I have returned!

[oyceter]

Not that I was really that gone, internet-wise.

Addiction? What addiction?

But the rats and I have safely traversed five highways, one bridge, two windy mountain roads, and quite a few lanes clogged up by white trucks going too slowly, and are now back home. The rats seem to be very glad to be back in their normal, large cage again, and they are expressing this by beating Ruki up and flinging litter everywhere.

Harbingers of DOOM

Shelobs I, II, and III decided to grace us with their presence. Rachel bravely disposed of Shelobs I and II by flinging them into the great outdoors while I cowered on the bed, but since I discovered Shelob III in the bathroom while Rachel was sleeping, I let sleeping beasts be. In the morning, Shelob III was gone, lurking about silently. We rejoiced at the coming of Jody (canandagirl), as she brought food, LFN pimping, and the will to hunt down assorted arachnoid creatures.

Naturally, Shelob III never appeared while Jody was here, but last night, after Jody left, she struck again, lurking behind the nightstand! We (and by we, I mean Rachel) attempted to trap it, but it ended up scuttling under my bed.

"It ran under your bed!" Rachel said. "I don't think I can reach it. Good night!" And she scuttled beneath many layers of blankets, leaving me awake to contemplate what Shelob III might be doing under my bed.

Spy shows: LFN

Jody pimped La Femme Nikita to us, though I've actually seen a good deal of S1 via Netflix about three years ago. I'm still of two minds about it -- I'm not all that fond of Nikita and Michael, but I absolutely adore Section One and their insanely ruthless schemes.

Since we were all sitting on the couch petting rats, it was rather disconcerting to watch an episode in which Nikita is tortured -- via rat! As the Evil Henchmen shoved her face into a cageful of the poor things, I squeed "EEEE! Ratties! HOW CUTE!" in what was probably an insanely high-pitched voice. Alas, Nikita felt differently, and the Evil Henchmen started torching the cage to drive the rats closer to her.

I covered the rats' eyes for fear of rattie trauma.

Thankfully, none of the rats in the episode seemed to distraught; all the "distraught and panicked rat" scenes seemed more like "confused and snuffling rat" scenes.

Also, the wounds on Nikita's face afterward were totally not rat bites or scratches.

Traditional fooding

Jody very kindly cooked, with me and Rachel occasionally helping out with peeling and food prep. I have a rediscovered love of potato salad and deviled eggs now, along with a newly discovered love of tuna casserole. Actually, that could also be a rediscovered love, given my poor memory.

I think Jody and Rachel were both very amused by how exotic I thought the casserole was (it is! It is Americana!). Also, I ate almost all of it because it was so tasty.

Rachel also introduced me to cream of wheat, which I'm still not sure if I like or not. I think I ended up pouring too much maple syrup into mine, but I suspect it would be really tasty with butter and a little salt and nothing too sweet. I associate it entirely too much with polenta and jook, both of which are savory.

Rats

My rats are usually insane maniacs who ricochet across the couch and the windows while I valiantly attempt to stymie any escapes. Ruki is particularly bad and usually tries to make a break for it every other minute.

Strangely enough, they were amazingly lazy and flat at Mariposa and were content to stay in people's arms while being happily scritched for hours. This lead to many cute variations on the Rat Stack, but I forgot to take my camera out during the entire trip, so no pictures =(.

I suspect it may be something in the mountain air, because Ruki has already jumped out of the bathtub at least ten times today.

Spy shows: Spooks/MI-5

Despite Rachel's laptop's very best attempts to keep us from finishing the episode where Tom wears an army uniform (mmmm), we managed to cram in 7 episodes from S2 and one from S1 in an attempt to pimp it to Jody.

It is very brain-breaking to watch Spooks and LFN back to back.

We all agreed that Tom was the Worst Spy Ever and had the worst love life ever.

I've also forgotten just how good S2 was and it was nice to rewatch old episodes to catch threads of continuity. I have such a strong impression of S3 that I tend to forget the earlier seasons, but really, the show is incredibly solid and good and well-done through its entire run (so far, knock on wood).

Pointy sticks and string

I taught Rachel and Jody how to knit! I should probably be over this by now, but it is still so cool watching people learn how to knit and have them leave with several inches of fabric that they made themselves. Well, Jody's went beyond several inches to a good scarf start.

Also, I seem to have lost all ability to knit with straights.

Also, I managed to miss both cofax7 and cychi's birthdays while I was gone, so, um... happy belated birthday! May the next year bring good food and good books.

Comments

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

You may soon giggle at me discovering Taiwan's equivalent of tuna casserole. (What would that be, by the way?)

You forgot to mention the dead birds!

[oyceter]

I tried to write up the dead birds and the mouse, but couldn't manage to do it! You definitely should though.

Taiwan tuna casserole? Hrm. Probably something like shrimp with mayo and rainbow sprinkles.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

The sweet candy kind of rainbow sprinkles? OK, that's just weird.

[oyceter]

Yeah, I think they're gross.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Straight needles feel so ungainly now. What do you do with all that extra rigid stuff that sticks out past your hand?

Rat stack!

[oyceter]

I know! I was trying to demo, and stuff kept slipping out of my hands (the bamboo was ok, but metal 8s on wool? argh!), and I kept having all this extra needle banging about!

[octopedingenue]

I am so jealous of the rat-scritching! But not the tuna casserole, bah, fish.

[oyceter]

Hee, the rats enjoyed the rat scritching a lot as well.