Ooh, also on the topic of mice, in my apartment (the previous one), my room had a large hole in the ceiling (water damage from a leaky roof, but they couldn't fix it for almost three weeks because the roof was icy and frozen), and I had a tiny mouse pull a Denethor (minus the fire) into the drip bucket. He not only survived, but seemed little worse for wear. My roommate and I released him back to the wild.

Given that and the termite thing, I'm thinking maybe I have bad apartment karma.

Probably.

Who?

Emmett, of course. The littlest Zmayhem.

Emmett, of course. The littlest Zmayhem.

Aha. I had wondered if you'd just developed a love-on for bugs.

I'm sorry, ita. I hope your specialist is useful at last.

Betsy! Happy, um, third-day-of-your-new-age!

(You people should really stop having birthdays on Saturdays, or at least let me post properly with you before them and not just release the early wishes into the Natter. Yes, it's all about meMeME, even other people's birthdays.)

Thank you, Nilly. I'm 47, which seems old to me.

Does anyone in NYC know a notary? I need a notary at 6:30 near Union Square.

which seems old to me

Yeah, well, but you are not old.

Also, I don't care what's the number of orbits the earth made around the sun since you were born, you're a pretty great lady.

OK, I'll go be a sap somewhere else now.

Why can't I have an intergalactic death ray? Just a leeetle one, please? Or really, a death ray from any origin will do - inter, intra, transmultiverse, whatever you got - I'm not picky.

How's it going at work, brenda?

Okay, I gotta go nap.