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They're back!!  

I was baking chocolate-chip cookies yesterday.  It was raining hard outside, so it was a great day for baking.  When I needed flour, I couldn't find it in the upper cupboard where it's usually stored.  Then, I remembered that it might be in the hot-water tank closet.

Sure enough, that's where I found it.  I think the upper cupboard was too full for that new 10-pound sack of flour. I opened the sack, and for some reason thought about why I started putting some of my perishables in the room in the first place. 

Something at that moment urged me to go back to the closet and check.  After all, I hadn't checked behind the water tank for several weeks.  Too many things in the way. 

Some readers may recall that while doing that on a regular basis this time last year, I got stuck head down between the water tank and the wall.  

During that episode, which lasted only minutes but seemed like eternity, I experienced the very scary thought of being stuck there for the entire day----on a day when Bill was due home later than usual.

Fortunately, I kept my head---well, it was at a downward angle---but the stuff inside my skull maintained a sense of sanity as I slowly inched myself out of that predicament.

I was stuck there cuz of the mice.  

The mice strategically invaded our house last fall, starting at the garage and methodically working their way ever closer to places inside the house sure to make a screaming mimi out of me. 

I never did see a live mouse during those few months, but I did clean up plenty of their little black deposits in drawers and inside that hot-water tank room. We were constantly relocating our perishables and since have purchased several of those trusty plastic containers.

I also discovered several dead mice pinned to traps,  which were immediately reloaded with peanut butter and set back to catch some more.

Thankfully, mouse house invasion season ended in mid-December, 2009.  

This year we've caught a few in the cupboards outside in the garage, but yesterday was the first sign they've once again made it inside the house.  And, that's even through all the aluminum foil stuffed in every nook and cranny imaginable. 

This year we're ready with an offensive.  Last year, they caught us offguard cuz they were the first we'd seen in this house.  

I thank the rain for the most recent invasion, and I thank that impulse to go look yesterday afternoon.  The corpse in the trap behind the water tank looked pretty fresh.  

Bill will bring home more traps, and, hopefully yesterday's casualty was a scout sent ahead to check out the danger.  And, maybe since it didn't return with a report, the mice will be wise enough to stay out of our house.

I did eventually bake my cookies, which, of course, are inside the freezer and in plastic containers. 

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The cookie-baking fun began after I had spent the morning cleaning up more leaves from the yard.  I estimate about 97 percent completion at this point.

One thing I've noticed this year and on other years while spending up to a week cleaning up each successive dropping of leaves is that if you want a wind to come up, just pick up the rake.  Two sweeps later, there it is, full force,  blowing your work all over the lawn. 

We were supposed to get a wild and woolly wind last night, and I figured that would take care of the remaining three percent still sticking to the limbs, which I could rake up today.

Guess I didn't have my rake out there after dark cuz the wind never showed up here.  

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Annie figures the wind over in Seattle was a good omen for her.  She found $15 last night while out jogging.  When she came home, she learned that her roommate had also found $10 on her walk.  

Maybe if I get my rake out often enough today some of that green stuff will come flying this way and land in my lawn.

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Yesterday was Willie's first day as a basketball coach.  He's coaching the junior varsity team at Sandpoint High School and told us last night that the practice went well. 

I'm sure this is a dream-come-true for "Big Man," as Bill calls him. He's been shooting hoops most of his life, including up in the hay loft inside that big red barn on Great Northern Road where we used to live.

To say he loves and studies the game of basketball is an understatement.  So, we wish him well in his inaugural season as a coach and look forward to attending his games. 

And, for closers today, while going through my albums yesterday, I found the photo above.  As you can tell, it was taken a while back, so it's hardly a high-quality digital shot.

Nonetheless, it provides a reminder of one of the many spontaneous adventures Bill and I have enjoyed during our married life.

That's a famous person frolicking among us.  I'll leave you the challenge of guessing just who it might be.  

And, maybe tomorrow I'll tell you the story that goes along with it.  So, give a guess, and we'll see who comes the closest. 

Happy Tuesday.