A Week of "P" Plagues...

I don't mean to imply that we were visited by catastrophes on a Biblical-scale this week, but here's the recap:

First came the pestilence, in the form of little micelets that invaded our downstairs storage room. We've had them before, and there are "bait stations" already in place for when they decide to stop by (because really, nothing says "welcome" quite like a tasty blue chunk of poison.  Have some, I insist!)  For a while, after we had new foam insulation installed last winter (covering their convenient entry-hole), they seemed defeated, and stayed out.  But one cold night this past week, their frostbitten little mouse-butts must have been motivated enough to figure out how to gnaw through (leaving a telltale pile of insulation fluff, and other evidence, if you catch my drift.  Ick.)  I immediately scheduled a number of "interviews" with Pest Service Guys, to set a new plan in action.

The weird thing is, the mice sneak into that one room through the garage, and never go anywhere else in the house.  I asked Pest Service Guy #3 why that was, and he looked at me with a confused expression, like he was trying to figure out how to answer me without being rude.  Finally he said apologetically, "Well, it IS kind of loud in here."  I stared back at him blankly for a few seconds before I noticed:  the elephants--I mean my sons--were upstairs in Derek's room, playing tackle-something, laughing hysterically (audible through the closed door), and shaking the house every few seconds when they crashed to the floor.  To my Mom-hearing, this didn't even register until he mentioned it. Then, to add the exclamation point, the cat (useless-lump-of-fur--I mean fearsome predator) strolled by.  Apparently 1)noise, and 2)the threat of being hunted (however remote--but they don't have to know that) have effectively discouraged our unwanted guests from prowling the house at will.

Next we were visited by pinkeye.  Riley went off to school looking perfectly normal, and I got a call at lunchtime demanding that I pick him up immediately.  I'll spare you the unpleasant details, but suffice it to say he looked...bad. This was the first time one of the kids had caught this particular ailment (I think he was strangely proud of that; "I beat Derek, I got pinkeye first!"  Boys are so oddly competitive...).  He was decidedly less pleased when we held him down and squirted the antibiotic eyedrops in, but he did enjoy the enforced day-off-of-school while the medicine took effect.  Hmm, maybe I should put him on Mouse Patrol while he's home!

That's it so far (I know it's only Thursday, but I'm keeping fingers and toes crossed that we're done with the excitement, for this week anyway.)  If we have any more "P" surprises, I hope it's something like "a shower of Pop-Tarts" or "a flood of pansies".  Those, I'm ready for!