"Hey, I don't need your charity titters.....

....now, say hello to my girlfriend, Charity Titters."

Another rainy day here in Birmingham.....what else is new? Poor Raya is still fighting with her kidneys. I'm hopeful that things will turn around quickly, hopefully a nephrology visit tomorrow brings good news.

In happier news, I think the Great Rzeszut Mouse Battle of 2009 has been won. (By me, not the mouse.) I'm nervous to jinx myself by saying this, but it's been three consecutive days now with no evidence of rodent activity in the kitchen. All of the baseboards are still sealed with steel wool and duct tape, with no signs of chewing or biting.

As you can imagine, duct tape along the bases of our cabinets looks fabulous, though I did manage to get some black duct tape, which makes it sort of blend in.

Work is work. Got a virus infected computer on my desk now, the second time in about 3 months that this particular PC has gotten hit. I wonder if the people in this particular lab use this PC for their porn surfing.

Set up new printers yesterday, a new laptop, argued with a faculty member who ordered a desktop with Windows Vista even though I told him it was unsupported, etc., etc. The usual crap.

Going backwards in time a few days, had a pretty fun weekend. Raya wanted to stay off her swollen feet as much as possible, so I took Sophie to the "Temple Trails" program at TEE on Saturday. It was originally supposed to be in Homewood Park, but the rain made that impossible. (For the same reason, we skipped the Race for the Cure on Saturday, too.)

So we were inside for Temple Trails, which was fine. Stories, songs, and a really cute craft project called "Shabbes Shiners" -- basically, flashlights substituted as kid-friendly Shabbat candles, and Sophie decorated the wooden "candlestick" holder with paint and glass marbles. Pretty cool.

Saturday night, of course, we watched the Gators beat LSU, Tim Tebow back from his concussion in the Kentucky game. Not the prettiest win ever, but I'll take it, especially on a Saturday night in Baton Rouge. Always tough for visiting teams to win in "Death Valley."

Sunday, Sophie and I headed out for some retail therapy at Target and Home Depot. New jeans and a new dress for her, some random stuff for me, including new earphones and a water bottle to support my newly-acquired "going to the gym" kick. We'll see how long I can make this last.

Lunch at Red Robin, mouse-proofing the kitchen in the afternoon, a run to Publix, and some NFL games pretty much finished off the weekend!!

This coming weekend, Sophie's got another fire station birthday party (at least it's a different fire station!). And, if the weather holds, and Raya feels up to it, maybe a trip out to the pumpkin patch.