We had a pretty darned decent weekend.

Saturday I took advantage of the sunshine and largely passable roads to get over and get my emissions test done. I passed and now all I have to do is make it to the Welton DMV office to get the stickers and I'm safely legal again.

It has to be done before Thursday's storm moves in, which means I'm going to have to break it to Bernie that even though we'd had a ton of nonproductive time over the last three weeks, I need an extra hour or two off during the day this week. Sigh.

After that (now we're back to Saturday), the R.C. and I actually got out.

I mean, we got out of the apartment, of the parking lot, and even the neighborhood!

We frolicked off to the wrong store (long story) to buy lacy undergarments (sometimes a gal just needs that stuff) for the R.C., stopping for lunch at my current favorite sushi place on the way (mmm--oyster roll!), swung through the right store, over at Park Meadows shopping center (and that parking lot was a nightmare) where she finally made her purchase, then we went over to Borders where I bought $94 worth of books--stocking up against the next potentially major storm the forecasters are coyly suggesting we're going to be seeing by the end of the week.

We were just like people! Getting out into the world and seeing things and stuff! It was very exciting.

When we got home, I settled in with my new books, and then remembered they were for stashing  and laid five of them aside for next week. With the Sharpe books (Bernard Cornwall's series, which I'm working through in a completely leisurely fashion) I have sitting on the "to be read" shelf, I have enough "new" books to keep me amused for a while or a 4-day blizzard, whichever comes first.

I also have yarn to make two more scarves, and all of those gorgeous drawing supplies I got for the holidays. I'm ready to be snowed in!

That was pretty much it for Saturday. It was a nicer day than it sounds, I think. Just the "getting out and around” part made it feel special.

Now. In the ugh department.

What would you do if you got up one winter morning and found a dying mouse on your kitchen floor?

I mean, I know what to do with a live 'un. You scare it off and call the apartment people and demand they put down traps.

I know what to do with a deader. You shudder and avert your eyes and you gather it (hands encased in plastic gloves) into a trash bag, seal up the bag, and trot it out to the dumpster.

Why, then, was the idea of throwing a dying mouse out into the winter snow so repulsive to me? I don't want live (even barely) mice in my apartment but I really don't see that I could have left it laying in the kitchen floor until it was completely dead before disposing of it. And yet--it was alive, and I've never actually killed anything but bugs and the occasional fish (I used to fish frequently. I just never caught anything.) before. The though of actually killing it made me queasy.

After I disposed of it, I had the raging heebie-jeebies for half an hour.

In other good news, and after I got over being queasy, I got the wireless network working on the laptop again! Hooray!

It's a little touchy, for reasons I don't quite grasp, but it's working 70% - 80% of the time, which is pretty darned good. No more riding on lame, dial-up speed networks on that one evening a week I can find an unsecured one within range. When my network is working, I'm at digital cable speeds. Whoosh!

I did a smidge (not more) of housecleaning, surfed the 'net for a while on the laptop, and read a bit. Later, the R.C. and I walked out (so nice to be able to find the pavement--even though there are still huge stretches of roadway you can't see and sidewalks are largely just theoretical) and had lunch. I ordered something virtuously diet, then came home and made up for it by eating everything in sight later that evening. Sigh.