For some reason I have been dealing with a lot of wildlife in my apartment for the past 2 weeks. See below.

This guy has been my roomate since I moved in. Yes, I am convinced that there is only one. My food is pretty well stored, so he hasn’t gotten to any of it. In the past I have worried that he might starve because he hasn’t gotten any food from me.

Yesterday he was particularly brazen, walking around the apartment as if he owned the place even though I was in clear sight and moving around! He doesn’t even bother staying along the walls anymore. I decided that I am tired of wiping mouse poo off my stove, and set 2 traps. I baited each one with a honey nut cheerio dipped in honey. My theory was that the honey would make the cheerio stick to the trap just enough that the mouse would jostle it and spring the trap. It didn’t work. This morning the cheerios were gone and the traps were not sprung.

Tonight I am trying peanut butter (this required a special shopping trip as I don’t usually have peanut butter inthe house these days).

I woke up at 5AM today because a mosquito had just bitten me on the temple. It proceeded to buzz around my head for the next hour and a half until the alarm went off. I guess I could have woken up and made a serious effort to get rid of it, but at the time it seemed like it made more sense to bat at it blindly (I have trouble opening my eyes in the morning).

This is a city critter that I am usually happy to see - but a few days ago one really startled me by being on Chris’ shoulder right where my head rests when we hug.

I killed one of these yesterday. I was halfway through showering when I noticed what looked like a hairball on the wall. Then it moved. Yikes! I jumped out of the shower and created a huge puddle on my floor as I tried to figure out what to do - when I looked back into the shower, the house centipede was in the process of washing down the drain.

In looking for this picture, I learned that the house centipede kills other pesty insects like mosquitos and young cockroaches. Oops. I guess I should have kept him around.

I killed 2 of these in my apartment in the past 2 weeks! Well, actually Chris killed the first one while I cowered behind him and cheered him on. The second one appeared while I was alone, and I had no choice but to take care of it myself. Iggh. I have been living here since February and these are the first 2 that I have seen.

Thinking of friends at ACL, and eating meat in BK.

I am an Epic Superuser!

From Time.com (online Time Magazine) 8/3/09.

I think the title sums it up pretty well.

Addendum 11:01 PM

It’s the #1 most e-mailed article on time.com right now! The #6 most e-mailed article is “Why Tall People Are Happier Than Short People”. I should be reading time.com more often?

Thanks, Ben for alerting me about the missing link!

Here’s the posting again:

Please click on the link below to read a CNN article. At the end of the article is the following statement: Should specialists, nurse practitioners and physician assistants be encouraged to fill in the gap left by shortage of primary care doctors? We want to hear about your experiences. E-mail your story to realstories@cnnmoney.com and you could be part of an upcoming article.

If you are an NP or writing in strong support of NPs (as you should be!) you can also copy editor@aanp.org on your response to CNN.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/16/news/economy/healthcare_doctors_shortage/index.htm?postversion=2009071807