Of mice and men

Since Tom had already prepared the cake and a pot roast for Chris's cancelled visit, he decided to invite neighbors Tom and Barb from Christmas Mountain to join us and save us from having to eat on it for days. We had a delightful four-hour visit and made a serious dent in the food and the tractor cake. Tom (the cook, not the guest) complained that the cake was too dry, but I noticed that he had two or three pieces of it. He plans to try a different kind of cake mix next time.

At one point, Cassidy, either needing attention or deciding that if food was on the agenda she had to participate, came prancing in and dropped a live mouse on the carpet by Tom's feet. He jumped up and proudly announced that we have a simple and effective way of dealing with this. While that is normally true, the whole episode became crazy. At one point the mouse ran up (the outside of) Tom's jeans, causing him to jump around frantically trying to get it off. Eventually the poor creature was captured and released in the garden.

I wish I had a video ...