Sqeak

Last weekend, while John and Stew were installing the satellite dish, they walked up to the back basement door and discovered a dead mouse lying in the middle of the stone area.  Why was it there?

·         Someone is trying to pull a Godfather on me, and is leaving me a sign

·         The mice are mobilizing and have gone from my office to my house

·         The mouse jumped from the retaining wall and didn’t make it

·         A cat left us a “present”

 

The last option sounds the most plausible.  We’ve been getting visits from a neighbourhood cat who has taken a liking to John (most cats love John).  She may have decided to leave us a present as thanks for the scratching.  Frankly, cat, I’d prefer a bottle of wine, even though I don’t drink.  Given the placement of the mouse, it seems odd for it to have just walked up and died right there.  We think it was either left there as a present, or an animal intended to come back and get it later.

 

I’m really glad I wasn’t the one to discover it; that would have been a bad scene.  I just hope this isn’t a recurring pattern.  I’ve been living mouse-free since I moved out of the apartment and the Great Mouse Invasion of ’04.  Having them at the office is bad enough, but that will end next month with our new office building.  I need to pay extra special attention when bringing the wood in this year that we don’t have any unexpected bonus gifts.

Small frustrations

• A little bit of deli sliced meat from the counter at Sobeys shouldn't cost as much as it did
• Where did the mild Genoa salami disappear to?
• Why won't Sobeys realize that their lactose-free chocolate ice cream is a big seller and therefore stock more of it, or at least reorder more frequently?
• Why do they always get rid of the flavour I like, leaving other flavours which are nowhere near as appealing? I liked the strawberry.
• Why does a 6" pizza with two toppings cost over $6?
• Why did they not drill holes in the bathroom cabinet for installation onto the wall and the knobs on the doors? Why didn't they include any instructions?
• DirecTV. Enough said.
  

2 weeks and counting

I arrived back at my office this morning to see a scrape and chunk out of the top of my desk. "Holy shit, what happened to the desk?" I said. "Oh, that was the tape dispenser. I was boxing that [cartridge] up and it flew off and hit the desk."

For two years, I worked at a table or part of a cabinet with a keyboard tray clamped to it. I begged and pleaded for a proper desk, seeing as how I work in IT and sit in front of a PC all day. Finally, because someone else was moving into this office with me, I was able to get a very nice workstation for 2 people. It has remained in excellent shape through the 3 people who have shared it with me over the past 3 years, until last week.

Is the scrape and dent really that bad? No, I guess not. Was it intentional? No. But that doesn't make me feel any better.

I worked hard for this desk. I've kept it in good condition. To have someone come along and damage it, not even seeming to care enough to offer an apology, really pisses me off.

I didn't personally pay for this desk, obviously, but I treat it as if I had. It took me a lot of work to get it, and just because the company bought it doesn't mean it deserves to have the crap beaten out of it. How you treat your tools and equipment shows a lot about what kind of person you are. Apologizing for damage you personally caused also shows character. I had my answer before, but I now have more confirmation.

Surprise present

I've been having a rough week at work, so today John surprised me with a present.


Another Snuffles for my collection. I had thought this one was sold out, but lo and behold it was sitting in St. Stephen, waiting to join my Snuffles community.

Thank you, dear, for your thoughtfulness, efforts, and love.

Summer slides away

Summer feels like it is slipping away this week. I’m so busy at work that I haven’t really had an opportunity to take any vacation. I had two days off when John arrived, but that was a whirlwind of arriving and unpacking the trailer. I had one day off the following week, but then worked Canada Day so I didn’t get the full 4-day weekend I had intended. I can’t really see the light at the end of the tunnel due to some large work projects.

I’m cranky in particular this week because it seems like everyone but me is off and having fun. My husband is unemployed, and while I don’t want that for myself, he’s getting to be home watching TV or doing tourist things with his mother and nephew, who are also here on vacation. My teacher friends are off work, so they’re enjoying half to whole days off. Some other friends are on vacation as well. It’s an exaggeration, but it feels like everyone is getting some time off except me.

I had intended to take a couple of days off this week to show my MIL and nephew around the city/province, but then I had to send one person on the road and another was off for 3 days of bereavement leave. You gotta do what you gotta do, so I had no choice but to cancel my plans. I arranged to attend a meeting remotely today so I wouldn’t have to abandon my visitors even more and drive to Halifax. I do need to thank them for being the excuse for me not having to go to the Evil City, although I am disappointed not to be able to see Cyn.

Even though I want to, I can’t get a mani or pedi due to having a smashed up finger and still trying to rid myself of the issues with my toes. I curse whichever aesthetician gave me the toe issues because pretty much the only time I have bare feet is while getting a pedi. Clean your tools properly.

What I want to do with my vacation, when/if I ever get any, is read. Some of my happiest summer vacations were spent absorbing myself into a book, maybe even reading all day, not worrying about what needed to be done in the house, etc. I also would like to put up the badminton net and bat around for a while. Our nephew said he was interested at first, but it quickly drifted off his radar any time I mentioned it. John has been having some bad arthritis days lately, but I hope it will calm down soon so he feels well enough to play with me.

I realize this blog has a down tone and is predominately negative. I’m not happy right now and I haven’t been happy for a while. I know what the cause is (no, not John) but I’m not sure how to fix it. I’ve been thinking about it for a long time (years, in fact) and haven’t come up with any solutions. Until I do, I’m stuck.

Maybe I’m totally off-base. Maybe making that change won’t help. I’m just not sure. I continue to have a lot of questions with no answers.

Wafer abuse

A student in Orlando removed a communion wafer from church without consuming it to show his friend who wanted to learn about the Catholic faith.

Manhandling the guy over this incident isn't right, I will agree to that.

However, dude, what were you thinking? If you wanted to do show & tell, why didn't you arrange something with the priest? It's no big secret, and I am sure the priest would have been more than willing to show a wafer and explain about it to the other student without you making yourself stand out like a giant neon sign. You know the rules: you're supposed to consume it, not put it in your mouth and take it out again to show it off. That's disrespectful.

Observations about Canada

John's 10 year old nephew is visiting us this week. He had two observations about Canada that I found amusing:

"Canada is cold. Where's summer?" July is Fog Month in SJ, and he's hit it at its usual state. To me, this IS summer, as sucky as that is. *sigh

"Canada is nature conscious." I like to recycle and have lots of rules for what "trash" goes where. Luckily a 10 year old seems amenable to recycling. It makes me wonder if his school or municipality are not big proponents of recycling?


I have no idea where a human being gets that much energy. This is a common complaint amongst adults regarding children, but it still amazes me.

I am at work, but John, MIL and nephew are heading to visit Martello Tower this afternoon. I hope they get some enjoyment out of it, but they won't be able to get a great view of the harbour with the fog being out as it is.

If the weather gets better, I'd like to get the badminton net up in the back yard since I find myself with someone who would like to play. I've also been requested to try out Guitar Hero on the DS. I get the feeling that will be harder than using the actual guitar on a PS3.

Busy busy

Life has been busy. John's arrival, unpacking, adjusting to all the change. I'm now a wife with a live-in husband who brought stuff with him and likes things in different places than I do. It's a big change for both of us, and since change makes me uneasy, I haven't been feeling all that stable lately. It manifests itself physically as I make more frequent trips to the bathroom. Time will make things more comfortable and we'll get things sorted out.

I've been enjoying having John home all day, looking after things. That can't last forever, as much as he'd enjoy being a kept man. The move has created a debt load that we expected, but I still don't like it. It will soon be time for him to go job hunting, but we have some projects that would be better served by him being off work for at least a little bit longer.

John brought quite a large DVD collection with him, and we haven't been able to find anything we like for storage. We decided to build our own shelf, which John has drawn out in a plan. He's quite excited about building it, and I am looking forward to maximizing our space and getting exactly what we want. That project will have to be put off for this week, though, as we have company coming to stay with us.

The other issue on our plates right now is wood for winter. Since John is still unpacking and I haven't had much time to provide input and opinions on where things should go, a lot of boxes are still in the way of where the wood needs to go. I need to find more time to help get that cleared away so the wood can go in.

In addition to all of the change at home, I am also dealing with change at work. I am managing 2 people this summer and I have been finding that very stressful. We are moving our offices around the end of August, so I've also been involved in that process. That is affecting my ability to take vacation time during the best weather of the year. I can't even have a couple of days off this week. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I am the only person in the office for 3/5 days. I won't get to show my visitors around the city unless it's after work or on my lunch hour.

Now that my nephew has arrived, I am trying to put a push on to finish the baby blanket I've been knitting. I am staying at work today for lunch and brought the blanket to work on. I hope they like it. I really wanted to make rather than buy something, even though my skills are basic. Looking at the pics, I really wish I could see him in person. With so much going on, I probably won't get to see him until the fall. I wish they lived closer. I like baby stage the best, as long as I can give them back to their parents. :)

This past weekend was spent on another project that we needed done to adjust to having two people and more devices needing the internet in our house. With two PCs and two TiVos now, we didn't have the home network needed to support it all. I'm not a huge fan of wireless on everything, so I requested some help from friends to install a series of network drops in the house. It was a one-day project that turned into 2 days, but is now complete. I also planned for a couple of circumstances, such as having an extra wired connection in the living room (better for data transfer than wireless) and an extra jack in the bedroom in case we decide to move the TiVo to that room. We're also working on setting up the basement as a secondary entertainment area. John brought his TV and electronics, and I put my TiVo down there. So far all we have for seating is the bean bag chair, but I'm not as concerned about that right now.

Daniel pics

Nephew details

My nephew was born this morning at 7:48am EDT. A healthy 7lb 5oz and "really long" but they haven't measured him yet. The delivery was done by emergency c-section because the baby's heart rate was dropping fast during pushing. They later discovered that the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck 3 times!!! Thankfully everyone is healthy and happy, though exhausted.

Pictures to come soon!

Memory

I have never had that great of a memory, but I feel an increasing sense that it is getting worse.  I can’t recall entire conversations I’ve had with people, personally or at work.  I don’t fully doubt that they happened, but I am starting to wonder what’s going on.  Have people noticed that I don’t necessarily remember things, and then try to con me into thinking I agreed to something that I didn’t intend?  Perhaps, but most of these types of conversations, such as the one I had at work today, don’t present any real gain for the other person so I choose to believe I have just forgotten.

 

I will admit that I tend to multitask, which does reduce my attention to both functions.  Sometimes I don’t pay close enough attention to a conversation that is not vitally important, so I end up forgetting parts (or all) of it.  Some periods in my life I prefer to block out because they were painful, I wasn’t happy, or they just weren’t vivid enough to stick in my mind.  That being said, why does my memory seem so much worse than the average person?  Do I spend too much time thinking inside myself to the point where I am blocking out the outside world?  That may be a possibility.  I am used to spending a lot of time alone, thinking to myself.  I have been known to think about conversations in my head, believing that I truly did have that conversation with the person, only to have them adamantly reply that I said nothing to them about a topic.  That makes me think I’m starting to lose my mind.

 

I’m not stupid, though.  If anyone asks me to remember the conversation we had about me lending them $1000, I’ll know better.

Tired

I'm tired today. I was at work from 10:30 to almost midnight last night, trying to fix an issue. Still isn't fixed. I am now the ping pong ball in the fun game of "the problem isn't on our end, it must be on the other company's end." This is not a game I enjoy.

John's progress - Day 4 & 5

They passed through Knoxville and stopped for the night in Roanoake, VA. They have attempted to send me pictures, but the first batch bounced back, and the second attempt was foiled by computer hogs. Today they are on the road bound for Lancaster, PA, home of his sister, where they can get some rest and family time.

I don't think John has gotten a full night's sleep in about a month. His one comment to me this morning (he was driving, so didn't want to talk & drive) was "I hope this is over soon." Today is a short day of driving, so hopefully he'll be able to get some R & R at his sister's house. They haven't decided yet how long they're staying, but I hope they stay long enough to get some good rest.

Today I am going to continue the cleaning & purging in the house. I need to make sure the spare bedroom is ready for his mom, that things are out of the way in the basement where we'll need to carry things inside, drop off the bags of clothes that I've purged, take some cardboard to recycling. I still have to drop by ADT and order another alarm keyfob... been meaning to do that all week since ADT is in the building beside me at work. He will also need a bridge pass, but probably not until he gets NB plates. I'll call and see what info they need and if I can get it early.

Sometime this weekend I also need to put on a push to finish the book for book club, do some more knitting so I can estimate how much yarn I need in total, and ponder some work HR issues I may have to deal with. My brain is full.

John's progress - Day 1 to 3

John left Irvine on Tuesday, went as far as Scottsdale, AZ. Stayed overnight with Chris, Cynthia & Summer. Left Wednesday and stopped in Tucumcari, NM (close to TX border). Today, they are headed toward Knoxville, TN, taking a more southerly route in order to avoid tornado weather. At least I think that's what he said in his voicemail, as the message cut out. I keep managing to leave the room when he calls, grrr!

I can tell that John is pretty stressed out. He hasn't slept well in weeks due to the stress of packing, Caly, and moving his whole life around. His biggest concern right now seems to be the fear of robbery. He's traveling with everything he owns in the world, the only exception being his guns. If his trailer and/or vehicle got broken into or stolen, that's most of what he has to his name. I can't fully relate to this fear because I live in a place where crime is relatively low. I understand his concern, though. All he can do is follow best practices. Keep things locked and secure, don't leave the stuff unattended except overnight, etc.

He hasn't been eating very much or very well lately, so I think it's a good thing that his mother is with him to remind/"force" him to eat.

I want him to get here, get settled, and start to feel like a normal person again.

Toilet Tales

When John is here, we often find ourselves in the predicament of both needing to use the bathroom at the same time. With his move happening very soon, our need for a second toilet in the house was becoming more important. So over the past couple of weeks, that has been my household focus and goal.

I started by talking to Dad about getting water pipes into that room. The waste pipes were there, but no water was being brought into the room. We discussed what needed to be done, and he decided to bring just one cold water line in for now to handle the toilet. In the meantime, my task was to go toilet shopping and pick one out.

I decided I wanted an elongated toilet, since it was closer to what John was used to. Jenn and Stew got a new toilet last summer, and they seemed happy with it, so I decided to go with the same model. Since toilets aren't really something you can try out, it wasn't really something I could spend a lot of time on -- they all end up looking the same in the end. This toilet was from Home Depot, was only $100, and I had gift cards from my wedding shower that would cover the purchase. The only problem was that Home Depot was out of stock, and couldn't tell me when they'd get any in.

Dad called last Saturday morning asking if I had gotten a toilet yet. I told him Home Depot was out of stock. He suggested we could wait until later, but I wanted to seize the opportunity that my Dad was available and willing to work on the project. On a whim, I called Fredericton Home Depot, and lo and behold, they had 6 in stock. I decided rather than driving around SJ looking for another toilet, I could spend the same amount of time driving to Fredericton and back. So I did.

Dad and I started our project upstairs, since I wanted to put the new toilet upstairs and the old toilet downstairs. The old toilet always seemed to spray water on the seat, and that annoyed me. We got the new one installed without too much difficulty. We then moved the old toilet downstairs, unfortunately some of the wax came off on the stairs. I worked on cleaning it, but could only get it to come out so well. I may get the carpet cleaners to attack it next time I have them in.

Next was installing a flange for the toilet to sit on in the basement. All I had was a pipe sticking out of the floor. Dad needed more tools, so we called it a day and picked back up again on Sunday. I did manage to get a lot cleaned up in the spare bedroom on Saturday, though, which was good. I went through a couple of buckets of paperwork left over from the wedding/last fall, and sorted those. I also found another bucket I didn't know I had and that ended up containing the coupon I'd been searching for about my wedding dress preservation.

On Sunday Dad came back over late morning. He chiseled out around the pipe in order to put in the flange, and put down a piece of plywood so the toilet would be level. We set the toilet in place and then went to work on the water pipes. After realizing he had bought the wrong connector, he went out to replace that. He ran the water pipe, turned off the main water supply, and cut the cold water pipe to install the T joint for the new pipe.

That's when the fun began. None of the 3/4" fittings he had bought would fit the pipe. We drove to Home Depot and Kent, only to find out that my pipe was Kitek. Plastic on the inside & out, with aluminum in the middle. It was discontinued and thus no one stocks parts for it anymore. It is just a fraction of an inch larger than all of the fittings currently available. We ended up buying some parts to make a temporary fix, at least so I could shower or use the toilet. That fix wasn't very reliable though, and ended up leaking, so I turned the water back on long enough to fill the toilet tank but that was it. Sunday night I ended up taking my stuff and showering over at Dad's house, to prevent any catastrophes from the pipes leaking more downstairs.

Monday morning Dad hit the plumbing stores bright & early. He discovered that they didn't stock any parts for Kitek pipe either. With it being discontinued, most places returned their parts for credit. The problem with the Kitek pipe was that the material used to keep the parts of the pipe together was water soluble, so if the pipe got wet in between layers, it would fall apart. No wonder it was discontinued, but my whole house is plumbed with this stuff. If we couldn't find a fitting that would work, I would have had to replumb my house. Luckily, one of the plumbing supply shops was able to find a couple of fittings to fit the pipe, and rigged up another piece of copper pipe to go between the two. Dad had my water back in business by noon on Monday.

This weekend, I put on the finishing touches. I installed a curtain rod that I stole from the bathroom (it was empty and I had never put anything there). I took a twin size bedsheet that I previously used as a dropcloth to act as a "door". I discovered yet again that I am inept at using a cordless drill, so I ended up doing 2/3 of it by hand with a manual screwdriver. I also put the blinds up in front of the window. They ended up not being totally centered, but by the time I was done fighting with the drill, I didn't really care.

That's the best I can do for now, but at least it provides an extra toilet.

After having the new toilet upstairs for the past week, after all of the effort that went into it, I am disappointed. It has a sluggish flush, so you need to hold the button down for all of the paper to go away. I am also still getting water sprayed up on the toilet seat. Jenn says she doesn't experience either of these problems with her toilet, so I can only assume it is something about my house.

The other thing I don't like about the new toilet is the seat, but that is something that can be easily changed. The seat that came with it is angled inward toward the bowl so much that I feel like I am falling in. I also really miss my padded toilet seat. I am one of the few people who love padded toilet seats. Frankly, I spend enough time in the bathroom that I need some comfort. I did some research, talked to John about what he liked, and started looking into wood seats. While I was researching that, I found a brand new model of seat by Kohler called Zofa.


It's a padded seat, but a single-layer of foam rather than vinyl over stuffing/wood, which means no cracking and splitting of vinyl. It's not freezing cold to touch, and the foam is removable for cleaning. It also has quiet close so the lid doesn't slam, and has quick release, which allows you to remove the seat without unscrewing the bolts so you can clean around it. John seemed to like the idea, he wasn't against this type of padding, so I decided to go searching for it. I found a place online and will ship it to Calais. They're currently out of stock as this model has been quite popular (good sign), but they should have more in by June 18.

Reasons

A lot of people have asked me why I never got a pet when I moved into my house alone. Yesterday explains why: I don’t deal very well at all with death. A pet is great as long as you have it, but eventually you know you’re going to have to say goodbye. I’ve said goodbye to enough humans in my life so far, and am terrified of saying goodbye to more. I don’t need to add another living being to the mix whom I’m going to have to mourn someday. Some would say that’s not a good way to live your life, because you never experience the happy parts of having that companion. They’re probably right, but I just can’t bring myself to do it knowing it will end badly, someday.

She was a cat who made a lot of messes, but not all of them were her fault. She loved lying in dirty laundry. She loved my new sneakers. She loved being scratched under the chin. She was a very quiet cat who didn’t meow loudly and annoyingly like some. She moved slowly. She was cuddly and soft. She grew to accept me even though I disrupted her comfortable living situation. She even licked my hand. She appreciated that when I came to visit, I was awake at 4am and could scratch her. She loved her pink brush. She loved eating ribbon, even though she wasn’t supposed to. She never tried to escape to the outside world, she was content to just sit and look out the screen door.

I can’t ever see her again.

She wasn’t even my cat.

But here I sit, at my desk, bawling my eyes out over a pet that wasn’t mine. If I can’t handle this, how could I handle the death of pet that did live with me for 10 years?

Someday John might talk me into getting a pet. I will go through the ups & downs, and eventually I will have to say goodbye to it, and it will hurt even more than this does. It just doesn’t seem worth it, but not having had experience with the joys of pets, I guess I can’t relate.

I don’t want to keep saying goodbye to people/living things.

So I’m doing the crying for both of us. I seem to be good at that, so I guess that will be my role.

I miss you, Caly.

Made-up words?

Since when did "out-migration" become a word? I've been seeing articles in the paper this week, and they have been using this word. It sounded to me like it was yet another grammatical issue the TJ should be dealing with.

I did some research and found out that it is actually a word. I thought "emigration" was more appropriate, but there is a subtle difference. Emigration is leaving your home country to go to another. Out-migration seems to refer to leaving a region for another region in your own country. It seems like both can be used interchangeably, though, depending on which dictionary you read.

To answer my own question, out-migration has been in use since the 1950s.

That's what I learned today.

Progress

I finally managed to win out over the circular needles and I think I now have it under control. I ripped out the half job I started on the straight needles and rolled up the yarn to use later. I'm glad I went back and gave the circulars another try. It will look much nicer knit as all one piece.

I need to get more progress on weeding down my closet. I pared it down quite a bit, so I thought based on having 2 full bags to donate. However, the closet still seems to be full. I need to make room for my husband, so I am going to have to do another round. I may need reinforcements to help me, as I have a hard time getting rid of clothing that I "might need".

Lisa's truck loading is tomorrow night, so I will be heading over there to help and see her for the last time in a while. I hate goodbyes. I hope I don't cry too much!

Work was finally better today, I think in part because I got out of the office. I think I am in need of a road trip soon, get away from my office, see some colleagues in person, reconnect with the people I support. I realized today that I hadn't been to the store on the East side in so long that I had never met an employee who started months ago. I'm spending too much time at my desk, and sometimes I lose touch with that world. Some road tripping may do me and my colleagues good.

This winter, and so far spring, I found myself slipping into a state of apathy and laziness which has resulted in my house being more slobby than normal. I don't seem to want to get anything done. I hope I pull out of that soon, because the place can really use a cleaning. Maybe I can put a push on for that this weekend, seeing as how it's now going to rain.

I ended my phone call with John early tonight because of a couple of trips to the bathroom. I sat down at the PC to wait for the next wave, but seeing as how I've been here for a bit now, I guess I'm through it.

Projects & pastimes

I've been spending too much time watching TV lately. The evil thing about TV on DVD is the fact that you don't have to wait a week for the next episode; it's right there for the watching, so you can keep on going. I'm addictive that way, and ended up spending more time inside today than I intended. I finished the season, so perhaps now I can set that aside, at least until I buy the next set.

Overall, I've been enjoying the book club I joined last year, but I am having a very tough time getting into our current pick. While I did enjoy the last pick, I would have preferred something that wasn't similar for the next pick. I will continue to try and plow through it. Unless I absolutely loathe a book, I will see it through to the end. It's still too early for me to form a fair opinion on this book, I am just lacking in motivation. Maybe now that my addictive TV watching is done, I can get more reading done.

After a few false starts, I finally got going on a knitting project today. I am going to end up doing it in 2 pieces and weaving it together, something I didn't want to do. I tried avoiding that by using circular needles, but they just weren't working for me. The yarn is chunky and was very difficult to get it in the correct direction and I found myself screwing it up repeatedly. I gave up and decided to knit it in 2 pieces. I also abandoned my idea of doing seed stitch and am sticking with just straight knit stitches. With the chunky yarn, it doesn't really look any different or curl, so I think I'm ok. I'm a bit frustrated by my lack of skill. I feel somewhat defeated that I couldn't use the needles or the stitches I wanted... maybe I gave up too easily? I'm not even sure how this is going to turn out. Will they like it? Or will it be the equivalent of a 4 year old's drawing that gets put up on the fridge because his parents have to make a fuss about it? Is the thought and love in the making enough to make it good? I guess we'll see how it turns out.

Knitting is something I only was able to get so far with before Nana passed away. I went further and did more with embroidery than knitting, but hand embroidery is not something that is very popular anymore, thus it's difficult to find anything pre-stamped to work on. I just don't have the creative mind to think of something I can do, draw it, and then embroider it. If someone handed me something, I could do it. I want to get back to it; I don't want my skills getting rusty. Knitting and embroidery is a way for me to remember my grandmother and somehow stay close to her. I'll have to come up with something to work on.

Mice

Things have been stressful at work, most of which I can't blog about. The part I can blog about is the return of the mice. Last Friday, I found one on a trap in my office just before lunch. I stopped by the office tonight and from the other side of the room, I'm pretty sure I saw something furry and gray in the same spot on the new trap placed there. I wish they would go away and leave me alone. Thank God we're moving offices in a few months and I won't have to deal with that anymore, or at least until the building gets old enough that they sneak in. Since it's brand new construction, I should be safe for a while.

Mice are torture for me after having gone through the Great Mouse Invasion of '04. It's disgusting to have things go through all of your stuff and poop on everything, and I mean everything. My employer is going to have to do something about this situation. There must be some kind of health & safety regulation I can fall back on. I can't keep working in an office where I feel like my skin's crawling all the time.

I don't want people belittling me. You didn't go through what I went through, and I don't want to go through that ever again. You may not understand or agree, but just don't belittle me. It's torture, and I can't handle it anymore.