String of bad luck

So much has happened in the month since I last posted! I guess I'll have to blame it on the toaster, since that was the first of the things to go kaplooy in this house (actually it has mostly involved the kitchen, now that I think of it!).

(1) So, in early September, our toaster died. Not really that big of a deal, we just used the broiler to make toast until our new one arrived.

(2) A little while later, I noticed there were mouse droppings under the sink! Eek! Back in March we had a mouse in our pantry, but we caught it and that seemed to be the end of it. But not this time. This time it was under the sink, in the pantry, and behind the refrigerator. I even got to see the little bugger myself as it was hiding between two food bins in our pantry. You can imagine how happy I was about that!! So after catching what we thought was the one mouse we had, I kept finding droppings in the pantry. So I made a call to an exterminator. The most ancient little old man came out and set out 10 bait boxes around the house. He came back after a week and they hadn't been eating the bait! So he tried peanut butter with the bait, but we kept finding droppings. Sigh. So Erick decided to look behind the fridge and sure enough, there was a hole. So I had the guy come out again and he filled it up with liquid nails. So now it's been about a week, and I haven't seen any other droppings, but I'm still skittish about going in my own pantry. I guess I won't relax until a few more weeks have gone by without any sign of them.

(3) Around the time of the mouse sightings, our coffee maker of less than 2 years, up and died. Erick had always hated it so I accused him of sabotaging it. It was one of those with the built in grinder which is great, but you need to wash the grinder after every use and make sure it is completely dry. I'm thinking it wasn't always dry so it caused the whole thing to break down. So it was back to trying to find a new one. The one we decided on is the kind that brews it all inside the machine then you put your cup underneath, push the button, and fill 'er up. It's great! Hopefully this will last longer than the other one!

(4) The last thing to up and die was my computer. I went through a major withdrawal with this one. It broke on a Tuesday and I had it up and running again on the following Friday. Apparently the video card was completely burnt out, but luckily the computer was under warranty so it was all free. The warranty is up in January so I have a feeling we may be shopping for something new before then.

So this appears to be the last of the black cloud we were under. Everyone has been happy and healthy despite all these happenings, so that's a good thing. But just to make sure it stays that way, I'm knocking on wood for now.