The kitty that wandered into the bar while M was doing some maintenance work that we subsequently adopted (Taboo) earned her keep the winter Peanut was a newborn. We got mice for the first time ever, and Taboo turned out to be one of the best mousers I've ever seen. She was very proud of herself.

Long-distance hugs to everyone who wants them.

In my mind I am still a kid and I am really miffed that I am expected to work on a snow day. I am doing the very least. I am keeping with with emails and I got in my morning report. Somehow messing around online seems ok, but doing Christmas cards does not.

I have similar feelings about what is acceptable work procrastination and what is not. I feel like there's a dissertation in there somewhere.

I had many mental replies to people, but they are now lost to the sands of time, so, here we are, with 2 days left in the semester.

the guy with the drawer full of food might have been an attraction.

I used to work on the ground floor of a building with a known mice problem, and the guy that sat next to me kept a giant bag of snack food (granola bars etc) under his desk. I was working late one night in October and heard a rustling from the printer area; I assumed it was a Halloween prank by our resident prankster. Then another rustling from the coffee area. Then another from my shoe drawer.

I managed to chase the mouse back to its "home base" which was the bottom of dude's food bag and captured it in a small plastic container. I took it outside and let it go (everyone tells me I probably sentenced it to death doing this but CIRCLE OF LIFE, KIDS).

The guy ended up throwing all his food away as the bottom third had all been mouse chewed or pooped, and we had to clean food caches out of several drawers.

Ugh, I just found out a friend of mine was admitted to a hospital with COVID in late November and put on a ventilator. They were able to get him off the vent but he got a tracheotomy and he's been in a coma since then. He's already survived brain tumors and surgery (several years back) which is complicating his condition. After three weeks on a ventilator and a coma it's really unlikely he's going to come back.

Yeah, one time the mouse was spotted and ran into the office with the food drawer ... I think he ended up throwing out anything that wasn't tightly packaged (the mouse in this instance made its escape without being captured).

Sorry about your friend, David. That's rough news to get.

Oh no, David. I'm so sorry about your friend.

I'm so sorry for your friend's condition, David.

David, that's terrible. I'm so sorry.