If things do happen in threes, then could this possibly be the next guest of my wildlife refuge?

And the newest member of the household is...

a bat. Yes, I woke up this morning, groggily from being up late fighting with APA format in a paper. I noticed something brown on the ceiling, seeming to hang there. I put on my glasses, and it was a bat. I'd thought I'd heard something in the ceiling early this morning. I thought it was my friend the squirrel. Perhaps it was our new friend the bat.

So I put Callie in the bathroom because it's the only room with a separate door. I opened the front door, and I tried to sort of push the bat out the door. It flew around the room and then behind the chair near the front door I kind of gently touched it with the broom to get it to move ouside. I had to do that a few times but it flattened itself under the door and then it flew off into the fog.

The thing that I could kick myself for is that I now have a digital camera, purchased yesterday. The battery had even finished charging, but did I think of that? No, of course not. Aak.

Bat gone. Callie liberated. I have no water, though. Apparently when I had no hot water, they'd had to replace the hot water heater. Of course, something has gone wrong with it. This is Indiana. So, I'm off to find coffee to drink in a place that has a bathroom in which I can wash my face. I already brushed my teeth without rinsing, so I'm minty fresh. Mwah mwah.

Of Squirrels and Earthquakes

After being kept awake by the squirrel, I slept through the earthquake. Someone posed the question, was the squirrel so weird because it sensed that there was going to be an earthquake. It's interesting to ponder. I'm not sure. One thing I didn't really expect in Indiana was earthquakes. Just goes to show that you can find pretty much anything and everything here.

This link has a map of the epicenter (5.2):
http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/shake/cus/STORE/X2008qza6/ciim_display.html

I'm preparing for a weekend of finishing up projects/papers. It's supposed to rain and be cooler tomorrow, so maybe that will help with the studying. This time next week I'll be getting ready to leave for Montana!

Time for a new game!

Today we play the game, Maintenance Emergency, Yes or No. It's very simple. I will give you scenarios, and you guess if this is something that maintenance will do something about in the off hours - evenings, weekends, late night, etc.

1). It's below zero, and all the pipes freeze except for a small trickle in the cold water faucet in the kitchen and the toilet. It's Sunday of the Super Bowl.

2). You go out drinking until 3am, get home, and realize you don't have your key with you.

3). You're woken up at 1am by the sounds of a squirrel practicing for Olympics gymnastics event, both floor and arial. Your ceiling consists of a dropped ceiling with metal grid and foam-type ceiling panels that are not particularly thick.

Okay, ready. The answers are....

1). No (the Indianapolis team is playing - nothing is a maintenance emergency)

2) Yes - This is a lockout, and maintenance will show up anytime. You will, however, get charged for it.

3) No - Apparently not. Or as the after-hours service said, "A squirrel won't hurt you. If if gets into the apartment, just open the door and let it out." I did wonder how that might work if it fell from the ceiling into my bed, and then Callie chased it around for a bit before the whole open door policy could be instituted.

Aack

So, in a scene reminiscent of Christmas Vacation, Callie and I are sitting on the couch talking to her kitty grandma when we hear something running around the roof. It was kind of loud, but there's not a lot between the dropped ceiling and the roof. Then we both saw the squirrel that had run out onto the plexiglass where the florescent light is. The squirrel saw us, stopped, and we all looked at each other. The squirrel ran off.

I wanted to yell, "Squirrel!" Since that seemed kind of rude to yell into my mother's ears, I limited myself to exclaiming that I had a squirrel in my ceiling. Callie has been on the alert ever since. I told her it's apparently her job to guard the apartment from squirrels.

This has been an amazingly long semester. Only the rest of this week, and then next week is the last week of classes. I will be happy for it to be over, except for the fact that some of my favorite librarians will be graduating and leaving for the wide world. One is off to a permanent government job in Washington DC, and two others are off to summer jobs out west and southwest. There are a few lingerers who'll be here through the summer. After that, it'll be pretty quiet in the new palatial, squirrel-less apartment.

See, this is why I needed help choosing an apartment! I am obviously not to be trusted to do this sort of thing alone. Squirrels...

Exorcism for Undergrads?

It's Little 500 weekend, an extended weeking of partying for the undergrads that provides many opportunities for them to keep me awake. I'm wondering if the following carving/plaque thing could be used to keep the undergrads away from my apartment?

Melissa took the photo with her camera phone, so in case you can't read it, it says, "Evil spirits cannot enter an inhabited house unless invited. - Sir Walter Scott"

I'm not sure they're evil, but they sure are annoying, or maybe annoyingly evil...

Spring, Spring, Spring!

Okay, it's 8:35pm and it's still 65 wonderful degrees. No rain today, and it was at least 74 degrees, which in my book equals wonderous, beautimous spring. I've seen many varieties of daffodils, and now even some hyacinths.

Woo hoo! It would be even better if I weren't busy. I've been trying to do some studying outside, though, when it's not raining. It's supposed to start again tomorrow. sigh.

I see some travel in the future...

to....Missoula via Spokane. And no, it's not an April Fool's joke. Those of you who actually read my blog without being told to read it know this already. Yes, the tickets have been purchased. I fly into Spokane on Saturday April 26th at 12:14pm. I leave from Spokane on Saturday May 3rd at 1:19pm.

It looks like I can take a bus from Spokane on the 26th at 5:15pm, getting into Missoula at 10:40pm, and one on the 3rd at 7:30am getting back to Spokane at 10:55am. So, I am looking for volunteers to come fetch me from said bus station, and also volunteers for places to stay. If you would like to be a volunteer for anything, please let me know. I am excited about being able to see all of you, and the mountains, and have good coffee (although not at my favorite place, since it's closed, sigh).

Now I have to survive the last few weeks of the semester, without getting distracted by thoughts of Montana. That'll be tough to do. Hmmm, the attribution theory and academic library performance evaluation OR mountains and rivers and friends..... see my dilemma?