Week of October 10

Thursday evening, our cat brought a live bat into the house.  The dining room door was open, and she came sashaying through the living room doorway with her prize, which she promptly released so she could play with it.  Fortunately for us, it didn't get far - only about two feet away where, against my most visceral instincts, I was able to trap it between the couch and a lap desk until reinforcements could arrive.  The reinforcements consisted of our intrepid husband/father and a pair of leather work gloves.  The bat, who was uninjured in the incident, was released after a short video interview. It didn't have much to say about the ordeal other than a few clicks.  

A brief investigation disclosed that the bat was in fact a Red Bat, which I didn't even know existed.  All I really know is that our generous cat is probably the way the mouse/vole, spotted in the living room last week, also gained access to our home.

I have spent many hours during the past four weeks working on a Top Secret Project which I am SuPeR ExCiTeD about and which will be disclosed in a future installment.  Too many of these hours have been post-midnight.  It's been rough.

Saturday, October 8 was the date for Mam Mam's Super Secret 80th Birthday Surprise Dinner at BJ's.  There were ~36 people in attendance, and almost as many for the brunch on Sunday morning.  Although Mam knew that her 4 boys and almost all of her grandchildren (94.1%) would be present, she had absolutely no inkling that her sister from Delaware and her brother from Georgia were coming.  Her astonishment was priceless!

Finally, Friday night was a big night!  After weeks and weeks, maybe months, Andy finally pulled out Philip's snaggletooth!  Andy's been giving Philip the countdown all week...by 9 pm on Friday night, the tooth would be gone, one way or another.  Andy had him working at the tooth for days, but it just didn't want to budge.  There was a bit of bleeding, but the deed is now done.

Also, today Andy finished the organization he wanted to accomplish in the garage andthe patio, as well as finally getting on the phone with Verizon to switch internet plans.  Since our income will be a bit more constrained for the time being, we have to ditch Service Electric.  The service is pretty darn expensive and it isn't even that great to boot.  If we're playing Jackbox, everybody has to turn off the wifi on their phones or else the laptop chugs.

Saturday of this week is a rosary rally at the Knights, followed by Regina's friend Ava's birthday at Knoebel's.  Regina spent Friday night crafting stickers to give her as a gift.