Exterminator....My Foot...

Whenever I would go to my grandparents house as a kid, I would always look forward to playing a certain game: Mouse Trap. I'm not sure that I ever played it right though. But that didn't matter, the funnest part of it all was just setting off the chain reaction of traps. It was very seldom though, that everything worked out and you would catch the mouse. The beauty of the game, however, was that it was just that - a game. The pieces were plastic, as were the mice. If you didn't catch the mouse, that was fine, it wasn't going to run all over the house eating your food and pooping everywhere.
Fast forward 20 years.
When I found this apartment in New York I was extremely excited. We would be the first to live here. Brand new appliances: a dish washer, washer & dryer, fridge, stove, central air, etc. These are things that you just can't find here in New York without selling your soul, or your first child, to the landlord. You can imagine my surprise when I found that I wouldn't have to do either of these things to live in this place. While this has been a great place, and we love it here, it does have one drawback: mice.
Now we have a really good landlord, so we gave him a ring, and he promised to have an exterminator come and check it out. What a waste of time that turned out to be. The exterminator came, placed some poison (that ATTRACTS all mice within its range), and said that that would do the trick. Now I ask myself, what kind of exterminator is that? I hope my landlord isn't paying him much. I could've done that myself...
Katie and I noticed that the "exterminator's" visit only worsened the problem. The mice ate ALL of the poison that had been set out. What a frustrating experience this has been. I feel like the mice are taunting us. I was so frustrated that I called the landlord again & got the "exterminator" out here. Guess what he did? Put out more poison.... Since the second visit, I've gone around the apartment on my hands and knees trying to find and fill any holes where the mice could be coming into our place.
Anyone have any ideas? HELP!!!

Baseball in NYC - September 24, 2007

Who would've thunk that the New York Mets would have a "Mormon Night" at Shea Stadeum? I was surprised myself when I found out about it. It was pretty neat. The missionaries were all there, and they even sang the national anthem. Our bishop had announced over the pulpit that the church was going to be having this event, and I knew that we had to go. Like many out there, I have been confused because of the great many sports teams in the area. Some say "cheer for the Yankees" while others say "root for the Mets". Because of all this confusion I resolved to find out for myself who to commit to.

This is how it went down: Mets 1-0 after 3 innings. After that point, it began to unravel, much like the past month of Mets baseball. After the 3rd inning, these are the runs scored by Washington, beginning with the 4th inning: 2, 3, 2, 0, 3, 3. End result: Washington 13 - Mets 4. This, in contrast to the Yankees game that I went to on September 18, where the Yanks beat Baltimore 12-0.

I'm pretty sure that Josh feels that the Mets just aren't the team for us. Just look at him in the picture. It was a beautiful night at Shea Stadium, however he cried quite a bit, something he never does...

I guess I should also note, as is obvious in the picture, that the sweet seats that the church scored us were on the very top row!!! I was amazed at how high we were. I actually felt short of breath due to the lack of oxygen at such a high altitude.

Something else that I cannot figure out for the life of me... When we paid for the tickets, we were asked to put it in with a tithing slip. The bishop said it was $6 per ticket, and to put it in the "other" category on the slip. It seemed strange, but that's what I did. However, when looking at the Mets website to see where we were sitting, it clearly showed that the section we would be in were $5 tickets!! Sure enough, when I got the actual tickets is showed that they were $5! Now I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist, but something fishy was going on that night. Did the Mets do this to exploit the Mormons, or is this how my bishop was able to afford taking his family? I need to get to the bottom of this...

Miracle Child

**Disclaimer: To those of you who have children under the age of 1, the content of this post may be upsetting to you, read at your own risk!!

When people talk of miracles, it can include a plethera of things. Some think that seeing a picture of the Virgin Mary on a grilled cheese sandwich is a miracle. To others, Moses parting the Red Sea is a miracle. Ok, the second one really is a miracle, the first one is just...well...cheesy. Let me tell you about another miracle: my son Josh.
I know that parents typically like to brag about their children. But this is not bragging, this is fact-telling.
FACT: He rolled from his stomach onto his back when he was 2 3/4 weeks old (I have it on video)!
FACT: He only cries when he is hungry, poopy, or tired!
FACT: He has the prettiest blue eyes of any baby on the planet!
FACT: At the tender age of 2.67 months he began standing up while holding onto my fingers for minutes on end!
FACT: The other day he stood up to the coffee table, by himself, for 13 seconds!
FACT: He is 4 months old now, and can practically sit up by himself (well, within a month or two he will be anyway...)!
FACT: The third time we tried feeding him baby food, he ate everything we threw at him (and it was peas nonetheless)!
FACT: It appears that he will be able to curl his toes under his feet and stand on his knuckles like his father!
FACT: He now has the perceptual ability to put his binky back into his mouth (at least 10% of the time)!
FACT: I could go on and on about him!

The picture above is of us playing one night after I got home from school. Typically we will play Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, or Hungry-Hungry Hippos, but this evening we decided to go with the classic "Stand up and laugh" game. It was a smashing success!