Oh and these contain mercury and I've pretty much done everything wrong in cleaning them up. And I'm finding things that say I'm supposed to throw out all bedding, clothing, and throw rugs that came in contact with the mercury.

I can't tell if that means anything that was touched by the broken glass or anything that was in the room.

Askye, that really sucks. I'm sorry.

In much better girlh tmi news I finally got a positive ovulation test result since I have been tracking thae things.

It's a tiny bit of mercury, askye, and it vaporizes. If you want to be extra cautious, air out your apartment and put the vacuum bag and the bag where you discarded the shards into the outside trash can.

What Ginger said. The mercury vaporizes and will dissipate down to safe levels in 15 minutes or so with an open window -- it's worth staying out of the room for a bit, but nuking the contents of the room is way overkill.

It's been more than 15 minutes now, I have a cannister vac so I have to dump it in a trash bag, which I'm double bagging. I'm throwing out the thing I was making for Evander.

There are mouse droppings in my laundry room. I should tell the landlady, right?

Oh, no, Hil. But yes, you should. At least it's obviously not food that's drawing them there?

askye, that sucks! I'm sorry you're having to throw out Evander's gift. What Ginger said, though - it's like, the amount of mercury in a can of tuna, or something.

And Hil, uggh. I wish you patience and presence of mind in dealing with your landlady.

In the town where the party never stops, you have to carve out a few hours for yourself, and I think that's what I'm doing today. Also, I'm kind of annoyed at D and I need to process it.

Is your laundry room also her laundry room, Hil?

At least it's obviously not food that's drawing them there?

And obvious that it's not something Hil is doing or not doing that is bringing the mice, since presumably the landlady believes that the laundry room is adequately clean. Wouldn't it be nice if her landlady could be swayed by reality? But I'm guessing she won't be. Oh Hil, I feel for you.

Once in grad school there was a huge mouse infestation at UCI and most of the campus housing was affected, including the faculty homes, lots of the professors were affected even people like J Hillis Miller. Mice were the great equalizer.

Is your laundry room also her laundry room, Hil?

No. The basement is divided up.

I emailed her about the laundry room, and pointed out that the wall next to where I found the droppings is also the wall that was leaking water last year when there was a lot of rain, so we already know that there's some kind of hole there. And I said that, if she calls an exterminator, she should probably point out that wall as a possible entry point for the mice. (She hasn't called an exterminator yet.)