Mouse Trapped

I got a hunger right before I went to sleep. So I came downstairs and heated up some mini-burgers in the microwave. I spotted a mouse running across the floor in the library. How did that little guy get in there? No matter. Time to get him out.

I went to my closet downstairs and pulled out the trusty mouse trap. They are disposable. Put on my big garden gloves. Put a piece of cheese on the end and pulled the trap open. I used a grabber tool to set the trap down in the library under the coat rack.

I was startled when the trap went off as I put it on the floor. No trouble. I was holding it with the grabber tool. Pulled the trap back open while the big gloves were on my hands. I texted the family to ensure the gerbil was kept in the cage until the trap had been sprung.

The next morning I got up at 5am. Sure enough, the mouse was caught in the trap. I wrapped it up with 5 or 6 pages of newspaper. Then I wrapped the newspaper up in a couple plastic grocery bags. Finally I put the grocery bags in the trash bag from the trash can and took it outside.

Let's hope this mouse snuck in while the side door was open. I am pegging it a one time occurrence.

Delay of Baseball Game

Some guys at work wanted to see a baseball game together. Sounded good to me. One guy got the tickets. He said he would meet us outside the stadium. This is a relatively new baseball team. I have not seen them live yet. I planned for heavy traffic due to the rain. Took me an hour and a half to get to the stadium.


There was a variety of parking options. All of them were expensive. I chose the cheapest option. That meant I had to walk eight blocks to get to the stadium. I went to the gate that was closest to our seats and waited. The guy who got the tickets was 30 minutes late. But it did not matter. The game start was delayed due to rain.


I had done some research on the food available at the stadium. I told the boys I was going to get a cheesesteak gyro. My ticket gave me five bucks off the exorbitant food prices. It was like getting a free Coke. I headed up to the seats with my meal. I brought a trash bag to sit on to keep the water away from me. I chowed down on the cheesesteak as the sauce dripped down on my good shirt.


The guys never showed up. The game started an hour and 45 minutes late. I checked my phone and found a bunch of messages from the guys. They were too cold and wet to watch the game. They took off. I called them up and said I was staying to watch the game. There was a bunch of people behind me speaking Japanese. I recognized their language. They lasted for three innings.


The visiting team scored four unanswered runs early on. But somewhere in the middle of the game, our team got two home runs back to back. They also scored two other runs that inning to tie the game. Eventually the other team gained the lead. At the seventh inning I decided to call it quits. The rain had got me wet and it was indeed cold. My GPS took me through a bunch of back streets with stop signs.


I got home to find that Kit Kat had already got off work and beat me home.

Yahoo for Email

We finally settled our team for the group project last night in my college class. There were initially three people on our team. But one girl became missing in action. The instructor moved another girl into our team to round out the numbers.


One of our first assignments was to exchange contact information with each other. The kids on my team seemed shocked that I still used Yahoo for email. I asked them what they used. Gmail. They thought I might not even be able to get a job if people found out I still used Yahoo.


Calm down children. Grandpa might use Yahoo for email, but he has plenty of tricks up his sleeve to be valuable for employers.

Cujo Calls

My real estate agent took one look at the circuit breaker at dad's house and declared it dangerous. The circuit breakers sometimes refuse to flip. That's a potential fire hazard. So even though the cost was high, I decided to have an electrician redo the electric service.


The guys put a new breaker box in the basement workshop. Then they went outside to install a new meter. Unfortunately the dogs next door got riled up and were ready to jump the fence. The electricians fled and said they could not return unless the dog situation was resolved.


I asked my brother to talk with the neighbors to see if they could put the dogs indoors. He said he would take care of that on the weekend. Unfortunately I got sick on the weekend. And then my brother said he could not find the neighbors. Must be on vacation.


So here we were the day before the electricians were to arrive. Dogs were still outside. I was still very sick. But I had to power through to get this resolved. I asked my brother to take off the rest of the day from work. We piled a bunch of supplies in the back of his truck and went to dad's house.


After surveying the situation, I figured we could just use some 4x4 lumber and 4x8 plywood to erect a massive barrier where the fence was too low. Of course Cujo was there barking while we were at work. Luckily I had my brother hold up the barrier and we installed they rest of it. Let's hope these electricians do their job on time now.

Cujo Calls

My real estate agent took one look at the circuit breaker at dad's house and declared it dangerous. The circuit breakers sometimes refuse to flip. That's a potential fire hazard. So even though the cost was high, I decided to have an electrician redo the electric service.


The guys put a new breaker box in the basement workshop. Then they went outside to install a new meter. Unfortunately the dogs next door got riled up and were ready to jump the fence. The electricians fled and said they could not return unless the dog situation was resolved.


I asked my brother to talk with the neighbors to see if they could put the dogs indoors. He said he would take care of that on the weekend. Unfortunately I got sick on the weekend. And then my brother said he could not find the neighbors. Must be on vacation.


So here we were the day before the electricians were to arrive. Dogs were still outside. I was still very sick. But I had to power through to get this resolved. I asked my brother to take off the rest of the day from work. We piled a bunch of supplies in the back of his truck and went to dad's house.


After surveying the situation, I figured we could just use some 4x4 lumber and 4x8 plywood to erect a massive barrier where the fence was too low. Of course Cujo was there barking while we were at work. Luckily I had my brother hold up the barrier and we installed they rest of it. Let's hope these electricians do their job on time now.

Toilet Paper Arbitrage

I noticed the toilet paper supplies at home were getting low. Low as in we had two twelve packs left. Momoko gets worried when we do not have a large supply of toilet paper. She complained that the prices were getting out of control. So I took over purchasing.


Now I love to get stuff delivered from Amazon. Same deal with toilet paper. I always look for free shipping. Even better if it is two day shipping. Last time I bought from Amazon, the box came from Walmart. That seemed strange. Why would Walmart use the Amazon storefront? They have their own web site.


This time around, the box came from Walmart again. I looked at the receipt. The cost was a couple bucks cheaper than I remember paying. I looked up my order. Sure enough, the actual price to me was higher. Then I figured it out. Someone is taking advantage of arbitrage here...


So a guy sees that he can buy toilet paper from Walmart for seven bucks. He lists is on sale at Amazon for ten bucks. When someone like me orders from Amazon, he places the same order with Walmart using my address as the shipping address. He pockets the difference in price. Arbitrage.


I thought about this for a second. Could I get the same deal from Walmart? No. I don't qualify for free shipping at Walmart. That would cost extra. So in effect, I am paying a couple extra dollars to make use of some other guy's shipping subscription. I get my toilet paper at the price I agreed upon.


As long as Walmart and Amazon are happy, getting their cuts of the transaction, there should be no losers here. I would think that Walmart might get suspicious if a dude has a free shipping subscription, and keeps changing his destination address. But hey. If Walmart if okay, I am okay. This is business.

Triple Cheeseburger Surprise

I did some shopping for dad's house at lunch. Got a basket strainer, which is the part of the kitchen sink that meets the drain. Also returned some wrong items to Lowes. That took a while. Was busy at work. Wanted to do some more shopping. Just no time.


I finished work a little late. Needed to rush to get to school tonight. But I was set on visiting McDonald's to try the triple cheeseburger sandwich that had returned. Also ordered a small French fries for the road.


Was surprised at the pay window. They told me some guy ahead of me had paid extra money for my meal. No charge for me. It was only 4 or 5 bucks. But still, I was pumped. The triple cheeseburger was delicious too.