The Mouse in my House

There's a mouse in my house. It has been making its cozy little way for about the last two weeks and has quite handily skirted around whatever traps we set for it. Knowing that its been hanging out in our kitchen (gag) we decided to do some extra heavy duty kitchen cleaning to eliminate hiding places. So I cleaned up the counter next to the sink which was quite liberally sprinkled with beans and bean bits. It was curious because we hadn't eaten beans for awhile but I just thought maybe the mouse had dug beans out of somewhere and snacked on them there (gag again). So I cleaned it up and finished the other cleaning and went out about the rest of my day. Later that evening I went back into the kitchen to find yet more beans and bean bits sprinkled all over the counter again. How odd, I thought I cleaned that up. And it also happened that these beans and bits were almost quite literally arranged in the same pattern as the beans I'd cleaned up earlier. I was a little wierded out but thought maybe I had missed a few spots or maybe the mouse had come back to snack a bit more on its, obviously, favorite spot (gaaaaaaag). So I cleaned it up again and went to bed.

I woke up this morning and headed down to get a glass of juice to find those SAME DAMN BEANS AND BITS scattered across the counter. Alright, wth. And in the same pattern yet again. Ladies and gentlemen, what do you suppose my first brilliant thought was? Mouse? No. Mom? No. Jinn? You guessed it. In my own defense I immediately dropped the mouse thought because it would take planning far beyond the capabilities of a little mousey brain to arrange the beans and bits in the same pattern every time. My mom's not a jokester so she's not playing a prank. That leaves a jinn obviously trying to mess with my mind.

Now, I'm not a real believer in the jinn messing with humans thing. I believe in them (you gotta considering they are written about in the Quran) but I don't really believe the jinn stories little kids use to scare each other a la campfire ghost stories of my girl scouting days.

But I'm standing in my kitchen with a glass in my hand trying to figure out who is attempting to drive me batty with bean bits and the thing that pops into my mind is "jinn".

Instead of calling in the sheikh though, I decide to open up a cupboard (which did not seem to be the immediate culprit because its a little way to the side of right above the counter) just to see and sure enough there's a five year old Rice a Roni red beans and rice box with mousey teeth marks and a hole in the bottom with beans spread out all over.

!@#!&!!!!!!!

Feeling a bit foolish I cleaned up the beans from the counter but left the ones in cupboard and set a mouse trap up there for the next time that little fleawagon comes calling for tea.

And as I'm sitting and writing right now that damned mouse is somewhere in my kitchen making little mousey noises.

I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too.

My husband, bless him, keeps telling me to kill it with a broom.

By this point I'd gladly stomp the darn thing to death.