And now it's time for the rest of the story!

Yeah, 7 months later let me tell you about the termination of not only the rodents :) but my car :( as well.
I had been covering those traps in peanut butter and they just kept getting licked clean without catching anything. It was the night before Thanksgiving, I was standing at my kitchen sink when a mother truckin mouse scurried across my foot!! YUCK! He ran through the living room and under the sofa. Which leads me to believe I was right they were likely coming in through the heat which is right along the wall next to my sofa.
That did it! It was time to get serious, it was time to bring in Ronald. Ronald is my friends cat, well kinda his cat. He used to be a stray, now he's part time stray, part time apartment cat, part time bar patron (my friend is a bartender who lives above the bar, Ronald is friends with the owner and all the regulars/employees). So I was leaving to go home for Thanksgiving the next day and on my home I would stop in River Falls to pick up Ronald.
I brought Ronald in and after a few days it seemed his work was done. I hadn't actually seen a dead mouse but I hadn't seen any evidence of mice and I figured he'd either eaten it or at least scared it off pretty good.
I decided it was time Ronald went home. He was ready to go home and I was sick of his kitty litter (Just one of many reasons, I'm not really a cat fan). So I packed up him and his things and we were on our way. As we were driving down the road, the road I live on about 1 1/2 miles away I was adjusting my rear view mirror when....BAM! I rear ended the car in front of me. They hit the car in front of them. They hit the car in front of them. No, that wasn't a typo. I just took out three cars! ( the front one was minor hit/damage). So yeah... Ronald didn't make it home that day. He had to hang out a few more days until his owner came to get him.
As for my car, the insurance company totaled it :( I loved my car, I had only had it just over a year too. And the icing on the cake? One week prior to the accident I spent $500 putting brand new tires on it.
Do you see the damage stupid mice can cause? I had to buy a new car all because of them! But, silver lining... insurance covered the cost of the car and I actually bought one a little cheaper in order to lower my monthly car payment plus it worked out so I could get a bigger vehicle that would better fit the Great Dane I was getting next month!
Yup, I have a great Dane now! So I have a "room mate" again and he is awesome! I've considered starting a new blog just to talk about him. I might just do that one of these days...

The End of The Wagon

The past 4.5 years I have driven a 99 escort station wagon. Otherwise known as The Wagon.  Last week, after 251,215 miles it met its fateful end.
Last Friday my friend Tiffany called to ask if I could pick her up from work because she blew a head gasket while driving in that morning. So we planned for me to pick her up at 10:45 in order for me to drop her off and head in to work at 12.  I set off to pick up Tiffany, stopped to fill my gas tank as I was near empty, and continued to Woodbury. It was snowing lightly, nothing to major and the radio said it would pass through within an hour.  I picked up Tiffany and we were on our way, we were approaching the on-ramp for the highway and I asked Tiff if it was the right place to turn, cause sometimes I get side roads and on-ramps confused.  Well indeed it was our turn.  We weren't traveling real fast as there was snow on the ground and we were about to turn.  But as I turned the car we began sliding around on the road.  Tiffany exclaims "don't hit the wall" and I said "I won't" (I really didn't think we would) but then I realized I could not get control of the car and in fact we would be hitting, so I said "dang it, why'd you say that now we're going to..." SMACK! We hit the wall preventing us from soaring into the highway below.  I watched us hit and the next thing I know I opened my eyes with a ringing in ear, pain in my thumb, and pain in the my shoulder/neck, and realized the air bags had deployed and the car was quite damaged.  Well luckily Tiffany and I were not seriously injured and we only hit a wall no other vehicles. The front bumper was all smashed in and the windshield had cracked in a few places.  And thus ended the wagon.  It was hauled away by a friendly tow driver, I went and cleaned out my belonging and signed over the title earlier this week. I also took the license plates to transfer to my new car.  I got the front one of just fine, but the back one had one nut that just would not come out, I had to get help from the same driver who towed it away, It's like the wagon just didn't want to let go.
The moral of the story is good tires are very important to your car and you should not put off buying them.  Cause even in a pathetic little to hour storm in Wisconsin/Minnesota causes slippery roads.
I can't say I'm terribly upset by the lose of the wagon. I got a new car already, that's much quieter and  nicer to drive.  The wagon was beginning to have its struggles anyway. It's like if something was destined to live to be 100 and die naturally but instead died in an accident at 99.5. Ironically just the Wednesday before my accident a co-worker of mine asked me how many miles my car had because he had the same car as me.  This past week his car died on him on his way to work.  Not a good time for 99 escort station wagons I guess.
I will miss the wagon a little I suppose. Like when it comes moving time, or when I need to put something large in my car.
So Wagon, I am sorry of how I ended things. You didn't deserve such a murderous death, may you rest in recyclable pieces.