James the Curious

It's been crazy here since I last posted. My hand is still swollen, painful and ugly but it's a little better and starting respond to a prescription cream.

In the wee hours of Monday morning I was fast asleep, DH was watching Torchwood on the computer with his headphones and housemate Mike was upstairs in his room playing Urban Dead. Mike heard a noise and thought someone was using the washing machine in the basement. A little later he went downstairs and realized something was wrong in the basement and alerted DH. Our hot water heater had split open along the seam and water was spraying everywhere. Thank goodness he heard it and we were able to turn the gas off right away. The unit was less than 3 years old and covered by warranty but we had to go without water until 7pm Monday night while it was replaced. It sprayed a box of books so I have them drying on every surface and the house smells like wet books. I've located used copies of some of the ruined ones on Amazon which is good news but DH lost an entire box of Spiderman comics. Luckily they were not worth a lot.

Yesterday Mike went in the hospital to have his hernia repaired. Last night I had the house to myself until DH came home after midnight. I watched Ballet Shoes and started the Britty Kitty Halloween ornament on the fabric left over from my spooks. The main reason I watched Ballet Shoes was I know I read the book as a child but could not remember what it was about. It was sweet and I enjoyed it. Once in surgery they found that Mike had more than one hernia and a lot of adhesions from his cancer surgery so he won't be coming home today but he is doing very well. I'm going to find more girlie things to watch tonight and continue working on the ornament.

This morning we bought a dehumidifier for the basement which leads to the topic of this post. DH was unpacking it when I noticed my rat James watching him intently. He was fascinated with what was going on and climbed up on the side of the cage to look in the box and watch everything. Sirius, his brother, could have cared less and continued to nap. It's the first time one of them has paid attention to us other than to beg for treats. Any time we eat toast or banana they beg and look pitiful as if they are starving. While on the topic of begging DH's cat was funny last night. She loves milk and will beg for it. We bought some gallon jugs of drinking water while our water was off and she thinks they are milk. DH was pouring glasses of water for our dinner last night and she started to cry, purr and beg underfoot. He let her see it was water and she made the funniest "What the heck?" face and ran off disgusted. Of course I never have the camera around when they are funny.