I went to Genghiscon today, the small relaxacon held at St George College, UWA. Today was quite hot, 34-35^C for most of the day, which explains why I'm still feeling overheated at nearly 9pm, at home. Definitely some sunburn here and since I don't spend that much time in the Big Room with the evil day star, I'm very aware of it! I did have some sun cream on from the morning but not enough, it seems.

I did some chatting to folk as well as gaming; Ticket To Ride India, and my second game of Seven Wonders. I crashed and burned in the TTR as badly as the first time - haven't figured out the strategies needed for this board - and was middling in the SW game. Since I was already fading, I decided to go home and take care of rat care while I still had the awareness to tell one rat from another when handing out medications. Not super easy, with two dark-eyed Dove Hoodeds. Also, rats lie.

One of these years I will not be caring for an elderly or ill rat at this time and be able to stay at the convention. I think I'd be a lot less weary if I could, since this weather is not my favourite for cycling either, but the sunburn would've happened either way.

I'm not sure if I'll make it tomorrow, depends how I feel in the morning.

...and no power until 1pm. At that, I was lucky, since bloke at Western Power quoted me 2.30pm.

The thunderstorm broke right overhead just before 3am, waking me up and was so damn loud I was sure they'd have heard it in Claremont but when I called M to ask if they had power there she said, "What storm?" Unfortunately not a lot of rain resulted. I think Collie got that, since the friend for whom I'm plant-sitting said she'd be coming back tomorrow, not today, as it was too wild to drive.

It's amazing what a handicap it felt like, to have no electricity for that long. This area is indeed fortunate in that when it happens, it's normally not for very long at all. Ten hours is by far the longest break. First thing on my mind was "No tea!" and the second was concern about the rats, should the temperature rise. They were headed for a cold water dunking, had the power not come back on when it did. And yes, we're all spoilt!

I'm not celebrating Christmas any more. A while back I posted this and also the info that I would not be giving, nor expecting gifts.

Relatives, of course, are something else.

So item 1:

packages sent off to England rellies; cards and copies of Nightsiders which is going to totally confuse the poor things :-)

Item 2:

Card prepared to go to brother and his family over in Port Lincoln. This is a difficult one. Four of them, one of me and a vastly dissimilar income means I can't continue to send gifts. The problem of no feedback re gifts for the children is something I've mentioned before. I have it from my mother, though, that these boys (and the rest of the junior wolf pack of cousins they're bringing up over there) have a LOT of local relatives and certainly don't lack for gifts. So I hope they're okay with the card and greetings and don't think I'm a tight-fisted so-and-so. [They already have a copy of Nightsiders!]

Item 3:
Re my mother, here in Perth, that one's sorted because we came to a mutual agreement last year to stop giving gifts to one another. I think she didn't want any more weird T-shirts, though honestly, I only gave her ONE....So I've made a list of food munchies to take over there on the day instead. Nandos chicken, salad, cherries, chocolate for starters.

Beyond that, well, if anybody wants to play board games or RPGs on Boxing Day or any other after the 24th and apart from the dreaded day itself, I'm your person.

I am so over these mice! Can't figure it. I've been here almost six years and this is the first time I've had a problem with mice. One or two was ok but there are more than that around now, despite me getting a humane mouse trap to dump them outside.

The trap caught four or was it five mice yesterday, I'm losing count. That includes the one who chewed through the bandage over the airhole and got away. I can explain...The airhole was doing fine as an airhole until one limber individual squeezed his entire body through it and got away. The next time he (or one of his clan) was in the trap, that mouse ENLARGED the hole before escaping. I've found the bandages work if I move fast. I've also ordered two more traps which will not be altered.

I started by dumping them in my shed, which has only two and a half walls, an earth floor and a pile of garden debris on it. Too close? Okay, started taking them to the end of the garden. Last night I dropped the first mouse over the fence into a grassy alleyway. The neighbours I liked have moved out of the nearest place and I'm not even sure if anyone's living there now. But if there's a nest somewhere and a group happily making more mice, even three traps may not be enough. The trap has now caught 21 mice, though some may be repeat offenders.

We are moving on to a possible endgame which I'm not going to like but must consider, i.e. disposing of the mice in a more terminal way. Any method ideas? Btw, I can't make sure there's no food around because the mice go into the rats' cages and steal theirs, apparently with the cooperation or at least indifference of the occupants.

First project: Catch up on sleep.
Have started to do this. It's raining, so won't be doing outside stuff until it's time to go out for an appointment.

Perth is shut down for the CHOGM (cough into handkerchief sound) meeting and the arrival of QEII (Queen, not the boat) but I should be ok as I'll be staying on the train. I know I'd be ok anyway, but the presence of all that security puts me more on alert than I would usually be. I realised yesterday that I was reacting to it as though I was in a strange city, where being on alert is only common sense. Then yesterday I walked into a police cordon because a "suspicious package" had been found in one of the restricted areas. False alarm. I was only concerned that the library might be shut off and I didn't want to lug three hardbacks home with me again. It's not the first time.

LJ is stuffed again, not totally, but the function where it recovers a lost password is not working. I checked this on their List of Stuff Happening, so I know it's not just me. I was certain I was typing in their "prove you're human" words correctly but then it just sat there and never did send me the reset password email. I suppose I'll see about ten when it finally starts working again.

I'm trying to read what is possibly the worst book I have ever met, out of a sort of horrified fascination. I decided to work my way through all the zombie books the library had (a couple of decent ones, about which more later) and the last was this YA offering where teenagers get reanimated and go on attending high school as "differently biotic" kids. I'm not sure I can stand to finish it but I'll review it if I do!

The brain is moving slowly today! Yesterday I finally had a decent massage - the Subi Massage Clinic - so today I feel as though I was beaten up! That's how you know :-) The masseur clearly knew his stuff, though I'm not sure it helped for me to know precisely what muscle was currently convulsing under pressure. He found sore spots I had no idea I had. He also kindly asked me from time to time whether I was still breathing, due to the odd impulse I had to hold my breath when a sore spot was encountered. It was rather like being in an anatomy class with myself as the subject.
( More pain and suffering )

I've been having battles with a tiny creature that knew no fear at all. I had to take all the rats' dry food out of the cupboard it was in because the mouse had found a way in through a space at the back and from there, was able to access all the cupboards!

It's been in the rats' cages taking their food, apparently with no arguments from the residents.

I decided I would have to try to capture and remove it when I began to find mouse droppings through most of my cupboards. I fly-sprayed the access space in the hope that the mouse would stay away. No such luck. So I set out the Mouse House (a cage used as the boys' hospital cage) with tempting snacks inside. A person online who'd had a similar problem recommended peanut butter as a lure, so I included some of that. My vague plan was that the mouse would eventually go inside the Mouse House and I would be able to shut the door on it. In the meantime it would get relaxed about going in and out. Last night I jammed the space with newspaper, which I know works with rats...for a while.

Today, though, I found a small body in the cupboard with the cereal and the pasta. I was quite upset by this as I had not meant for it to die. Perhaps it did inhale some of the spray, though that was two days ago. Or it overindulged on the peanut butter? I buried it next to my last rat grave, behind the broad beans. It leaves me with a last mystery - if the entry space was still blocked, and it was, how did it get in, to perish with its face in the pasta? I know it wasn't in the cupboards last night because it was merrily running around the living room. So. RIP Mouse. You win.

UPDATE: The hot water is back! I'm not rejoicing too much, because this off/on fluctuation happened last time. Lena (landlord) and I took the water heater's cover off this afternoon to have a look and there is indeed a little ant city inside. It's been decided that doing them in is probably the only way.

How was the disc golf, Leece? I'd suggest trains but know you are probably bushed :-)
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This is really going to encourage visitors to Chez Rattus.

My hot water system packed up last night. I remained in hope for well past the usual time it takes to heat up; it had, after all, been fine in the morning. I suspect ants of having built a nest inside, this is what happened last time. So I took the world's shortest shower and followed it up by heating water in jug and pan and washing in the basin to finish. Today I will be borrowing my landlord's shower, tomorrow likely the same and Monday I guess it's the train station showers, since I don't think the building renovations (including showers) are finished at work yet.

I think I can add this to the things which would bother me the most when the zombie apocalypse strikes.

1. zombies
2. supply of antidepressants would dry up
3. supply of tea and chocolate would dry up
4. when the hot water system went kaput, nobody would fix it.

Actually, I think the no hot showers would bug me even more than 3 and make 2 even more difficult to handle. I love the 21st century :-)

Given LJ's recent hiccups, I think I'm going to make sure I post here first. If all the *people* from LJ were here, I'd probably stop reading LJ. It would be good if there was one place they all posted, but seems that won't happen. In each journal/FB or G+, there are people I read who don't post in the others :-) My brain is becoming (more) fragmented!

This weekend has been quite good. Went to the movies yesterday with leecetheartist,rdm and ariaflame. We saw the second half of Deathly Hallows which worked for me even though I haven't seen the first half. Reading the book was sufficient. Then another visit to Grill'd, the superlative burger place by the train station. It had a queue out the door. Today I hope to be visiting friends and showing off the e-bike, which I took for a trip around the suburb yesterday. In the meantime, here, cogitating on gaming and possibly a bit of writing.

I have another question for any gamesmasters here and that is, how much writing up do you think is necessary for adventures? Given that your gamers are going to walk off in the opposite direction, most likely, how much prep would you do for, say, an evening's adventure? Four weeks? A campaign?

I got a brief look at LJ yesterday, thought it was better, but it was only a brief rally before LJ was back in bed with a hot drink and blankets and painkillers, no doubt. DOS seems to be the virtual version of a bad flu. Best wishes for your recovery, LJ, meanwhile, glad that DW is still here :-) *Small* glitch accessing DW yesterday but otherwise fine.

I'd meant to post a series of what I'm doing posts about my break but really haven't done much. The aches and pains are somewhat eased, but I wasn't well on Tuesday so have mostly been watching DVDs, reading and mucking around online. Not that there is a problem with this! Didn't end up going over to M's to help with the book deliveries because of bad weather (and early morning start) but did relay to her a list of the suggested authors. Last night and early morning brought a fairly decent storm and lots of rain, so my broad beans can stop complaining. I swear, even at this time of year, give them a couple of fine days with sun and they're wilting, in need of watering.

Should my future scenario of Perth in 40 years time, heated up, water-deficient and mostly abandoned, ever happen, I don't think broad beans will be one of the crops grown in the covered farms. Re the covered vegetable farms thing, I think this is already happening. I've seen more than one suburban vege patch with shadecloth over it during summer and have noticed that the plant nursery I use, which used to keep its stock outside for the most part, has now erected shade sails over the young plants. They may be "full sun" but not as seedlings, not any more.

This winter is more of a "typical" winter than we've had for some years and we have needed it badly. I judge this, on a personal level, by how many times I get soaked during the season. In past years, that's been hardly at all, when I can remember from 25 years ago getting regularly soaked and then
having to take off outer garments outside the house to avoid flooding the carpet when I went in!

I played V & V last night and we actually hatched a plan, a real, tactical plan to lure the bad guys in. As prk put it, and forgive me if I misquote you, "The good news is, our plan worked. The bad news is, our plan worked..." The supervillains sent a tornado against us and my character, being part of aerial support, was duly knocked out of the sky after a critical fail roll. Our teleporter, having rolled much better, managed to catch me and my genius rat companion Sigmund before we hit the ground and delivered us to hospital. Again. Sigmund still has not let go of the jacket I was wearing.

I can actually see blue sky outside now so may venture out to return the True Blood first season DVD before a late fee kicks in. If that ever comes to free tv, it is going to be so edited to shreds, or else shown so late I won't be able to stay awake for it.