As December presses on and Christmas approaches ever more rapidly, I find myself in the midst of Potluck Season. This week alone, I will attend three potluck events each with a different theme. When I consider what dish to take to a potluck I assess general likeability, time to make, ease of transport, serving temperature, and cost of ingredients. I have found a few fail-safe recipes that are sure to please. Each time I've made these one of these dishes, I've left with an empty dish and requests for the recipe – I'd say that constitutes a potluck "win."
Turns out, I'm not the only one nesting in our house these days.
When we returned from our Thanksgiving trip Peter noticed Lily sniffing around the laundry closet with excessive curiosity and immediately knew something was amiss. Upon inspection, Peter found a hole had mysteriously appeared in our dryer hose. Seeing no evidence of rodents in the laundry closet or around the dryer vent outside, Peter patched the hole with duct tape and let it go. A couple of days later, while I was doing laundry I heard unfamiliar sounds coming from our dryer. Peter checked again and, sure enough, something had chewed another hole through the hose. Upon second inspection, Peter found some droppings. He suggested that the droppings belong to a mouse (he was clearly overestimating the abilities of mice). When I looked I knew it was something a bit larger.
Peter disconnected the dryer from the wall so that we could sufficiently inspect the hose and dryer. After cleaning out the hose we turned on the dryer. Like confetti, dog food and leaves came flying out. It seems the invader was building a nest in our dryer. Not good! Once we finished up inside, Peter went out back with a flashlight to look in the dryer vent again and see if he could find the perpetrator. To his complete surprise, he found it! Staring back at him from inside the dryer vent was a fat rat whom was seemingly undisturbed by the company.
When Peter came back inside he told me about his discovery and I was not pleased. As my imagination wandered, I catastrophized a house overrun
with evil rats attempting to invade the nursery, much like this Lady
and the Tramp scene:
I put in an emergency request that Peter call a friend who had dealt with his own rodent issues so that we could borrow a trap. Despite being late, this very kind friend got out of bed to fetch the trap and put it on his porch for our retrieval. Baited with dog food, the trap was set to catch the rat. So far it's been 48 hours and we have not caught the rat. But we have destroyed it's nest and Lily is ready to serve as executioner, if necessary. She's even spent the last 48 hours sharpening her skills.
