Lessons from the weekend

I've learned a lot this past weekend.

LESSON 1. Capital punishment is not a deterrent

We have a mouse named Yoric in the house. I had named the mouse Yoric, just so I could recite "Alas poor Yoric" when we killed him in the trap borrowed from a co-worker. The trap is pretty simple -- a black box that has two metal plates on the bottom. When the mouse steps on both plates, it closes the electricity loop and gets zapped. You just flip up the top, dump out the mouse and reset it. Brilliant! (Okay, kinda gross too but brilliant). We caught Yoric in less than 24 hours and I duly recited Hamlet. Unfortunately, it seems capital punishment is not a deterrent for sinful mice because less than 24 hours after that, we caught a second trespasser. I was actually in the living room, talking with The Two Broads, my out-of-town visitors, when we heard "bzzzzzzzt" ... it took a few moments for us to identify the source of the sound. ew.

And a day later, a third rogue rodent chewed through the wall to get to the birdseed on the counter. Chewed through the freakin' WALL. I hate mice. I now also hate birdseed. I'm gonna get the hantavirus, I can tell already.

LESSON 2. I hate D.C. in August

Eager to show off my new neighborhood to The Two Broads, I hustled them over to Eastern Market for brunch and shopping. Of course, we walked everywhere and by the time T was done chatting with the Ukranian and R was done ogling the duvet covers from India, I thought I was going melt. Seriously, the air is so heavy here. It might even be worse than Houston.

LESSON 3. Nothing beats friends and community.

America just doesn't have community like it used to. Instead, we have suburbia where families stay locked up in their houses or their cars, kids don't play outside, and there's no such thing as the cornerstore. But in a few lucky, rare areas, you can actually find community, where neighbors walk outside and greet each other, you run into friends at the local coffee shop and the bus drivers know your name. Add to that mix two old friends in town for the weekend and it's close to perfection.