Waiting for butcherblock

Howdy!

Time for another blog entry methinks. Hope everything is fine and dandy with everybody.
Einar and I are still busy with kitchen stuff. Our counter-tops are being delivered today, so yours truly is sitting in waiting for fedex and watching E-News, specifically "E Life True Story: The Story of Paula Abdul" . If I'm really lucky I may get to watch a channel called TLC later. Perhaps "lethal swarm: killer bees"- their usual evening-type offering. Other notable titles in this series include "the man whose arms exploded" and "when surgical tools get left behind"...ooooo the wonders of U.S TV, I can hardly wait. Still it's one step up from the piece on "anal bleaching" I saw on E-News a while back. I'm serious, imagine having to put that on your cv ..."job title: bumhole bleacher" ...priceless. Americans are crazy.

Anyway, things are fine in Ithaca. Well they're a little dusty and there's a mouse in a bowl in the dining room, but otherwise they're fine... The "thing in the rubbish" appears to have vacated which is quite a relief. Turns out that raccoons are a bit vicious. Our local news had a raccoon related story today. A pack of them have been rampaging through local neighbourhoods killing cats and attacking a dog and a child....I have a nasty feeling that the one in our rubbish may have been holed-up on purpose, using our rubbish pile as some kind of guerilla warfare-type base. He was probably sat in there for days coordinating these neighbourhood operations, wearing battle fatigues and a red bandana, polishing his AK-47.

Unfortunately however, it appears that we have swapped one form of undesirable wildlife for another, (see mouse reference above). I was sitting watching telly (or for anyone who may consider me as a future employee of any sort-writing my PhD thesis and being generally intellectual) when I spotted this disease-ridden furry thing scampering about behind the coffee table. With lightning fast reactions, developed while fighting my husband for the last beer, I used my initiative (future employers again, take note) to trap Mr mouse underneath a plastic bowl. So I've had to sit all day, waiting for fedex, while listening to a mouse perambulate round the inside of an upside-down piece of tupperware. This, I believe, is what they call "living the High Life". I'm saving the mouse for Einar to say hello to when he gets home. We may not have a child or a dog, but a mouse is nearly as good, I think. And if we can't get to the supermarket maybe we can have "mouse in a bun" for tea.

In other animal news, the woodchuck has been steadily demolishing all the fresh green shoots in the flower bed. I spied him yesterday on his hind legs pulling down the freshest, prettiest looking greenery at the top of stems that were just out of his reach. He examined each with a kind of expert epicurean curiosity, before shovelling the best bits into his furry chops and letting the stripped remnant of a plant spring back up. Our flower bed has now been severely mauled and is probably covered in woodchuck spit. Ah well. in addition to the woodchucks, deer, skunks, raccoons and mice, black bears are apparently on the increase in the southern finger-lakes region. Now spotting a woodchuck destroying your flowers is one thing, but if I'd looked out of my window and seen a black bear digging up my plants...well it just doesn't do do dwell on these things does it? I keep telling myself that if a black bear appears, Einar will know what to do, so I could just send him out to deal with it. I mean come on, I trapped a mouse, the man owes me. And besides he's good at bears, he's Norwegian.

Any other animal news for you?....nope, don't think so. What have I been doing with myself lately? Well apart from thesis, not much, sad to say. I've been making a few new friends who are humanities rather than sciencey postgrads, so that's been really nice. (Hi Hilary thanks for taking pity on me and making friends you're a star!) Oh and since my last post Einar and I have spent a lovely week in Norway with the in-laws. The weather was wonderful and my parents came over from the UK to Norway at the same time so it was quite a special get together. It was quite a trek back and forth from the U.S mind you so we'll have to try to spend more time in Norway next time we go. It was mum and dad's first ever trip to Norway and they seem so amazed at its beauty that they can't believe Einar could tear himself away to go to university. I think that counts as being impressed! Oh and I caught and killed my first fish (trout) while I was there. It took both Einar and Knut, his younger brother to teach me, but eventually I caught on and became a bloodthirsty fish-killer. I was quite proud of myself, you'd have loved it Uncle Pete, it was great fun, especially the bit where you get to bash the fish's head in with a rock (spoken like a true ex-veggie)!

So yes, I like to think that my fish-hunting attempts have got me some creep-points with my brothers in-law. Sadly I managed to let myself down when we were being accompanied back to the airport by Knut a few days later. Knut started sneezing or coughing or something and apologised. At which point I told him not to worry and that I could "squeeze out a fart" if that would make him feel more comfortable....

Yes, yes I know, in retrospect it all seems so simple, just SHUT UP Laura, but as we all know from previous entries, I have never been able to fathom these kind of social niceties. Knut looked genuinely distressed and said, "No" (Not that I expected him to say yes to my offer you understand. But his response indicated a genuine concern that I might actually attempt a bottom burp in order to even the score, and more to the point, that I was under the delusion that this was somehow socially appropriate) Anyway it woudl appear that once again my mouth got going before my brain engaged. But hey ho, I can't sink any lower, right...right? I think Einar may have put his head in his hands and wept gently at this point, but I can't be sure.

Having thoroughly embarrassed myself, we departed and since then have been recovering from all the excitement by doing diy stuff.

Gotta go, butcherblock has arrived! More anon!xx