ending to a tale long drawn out.

Second item on the agenda: The picture we ordered finally came in. We hung it up shortly after dinner this evening and it looks great!

We were married in the Bountiful Temple and it's beautifully presented in this picture. On the wall opposite this is a painting of the Inn at Temple Square, where we spent our honeymoon and every anniversary following up until it was torn down.

And finally, 'tis the season! We received our first Christmas card today.

This very thoughtful card made its way to us from our good friends in Japan. As is typical with these particular friends, a card just doesn't cut it.

Our very heartfelt thank you goes out to Sam, Ai and Ryu for the box of goodies!

...

And a very heartfelt thank you to the autosave feature on blogger. While taking a moment to read a story to the kids, Firefox decided to crash. I thought I'd lost the entire post!