This Our House: Episode 6 "Say Hello to Our Little Friends"

About three weeks ago, we came home to discover that our four-foot square summer vegetable garden had been completely dug up by something the size of a small dog. All the plants were torn out and DEEP holes had been dug in several corners.

We filled the holes in (the plants were not salvageable—no veggies for us!) only to have a repeat performance the next day. And every couple of days since.

About a month ago, my in-laws were visiting and saw a red fox in our yard in the early morning. That was kind of exciting! Foxes are awfully pretty and not as threatening or worrisome as seeing a coyote in your yard—OR SO WE THOUGHT.

Last week, Brandon and I saw it for the first time—in fact we saw two at once one morning—and that's about the same time we started finding little presents left for us in the yard; so far the remnants of two birds, one rabbit, and a bag of beggin' strips dog treats, plus some droppings.

And they're still digging up the now-empty garden square.

We're pretty sure it's the foxes doing the digging. Someone at a local garden store suggested they might be attracted by the smell of the manure we had mixed in for fertilizer. At the advice of the internets, yesterday we sprayed all around the wood enclosing the square with ammonia, as well as in the places where they'd left droppings and refuse from their meals in hopes that it would deter them.

No such luck. This morning, the garden plot was completely dug up again.

Our second attempt is going to be mothballs. Brandon put a bunch of them in old socks and put one at each corner of the garden. If that doesn't work, I'm not sure what we'll try next. I've wondered if maybe a friend would let us borrow a big dog that could pee all over the yard. We've also read it might help if Brandon went out and, er, marked his territory a bit as well.

And if those don't work? I guess we'll have to call vector control. It's not that we mind them passing through the yard, but we don't want them to make a home here, and we DEFINITELY don't want them to get habituated to digging up our garden; someday, I'd like to have veggies out there that WON'T get torn up.

In other news, there are now two snakes. Brandon is not pleased.

Stay tuned.

Homeowners

Well, we are officially homeowners!



It happened Wednesday afternoon. The husband and I each took a half day off work and met at the house around 1:15. I was a little early and a little dismayed to find the previous owners still moving a ton of stuff out of our garage and into the neighbor's garage! We met our real estate agent and walked through the house, which wasn't clean, but wasn't in bad shape.

After we made sure they hadn't knocked down any walls or anything, we all drove downtown to the Land & Title company for the actual closing. The seller's agent? Was ridiculously smarmy. Poufy hair, beady eyes, a navy blazer with bright gold buttons everywhere and a hideously false smile. We were really glad this was the only time we had to deal with him! Brandon leaned over and whispered "Don't agree to buy a used car from him!"

We signed a huge stack of papers, and then the title guy had to go email some to our mortgage company. They had already wired the money, but they wouldn't release it until they saw all the paperwork was in order. So we sat there for 45 minutes, making awkward small talk with the previous owner until we got the all clear. The title man came in, shook our hands, and said "Congratulations! You're owners!"

The drive back took way too long, and we decided to stop and drop off our rent check on the way. We didn't realize until we slipped it into the slot that it was our last rent payment ever! It's all mortgage from here on out.

Then we went to the house. We parked in the driveway. The keys worked. We went inside. We hugged and I got a little teary. It was really real.

We have a house!

Back and Blogging

This blog has sat somewhat dormant for a while, not for a lack of things to talk about, but for a lack of words to express them.

When I got laid off, I really didn't want to talk about it. I was fighting off depression and working hard to stay positive; I didn't want to indulge in writing about being depressed, and writing about staying positive was just too much.

Then, I got caught up in a whirlwind of a new job. There are issues with blogging about work at the best of times, but I certainly didn't want to jeopardize a new job. Happily, things seemed to have evened out, and I'm now fully employed.

So hopefully, HOPEFULLY, I'll be more able and inclined to blog again. :)

I'm going to post a blog I wrote this week about a whiskey-tasting dinner I got to attend last week in honor of St. Patrick's day. What a great experience!

See you soon!

A Letter to Senator Cynthia Nava, NM Senate Education Committee Chair

Dear Senator Nava,

Please don't let my college die.

I am an alumnus of the College of Santa Fe, class of 2003. I received a degree in Moving Image Arts from the college and graduated magna cum laude.

I chose the College of Santa Fe for a variety of reasons. First, I wanted the best film school education I could afford, and at the time, CSF was ranked fourth in the nation—behind only the behemoths of NYU, USC, and UCLA. Quite an impressive achievement for a school barely a fraction of their size.

Second, I wanted a smaller school where I wouldn't feel like just a number. My graduating class from the college was smaller than my graduating class from high school, and that made for an amazing experience, forging a close bond between my classmates and my teachers.

Finally, I fell in love with Santa Fe, plain and simple. Santa Fe is for artists, and at your disposal you have one of the finest campuses for the arts ever conceived, with state-of-the-art facilities for the visual arts, the theater arts, and the moving image arts all in one place. There is no other facility in the New Mexico state system to rival it. You have a place rich with history, interwoven into the tapestry of the history of Santa Fe itself. And you have the perfect city culture for nurturing young artists in a community dedicated to the arts at all levels.

Please vote yes on House Bill 577 and do not let this college go quietly into the night. Too many people—faculty, staff and students alike—have poured their hearts and souls into making the College of Santa Fe the quality educational institution that it is. Please don't let our love be only for a memory, our good work be in vain. Do not let the financial mistakes of a few ruin the future of this venerable institution.

Please vote yes and ensure that future students will have the opportunity to live and work in Santa Fe, to pursue their art in an environment that is utterly unique in the world, and to come away from the experience better, stronger, more accomplished citizens than they were when they began.

I implore you to support HB 577 for the good of the New Mexico state university system, for the good of the city of Santa Fe and for the good of the thousands of future students who will bloom and grow at the College of Santa Fe.

Most sincerely yours,
Me

Who's that Knocking On My Front Door?

I? Have been a busy monkey.

I just wish I could say it was at a paying job.

BUT! They are all opportunities. Opportunities are knocking left right and center lately, I just have to encourage them to come on in. Here's some of what's been going on:

• First, last weekend I went to the American Library Association convention and, just by chatting with people, became an "official" blogger for Penguin's young adult imprint. That means they are going to send me books — before they come out — for me to review. For free. WOO! I also picked up about 50 free advance reading copies of other books to review, so I'm going to be a busy little blogger.
  
• Because of all that, I redesigned The Spiral Notebook so that it looks a little more professional and hipper. Cool, right?
  
• I also applied to be an "examiner" on Examiner.com, which is like a local blogger, and I got the gig! I'm now the Eco-Friendly Living Examiner for the Denver area, which means I blog about eco-friendly living (duh) in the Denver area (double duh) and — wait for it — they pay me money based on how well my articles do (how many people visit them, etc.). No idea yet if this will pay off, but we'll see.
  
• Finally, I got my first ever real live freelancing gig from a former boss. I'm writing about jewelry designers in Colorado. Right up my alley, right? :D Doesn't pay a ton, but if it were to be the first of many, that would be OK by me.
  
• Also, I'm trying to be really diligent about working on my book. I've got all this time off, I need to be putting it to good use, right? The other exciting opportunity that came out of the ALA conference last weekend is that I might have found a new critique group. Which would be awesome, because I always work better on a deadline!

So that's what's been going on. Nothing terribly promising yet on the permanent job front, but I'm applying all over the place. Guess I'll just keep using my down time to explore other opportunities while I can!

Looking for the Open Window...

As some of you may have already heard, I was laid off from my job of just over two years on Monday. The company cut eight positions from the production team, including editors, designers, web monkeys and others. My boss made a point of telling me more than once that it was purely a financial decision and not a reflection on my performance, but frankly, that's small comfort when they've also just told you your position has been eliminated.

On the up side, I'm actually doing fairly well, all things considered. Monday was hard, and I took the day to be sad and upset about it. But since then, I have just gotten my rear in gear and got to work at the job of looking for a job. I've already had one phone interview, and I'm in the process of connecting with a second.

This isn't a good time personally or economically to be out of a job. It's really going to put a major damper on our plans to buy a house before our lease is up in June. But I'm trying to remember something Gini Moore told me almost 15 years ago — that whenever God closes a door, he opens a window.

Y'all tell me if you see an open window anywhere, OK?

So. Much. Snow.

So, the drive from Santa Fe to Denver that should have taken about six hours, maybe seven because we had a leisurely lunch? Took TWELVE HOURS. We got to Colorado Springs and everything just stopped. It usually takes about an hour to travel the 60 or so miles from Denver to Colorado Springs. Last night? It took four hours.

Seriously. Four hours. I wanted to kill somebody. Particularly CDOT, who had not plowed the roads. At all.

That's the end of my complaining, I swear. Photos to follow.

Election Day

"In the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope."



Did you?

Oh Em Gee!!!!

Brandon got up at 6:30 this morning to stand in line and he got us tickets to see Obama tomorrow! I'm wicked excited!!!!

Hurricane Ike

Time to activate the circle of good vibrations, people.

My sister and brother in law, as well as my aunt and uncle and cousins all live in Houston and are currently figuring out what to do and where to go for Ike. Current predictions are saying there will be a 14-foot storm surge or more with winds in excess of 120 mph. The fear is that the storm could come right up the Houston ship canal and flood the city.

My parents, in Dallas, are reporting that the news is saying THEY could get as much as a foot of rain and 65mph winds.

I believe in the power of positive thinking, so if it crosses your mind in the next few days, please think positive thoughts for my family and all the residents of the Texas Gulf Coast.

Like a 1950s Stereotype

Sunday morning, as I sat reading the newspaper and drinking my coffee, I heard a crash from the second bedroom/office. I looked up and saw the cat come barreling around the corner into the living room like she was chasing something.

"What have you got?" says I, standing up to get a better look. "Have you got a bug?"

It was not a bug.

It was a mouse. A real, live mouse.

I promptly shrieked for Brandon and hopped up on the kitchen counter. My shrieking awoke him from a sound sleep and he came barreling out of the bedroom, thinking the house was on fire, just as Cleo chased the mouse under the sofa.

I had no idea I was such a big girl about mice, but apparently, I really really am. Bugs don't particularly bother me; I mean, I'm not a huge fan, but when you grow up where the roaches are the size of your hand, you learn to deal.

Anyway, the chase ensued. Brandon got out a bunch of towels and blocked off doorways and under bookshelves and stuff, hoping to chase it out the patio door. I did my part by holding the squirming, flailing cat under one arm and the mag-light in the other. We moved the sofa and got it pinned under one of the bookshelves. Brandon tried to scare it out with a broom, but it wasn't having any. So we decided to let the cat try to flush it out. I let her go, and the mouse came RIGHT AT ME.

I shrieked again.

The mouse went around the corner towards the laundry room and tried to hide in some towels Brandon had used to block the door. Brandon saw it and slammed a large bowl down on the towels to try to catch the mouse.

By a quirk of aim, the mouse was no more.

I told Brandon that he had definitely earned his keep as a husband that day, and we made a pact that he would deal with rodents and I could deal with reptiles.

He checked and it was a male mouse, so hopefully we do not have baby mice living somewhere. Also, Allison confirmed my suspicion that if we hadn't seen any evidence of him before yesterday (which we hadn't) he probably hadn't been there for very long.

Of course, when we moved the sofa, we found all of Cleo's missing toys, and now, whenever she comes tearing through the house chasing after something, I have to quell the urge to jump up on the counter and scream.