there is snow in the air and that is okay with me. i hope we have a good winter for a change. ya' know a little snow on the ground really helps track mice for you hunters out there. hopefully me cats won't pick up on this.

Kathi, that sounds more like what I'd do with a mouse--throw it in the garbage or down the toilet. Not release it in the neighbor's yard so it can come back again!

Have you gotten your voice back yet, Patti?!!

Well Richard, for the moment at least you've left me speechless. No many can claim that honor....

pat, you are not perky. you are a babe! you will still have plenty of time for perky when you start to downshift from total babeness. no hurry there.

kathy, you crack me up like karen does. good move with the slipper. neil blew it with the almond joys. probably it would be best if he just pleads insanity and takes you out to dinner.

This conversation is way too involved! Commando and perkiness....I would think the northern weather would have a lot to do with both! So Lori, I am the natural flannel type that doesn't chase mice with yogurt containers...My cat brought one and was chasing it across my bed once, I hit it with my slipper and used the dustpan to scoop it into the garbage...I shoo away the deer from the yard otherwise they eat the garden and my plants...and I didn't get one single trick-or-treater. I tried to get Neil to go around to the front door and ring the bell and say trick or treat just so I could hand out candy but he didn't want to play the game. And I did have Almond Joys!
We had new storm doors installed today. They really look nice...hidden screens so we don't have to change the screens and glass. I subbed today and will for the rest of the week so hope for nice weather so we can have long recessess!! Happy thoughts.............

Ouch!! Richard are you suggesting a lack of perkiness ??

pat, life is different there. wow, i guess you wouldn't take a mouse steak either if i offered it. that's okay and definitely keep covered. that is no place to be free-balling or whatever the female version would be. maybe it should be called going cowommando. anyway, don't!

Wow! I can't keep up with you guys. All of you east coast people going commando or talking about going commando. Kathy, what about you? Are you running around naked after mice, too? Nothing exciting like that going on over here. No mice in yogurt containers.

Karen, I liked your poem. You're really trusting to leave your candy out like that. I always buy the kind of chocolate I like so I get to eat the left-overs. Avi was disappointed that I didn't get Almond Joys.

I have to agree with Karen, though the free-balling term caught me by surprise.

There's not a lot of volleyball up here in The County. Given the recent temperatures we're layering not uncovering so ladies going commando isn't real common.

Here it is , shortly before 7 in the a.m. My phone rings and it's my team-teacher guy. Just letting me know that since his son shot a deer this morning he'll be coming in a bit late. Apparently he needs to go dress the thing. This deer will not be going commando any more. I told him not to bother bringing me a steak.

okay, then! i literally laughed out loud, so lol, karen. i always truly enjoy your opinion, not to mention your descriptions! i will go with your definition. thanks.

i would like to think that we have the awareness as the occasionally intelligent creatures that we are to know that going bra-less is going commando. the question i have is whether you are going commando catching mice in presque isle or possibly when playing volley ball. those seem to be a couple of popular ways to put a little commando in your game. by the way, i was absolutely commando when i was asleep waiting for the cat moan with mouse-in-mouth that never came last night. does that count?

I'm just wondering> If I go bra less am I going commando? Or is that just a jockey, boxer, panty, kind of thing?

going commando means without underwear. as a man catching mice alone in my house at 3:00 in the morning, i would think that very few people except for pat would think to ask (just kidding). the term applies to men or women and it is typically only an interesting thing to know, indicating a certain freeness in the person's attitude. however, if a man or woman is going commando while wearing a kilt, sarong, skirt or dress while bungee jumping, it would be much more than interesting.

Why am I always the stupid one who needs everything explained to me? What's "going commando"? Maybe that term didn't make it to California.

How about using a mouse trap? Or is that too easy? Or cruel? I love your descriptions--but I'm not sure they'll fit into any of my poems right now....

I have to chuckle Richard. Yes, going commando means up here what it means over there. However, I learned the term on the tv show Friends. I'd never heard it before then. I wasn't really thinking about "that" when I used the term commando though.

What's with all the wildlife in your house? Do you have a mouse door they're coming in through?

5:00 am, no sign of mice. another job well done!

hi pat. you did pick up on one detail that i was too shy to mention. i actually was going commando at the time (does this have the same meaning in northern maine??). however i assure you that i had pants and a tee shirt on. the reason that i was online blogging about it is because when it is 3:30 am here, it is 9:30 am in switzerland. since i work for a swiss company, emails start coming at about 2 or 3 am. AND, maybe i did feel the need to brag a little about catching the scampering vol. -richard's catch and release program, part 2. my cat, biggles, brought another one in tonight. with 16 oz all natural yogurt container in hand i flew like superman across the mudroom and scooped up yet another mouse and it did occur to me that it may be the same mouse as last night. so i went for a looooooooooooong walk with him this time and left him a mouse marathon away. it's a wild wild life!

Let me understand please. After going commando with a mouse in the wee hours of the morning, you wrote a blog about it? Amazing. Did you get back to sleep?

3:30 am. richard's catch and release program. cat making noise. richard investigates. cat has fully live mouse in house. cat becoming bored with his new toy and mouse scurries for spots that the cat will never get him out of. richard pounces with arms, legs, and ricotta container akimbo. adrenaline surge. yes!! i got him. go out back and throw the little fella onto my neighbors back lawn. now, back to bed. (lori- if you want to use "ricotta container akimbo" in one your poems it would be okay with me.)

i like what you all are saying. i saw it from a different side tonight. my older son came home with the van i let him drive and it was covered with mud. as it turns out, the parking place he pulled into at a halloween party last night was very soft- in fact it was mud. he was not able to get out and his date who does not drive, but has triple a coverage (huh??) was able to make the call and get them pulled our for free. getting off the hook for free is a key point. he then dropped the car off with pride in the mud that covered it (no intentions of ever cleaning it) and i gave him a ride back to his dorm. i let him know during our ride that i am very upset with him about the effort that he should be putting into college and isn't. i let him know that i do not see the level of effort that i need to see. he ducked, darted, and dodged. he launched a small fit and through it all i did not flinch. he suggested that i deal with my anxiety the way everyone else in his dorm does with herb or alcohol. i assured him that his suggestions would not be what i would follow and i told him very simply that what i want him to do is to care. i said, "what i really want you to do is to care." isn't that really the point?

When we observe the altercation or the situation, like with the kids on the airplane. It's clearly a parental (in my opinion) lack.
In schools we often blame the parents, well let's face it the mom, when the kids act like they own the place. Sometimes that's valid but just as often, not. I've observed first hand, many occurrences where in spite of the family's best intentions and modeling of acceptable behavior the kids take a different path. I believe it behooves all of society ( it takes a village) to step up to the plate. Oh lord did I really say that??
Wherever I observe inappropriate behavior; whether I'm on duty or it's my "charge" I step in. It's easy to say "It's not my responsibility, he's not my kid, what's wrong with those parents." Now this is only at school. I don't feel I have the right to chastise, though I'd love to, some dope in the store. I did turn someone in for shop lifting in the grocery though.
I think what Richard did is fantastic. It sounds like he put up with more than I would have. I can imagine that I would have said something less pleasant much sooner. I think parent's don't want other's to think they're being bad parent's or mean to their kids in public. Not realizing that the truth is they look like bad parents when their kids are out of control. It goes back to what someone told me once, I've sure you've heard it, Don't give an ultimatum of consequence unless you are willing to see it through. "Stop running around or we're leaving." "Put that back or you won't get any at all."
I'm a big fan of "Shut the hell up!" Though I never actually say it out loud. Ha Ha

When we observe the altercation or the situation, like with the kids on the airplane. It's clearly a parental (in my opinion) lack.
In schools we often blame the parents, well let's face it the mom, when the kids act like they own the place. Sometimes that's valid but just as often, not. I've observed first hand, many occurrences where in spite of the family's best intentions and modeling of acceptable behavior the kids take a different path. I believe it behooves all of society ( it takes a village) to step up to the plate. Oh lord did I really say that??
Wherever I observe inappropriate behavior; whether I'm on duty or it's my "charge" I step in. It's easy to say "It's not my responsibility, he's not my kid, what's wrong with those parents." Now this is only at school. I don't feel I have the right to chastise, though I'd love to, some dope in the store. I did turn someone in for shop lifting in the grocery though.
I think what Richard did is fantastic. It sounds like he put up with more than I would have. I can imagine that I would have said something less pleasant much sooner. I think parent's don't want other's to think they're being bad parent's or mean to their kids in public. Not realizing that the truth is they look like bad parents when their kids are out of control. It goes back to what someone told me once, I've sure you've heard it, Don't give an ultimatum of consequence unless you are willing to see it through. "Stop running around or we're leaving." "Put that back or you won't get any at all."
I'm a big fan of "Shut the hell up!" Though I never actually say it out loud. Ha Ha

There are a lot of overindulgent guilt ridden parents who want to be friends with their children, who think that giving them many choices and not following through with consequences is the way to parent. Its obviously not working! (for us!)