OK, so, day started fine. Slept in (a bit...well, not really, but
zombiedip did), and got going slowly. We planned to get the stuff for the bed-tent we were going to build Erik last weekend (but couldn't due to the car trouble), and we were going to make some changes to the new mouse habitat. We left out, hit Toxic Hell (Di gets a jones for it about four times a year, and today was the day) and away we went.Eat, and head out. First stop, Michaels (craft store chain) looking for long dowels, preferably over 6 feet long. No such luck, none longer than about 3.5 feet. Well, we reasoned, we could always go hit Home Depot, they gotta have them, right? Stopped at Value Village (thrift store chain), looking for sheets for the side of the tent (found them, one of them is a damn cool, slightly iridescent dark blue), and onward we travelled.
Home Depot, on a weekend, is a madhouse. That's on a good day. This is July 4th weekend...so double it. No dice on the dowel rods, couldn't even find the long kind you'd use in a closet. Finally modified the plan to use the shorter rods, and grabbed the hardware and fixtures I'd need...except that I couldn't find a ball of twine. You'd think a huge hardware outlet would have STRING (
reddeath77, you work for HD...am I just blind? You guys hoarding it in the back for your own use or something?). Well, we knew we had to stop by the drug store, so, figured, we'll get it there.Drug store, go in, get Di's prescriptions, and look for string. NOTHING. I even asked them if I was just missing something, and they told me they didn't have any in right now, and she was pretty sure they were phasing it out. Phasing it out? It's STRING!!! Basic household item, really...guess they felt they needed more room for the "moulded plaques of American landmarks" and assorted cheap toys and such. So, no string. Luckily, there's a K-mart down the block, and we head THERE.
K-mart has string. Just figured I wouldn't make you wait in suspense any further. String, twine, cord, clothesline, rope; all colours, styles, types, anything I might need. Why no one else had it is beyond me. Grabbed my hank of cord and we wandered a bit. Di found a cool Pink Panther t-shirt. Time to head for home.
A nagging feeling got to us just before we hit the house; wasn't there something we forgot? Mouse cage. Turn around, head back to PetSmart (which, I should note, is only two stores over from Michael's, where we were earlier). OK, quick run-down; the mice I just got from
thisismostlyme and reddeath77 had a cage unto themselves, a pre-made thing with this huge obnoxious wheel-like attachment on top. Problem is that they like to spend most of their time in it, making it hard to handle them, and since they were always there, they tended to...how can I put this delicately...ah, fuck it, they pissed and shit there a lot, and then the wheel tended to fling it. Yeah, yuckage. We decided to get just a little extension for the top to replace this disgust-o-wheel, like a little penthouse where you could get to them.OK, found it, easy enough, picked up some more food, came home. Sit for a moment, and start to work on the cage. Dilemma one: they were ALL in the wheel, and didn't want to come out, and I couldn't seem to get the damn thing to come apart like it was supposed to. Slowly but surely fished them all out, and went to add the new part (ensured to be from the same manufacturer already)...only to discover that it did not have any way of attaching. Well, hell. Block the now HOLE in the cage, and go BACK to PetSmart to buy a couple of the connecting tube things to make this work.
Back home again, get back to work. Had to jerry-rig it ever-so-slightly (looks like, as opposed to every other connection on this contraption, this place was meant only for the disgust-o-wheel, so these connectors don't work the same here), but in the end, it works and they seem to like it. *WHEW*
Now, I'm waiting most of the building of this bed-tent for tomorrow, so Erik is involved, but I figured I could do some minor things, hardware attachment to the dowels, etc., to make things quicker and smoother tomorrow. So, I fired up a documentary I just got on the Whitechapel murders, and started working. Di, meanwhile, listened while working on some stuff from her job, Excel worksheets for quoting prices or some such thing, and the afternoon passed quietly.
Documentary was good, by the way.
Broke for dinner, watched Young Frankenstein, and Di went back to work while I read more of Alan Moore's "From Hell" (awfully appropriate, I thought). Even got a drink, in there somewhere. Then Di asked me to help with some formulas, and things got hairy. All worked out in the end, of course, groovalicious...but, damn, made me just that much happier that I don't have a "real job", all over again.
Now...yeesh, I'm all in; what a day. Some more reading, and I'm for bed...probably gonna have to start working on the playhouse that me and Dad-in-law are building out at the farm for the kids tomorrow...gonna need the sleep, me thinks.