This is Rattus norvegicus, the common brown rat. It’s the same rat many lab rats are bred from, and it’s SMART. Also, not so nice to have as a wild resident. As in: living in your laundry room. Even if the laundry room is only an occasional outing (inning?) from the garage, where it’s set…

I hurt someone’s feelings today. Hurt them completely unintentionally, but still deeply. Reminded a man of ways in which the world may see him, even though I don’t believe I do. And even though I apologised — heartfelt, humbly, and more than once (more than twice) — he believes I don’t like him. Because I also…

We have several bird feeding stations on our deck: suet feeders, a seed cylinder, sunflower seed, and small seed (mostly millet) for our sparrows. In the summer, we trade out one of the 2 suet feeders for a hummingbird feeder, and add yet another. There are also 2 different-sized watering saucers — one deeper for…

For Valentine’s Day, I bought my beloved an early present, before I left town. 🙂 Seriously — he loves music, and with his busted up knees, it’s sometimes a royal pain to get up & change the music. So, I bought him a bluetooth gadget that coordinates between his phone and our receiver. Cool, huh?…

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