My nonlethal mousetrap

Diana found a mouse trapped in a box in our garage the other day. When she showed me, my head immediately snapped up and I started looking around the garage for my old rat/hamster cage. Diana knew what I was thinking, and pretty much killed my idea of a pet right there.

Last night I was up late, and heard some sounds from the kitchen and this morning, we found some evidence of another visitor. So as I was falling asleep, I devised a nice non-lethal mousetrap system. I don't like killing the little mousies.

We have traps that are pretty cool. You pinch them in the back, and the jaws open shut and lock open, and the trigger is set. When the trigger is pushed, the jaws snap closed (like a clothes pin) and the mouse dies. Then, you can pick it up by the handle and dump the guy out cleanly.

It's like a pair of scissors: when one end is open, the other is closed, and vice versa.

What I did was cut off the top jaw, the one that snaps closed. So now, when the trap fires, nothing comes slamming down (like scissors with one blade cut off). However, the back end still shoots up. So, I tied a string to that back end, and it pulls out a support from the box or bowl that is covering the whole thing. The bowl falls down, and the mouse is trapped, safe and sound.

I can't wait to try it out!

In other news, Diana and I took a nice trip to Palm Springs earlier this week. We spent our full day out there treking around Joshua Tree National Forest, which was really nice. Otherwise, we sat by the pools and read our books and had a nice relaxing time. Palm Springs kind of cracks me up. It feels about 50 past its prime. The streets are named "Bob Hope Drive" and "Dinah Shore Ave". Dinah Shore?!

In plumbing news, we're making really good progress. We called a plumber, and for a pretty penny, he was able to cut away a single tile and make the repairs. Diana and I then were able to take some wood, and glue that across the hole left vacant by the tile (glueing the wood to the backs of the neighboring tiles, inside the wall). Then, we glued the removed tile to that piece of wood (it's drying right now). Finally, we'll fill in the gaps with grout, and all should be well.

Oh, and we were able to buy some new faucet fixtures, which was the point of this whole excercise in the first place. Yay. :)

In baby news, there isn't much baby news. Diana is doing great and feeling great. Her belly is definitely growing, which is really fun to witness. I'm very excited. We're going to find out the gender in a few weeks, and that really, I think, will set some reality in. We can refine our thoughts for names, think more about all the stuff we'll need, and get psychologically ready for a new boy or new girl.

A lot of people have asked me which I'd prefer. I think I'm a little uncomfortable with that question. I feel that my answer would somehow be remembered and potentially held against me. Does that make sense? Like, if I said "Oh, I REALLY want a girl" what would people think if we found we were going to have a boy?

The honest (albeit vanilla) answer is that I imagine pros and cons (all based on stererotypes) for each. I grew up in a family with a brother, so I feel like I "know" boys, and part of me thinks having a daughter would be a really neat new experience. But, as I recently heard someone say, "With a boy, you only have ONE dick to worry about..."

I never really thought of it like that.

More news as it breaks.