Eeek!

Poor T. She does get an awful lot of unjustified flack, just because she is the shortest person in the house. Yesterday evening, I went into the drawer (you know, the one which contains crap, just above the drawer which holds all the plastic bags), and found that every single one of the Oxo stock cubes had been opened - even the ones in the tin (which had also been prised open). Naturally, the only person to blame in the house was the small one....and after getting rather a bit too cross, I had a closer look.....and the drawer was, indeed, full of crap. From a mouse's bottom.

So I had to empty all the drawers, and the cup-boards (emptying the rubbish drawer directly into the bin. Yes, even the elastic bands and the partly used party candles), spraying everything and everywhere with bleach, immersing in scalding water, then sticking it all in the dish-washer.

There are gaps in the cup-boards where they have got in, leading to the back of the dish-washer and then outside.

So off went bridgjo to the hardware store at about 8pm (which we can do here, because we're in the US, and the shops don't shut at 5, like they seemed to do in Switzerland), and got "humane" mouse-traps.

We had had them on our list in any case, as, although the squirrels had been sorted out by the trappers quite well, there was still a lot of night-time activity above T's bed, which they said was mice (as they kept nipping in the squirrel traps, eating the peanut butter, and scurrying out without setting them off).

So we placed them strategically about the kitchen last night and managed to bag one this morning.

So, animal-loving fools that we are, we bundled into the car in minus 10 centigrade, so we could release it back into the wild (obviously several blocks from where we live). We gave it some cheese and let it out, so at least it was still alive at that point.

Today, in-between mouse-detail, we went off to the Ridgedale shopping centre to exchange my new espresso machine for the second time. On Thursday it was the plastic casing which was broken, and yesterday it was the carafe. This time I decided on a de-Longhi, instead of the much cheaper Krups. It's made a really quite decent cup of coffee too, though it did seem a bit of a faff the first time (fill with water, warm the machine, warm cups and place on heating plate, fill with coffee and tamper down (but not too much, yes, that's about right), make coffee, froth milk, ladle and decorate accordingly, leave to cool and repeat for a second cup. Don't understand why tea has never really caught on here.

I was telling my friend about going to Ridgedale on Thursday, and got as far as "and the funniest thing....", and she interrupted me "You mean the 'Mall Walkers?'".

Yes, they even have a phrase for them. These are the people (generally of a certain age, but I also saw young mums with prams), who go to the mall an hour before the shops open, just to walk around to get their exercise, as it is too jolly cold to do it anywhere else (I kept seeing these old biddies speed-walking passed me in sneakers and sweat-pants, with nicely-set hair).

Friday was T's school play. The theme this year was a King and Queen who were turned to ice, and needed to be cheered up in order to be thawed out. The French joke section was a bit hard-going (Who is the president of vegetable? Mr S'haricot-zy), but the singing and dancing was great. As usual the plus petite section (who are about 3) stole the show with their interpretation of 60's dancing.

After this, I nipped across town (tentatively, as there was still ice about) to go to an Ugly Christmas Sweater party. It was a hoot. It is quite amazing what people can actually purchase/receive for Christmas.

We then exchanged "rubbish presents" (each had to have a story, and had to have been received as a gift). I think the best one was from a guy called Steve Smith, who regifted a present given to him by his father-in-law. It was a wallet with a gold "B" on it.

I have had another winter advisory message on my phone - everyone stay inside from 9pm tonight till tomorrow morning.