Squirrel Wars - Episode Four - Revenge of the Wife

Princess Furry Tail - "What you mean that the Death Star is fully operational!"

Darth Wife - "Yes Princess. And we are going to test it out here in Albuquerque, New Mexico"

Princess Furry Tail - "Noooooooo"

(The sound of poison pellets being thrown in a yard)

- far away -

Obewan Rodent - "I feel a strong disturbance in the force as if a whole family of squirrels under a wooden deck are no more"

Obituary

The rock squirrel family residing on White Cloud NE, Albuquerque, NM was found dead today. Rodent police suspect foul play as their living quarters were strewn with poison pellets.

Yes - I am a Technology Hypocrite

The truth is that my whole attitude toward technological change is seeped in hypocrisy. Typically I will resist any change in my life that technology offers. Not only is my attitude some thing like a Luddite, but I will viscerally condemn those who do take on the new technology. A case in point was cell phones. I was totally against them and had nothing but contempt for those who allowed themselves to be enslaved by this new tool to destroy the sanctity of one's personal time....

....until I got one...

Then the conversion couldn't have been quicker or more complete than Saul's on the way to Damascus. (For those of you with limited knowledge of New Testament analogies [like that Lakeview - New Testament analogies], I've provided the convenient link). I was now the convert and totally committed to the mobile communication life.

The latest conversion has been with the i pod. I should really say musical entertainment on the airplane. For years, I've watched people listening to music and watching movies (yes, yes, disdainfully). Last Christmas, Mrs de-I and I bought each other i pods. Of course Mrs. de-I got hers up and running in no time. Mine served The Podolny Group as a nice black paperweight on my desk. Finally Mrs. de-I around April ran out of patience at the waste of money and started loading my classical music CD's on the i pod and of course the i tunes section of my computer. She also went out and bought me a set of noise reducing headphones. (FYI this is a fairly typical tale of my adoption of technology - Me ignoring it - Wife bodily making it happen for me - I love Wife)

After just a couple of trial runs, I have been in heaven. It has taken the airplane ride and transformed it from a chore to my time to listen to music. Not only to I listen, I listen intently. I shut out everyone around me, my thoughts, my obsessing with the business and just listen to the details of the music. It is very soul reviving.

So remember this the next time I torment you on some technology that you enjoy and make use of - I could just as easily become its next apostle.

Chicago Musings

I’m on my way back on the plane from my trip to Atlanta and Chicago. I arrived just after the great flood that left the basements of both Lakeview and Motherrocker flooded. I got to experience a night of poor Miss Dukes (and poor Miss Dukes parents) fighting an illness and high temperature. But there were lots of good things too.

We have added a new associate in Chicago, Ricardo, a friend of long standing with Lakeview. This culminates almost 6 months of discussions and both Ricardo and I are very enthusiastic (though cautiously so as befits grizzled veterans). Lakeview is less so since this might lead to more actual work.

Speaking of Lakeview both our long-term clients in Chicago continue to seem quite pleased and we are working on financing placements for both.

On the eating front, we have been having a series of great breakfasts with another potential resource we have been meeting each time I visit. Since he, Mr. F, is a devout foodie, he always has interesting places to pick out. This time it was a place Ina's on West Randolph. I had an interesting dish that was called scrapple on the menu but was really a polenta baked with corn and black beans. It was served with a choice of meat and a couple of eggs. I chose Mexican Chorizo that was cooked very well (well done almost crispy rather than greasy/oily). The combination of eggy goodness with crispy/spicy pork product, and baked corny polenta was great.

Plate of Delicious Polenta, Spicy Pork Chorizo, and Eggy Goodness with Fresh Squeezed Grapefruit Juice Chaser

In the early afternoon, we had another networking event at Just Grapes. Both AinA and Motherrocker have taken part in these in the past. With Ricardo (and his wife – Thanks J!) throwing their weight behind the event, we had the best turnout ever and we even got too leads – one particularly intriguing concerning a well known company in Albuquerque of all places.

Lakeview Coffee with Just Grapes And Ricardo Legs

I finished that night having dinner at the Motherrocker household. Miss Dukes seemed to be getting better. MR made some baked chicken thighs to a lovely skin crispy doneness flavored subtly with rosemary that was accompanied by a nice sauté of snow peas and onions. I brought found a great buy on a 1999 1st Cru Gevry Chambertain for under $40 which MR and I just about finished. Just Grapes has started to carry beer so I was able to pick up a Belgian Ale that J the Armenian had not had before. The wine was such a good buy, I picked up another bottle to leave at MR’s for my next visit. However, with Wife making a visit to the MR household in a few more weeks somehow I have a feeling I’ll not be seeing any of the contents.

Squirrel Wars - Episode Three, Return of the Squirrels

Wife continues the slippery slope down towards the dark side. She hired our exterminator who suggested using mouse bait which is evidently some poison impregnated food item attractive to rodents.

Initially, after being told exactly how said poison works, Wife was expressing remorse. She told the exterminator to spare her the details - but spread the poison.

The next day there was little sign of squirrel activity.

Yesterday, I got the call. The squirrels were out in force, all five of them.

Wife - "They need to die!"

Stay tuned for more.

So Who's the Good Guys?

(thanks Tim de Buffalo)

Why AinA is in A

I'm in Chicago after a day in Atlanta. It rained like a mother in Chicago today causing all kinds of problems with flooding and transportation. When my flight arrived, Lakeview had called and said his basement had flooded and he arranged with daughter Motherrocker and John the Armenian to have me stay there. Actually they had flooding too but they don't use their basement as part of the living quarters like Lakeview does.

I got to see the kids pictures from their recent trip to Amsterdam. Daughter #1 made the following observation about daughter #3, that AinA seemed very happy and content in Amsterdam and that was to be expected since Alexis is:

1. Frugal like the Dutch
2. Likes riding bicycles like the Dutch
3. Likes eating pickled foods like the Dutch

Hmmmmm. Deep thoughts.

Squirrel Wars - Episode Two, The Empire Strikes Back

If not the Empire, how about the petty barony strikes back?

Anyway, I am including the following email I received from Mrs. de-I today.

"Today was another day watching the squirrels run around the yard and in front of the house as if they owned it. The peanut butter sandwich I had had used to bait the catch and release trap was gone from where it had been placed at the back of the trap. They had to cross the trip plate twice and didn’t trip it. So I am sitting and eating my lunch at the kitchen counter when I hear this scrabbling noise like someone is trying to get into the house. I check the garage thinking the old refrigerator is finally dying. Nothing! I check outside to see if it’s something at the neighbors. No sounds outside! I check in the laundry room. Then I realize that some animal is in the dryer hose. That was it! I called the service that we use for bug control and they are going to come out today and put out poison under the deck and behind the dryer. Meanwhile, Michael, if you get a phone call in the middle of the night it will be me freaking out about the mouse or squirrel that has trapped me in the bedroom!"

Squirrel Wars - Episode One, The Gray Tailed Menace

A gray, fuzzy tailed menace has thrown its terrifying shadow over the gentle confines of the Mrs. de-I garden. Where once lush plantlings of squash, eggplant and cucumber once flourished, now there are only thin green stalks. New flowers are gone the day they appear. Wife's garden has.....Squirrels.

Wife, being dedicated to the credo of her pioneer forefathers (and mothers), believes nature is to be controlled (garden does close order drill every morning). The onslaught of vegetation eating rodents is not to be tolerated. Hence we have seen a flurry of activity. Borrowing from the Norman conquerors of England, Wife has started a program of fortification.

Fortress Vegetable

The building program is currently being based upon a large outer wall with numerous individual turrets for the protection of plants outside the main compound and for extra protection within (like a keep).

Turrets

Finally, Wife has decided that a program of forced resettlement is in order and has put out a trap to secure the offending mammals. De-I is suppose to carry this trap with rodent when he hikes and safely release the animals many miles up the mountain away from the garden.

The Trap

All this may be for naught. According to O-I, his friend LeRoy, an accomplished outdoor type, has been fighting the gray furry menace for years without success. LeRoy's and O-I's opinion is that each time a new anti-squirrel program is put into place, the squirrels choose one of their number. That one is trained to become a super squirrel capable of beating the new restraints. Then once that squirrel is successful, it is bred to create the new more highly evolved generation.

I see pellet gun shooting lessons in Wife's future.