Birthdays

I don't have anything all that exciting to report.  There were a couple of birthdays of note that I helped celebrate, the first my boyfriends, the second my mothers.  

My boyfriends birthday was on a Friday and we decided to have a party of sorts.  I made a cake (the poorly decorated one pictured above) and some friends came over and there were mojitos and mint juleps.  I have discovered I do not like mint juleps.  It so happened that some of our school friends were also having a birthday party that night so we decided to pile into a car and head over there.  It was a good time on the whole, nothing too exciting but nothing too lame either.  

The second birthday was my mothers.  This was a bit more exciting as I flew up to Iowa as a surprise.  My aunt and my mothers friend planned the whole thing.  My uncle and cousin picked me up at the airport on the day of her birthday and I arrived around lunch time at my parents house.  My father saw me getting out of the car and he came to the door saying "What the hell!!??"  I shushed him and waltzed into the kitchen very casually where my mother was and said "Hey, what's up?"  It took her a second, but she finally came out with "Lizabeth!  What are you doing here??"  She then squeezed out a few tears and hugged me.  It was worth every penny of that plane ticket.  My whole family was so excited to see me as well as the two other relatives that showed up as part of the surprise.  We ended the surprise with a dinner party.  The picture above is my and my mothers feet at the party.  Yes, we are dorks.  It was a good time overall but quite hectic.  

I flew back to Austin the following Sunday and went straight back to work/school.  As of tomorrow, however, I am done with summer school.  Whew!  

Uninvited guest

I was minding my own business, having a root beer float in front of TV with my boyfriend when all of a sudden there was a slight rustle in the kitchen.  My cat flew off the couch and over to the fridge where he proceeded to reach his little arm under as far as it would go.  At this point, I figured it was a big cockroach as usual.  Ragnar is quite the little hunter and goes after every roach that enters the house, no matter how big.  I often wake up in the middle of the night to find a roach clinging for dear life to some high-up place while Ragnar paces around below making little hunting noises.  Not only is it good having cats, but I've found having a man around has it's perks as well.  He went and got the flashlight and a large shoe suitable for Texas sized roaches to inspect the situation.  Lo and behold, it was not a roach.  

I have a mouse.  Unbelieving and generally wanting to see for myself, I pushed him out of the way and had a look.  There it was, cowering by the wall underneath my fridge with it's beady eyes and it's soft, plague-ridden fur.  Kill!  We set Ragnar on guard duty (Hatshepsut having been laying around in front of the TV this entire time) and went off to buy some traps.  When we returned it was still under there and we decided to try and flush it out and smash it with a shoe.  I was all for blood, but my dear boyfriend was reluctant "because it's a mammal!"  Not that he hasn't killed before.  He moved the fridge and the flushing commenced.  It was a no-go and after about an hour of taking panels off of various appliances and shining of the flashlight, it was gone.  

We set a few traps and it has been almost two days with no sign of it.  I'm hoping it either is gone for good or is getting hungry and thinking the peanut butter on the traps looks mighty tasty.  I will keep you updated.