(yet another) gerbil escape…

I don’t make up these gerbil stories.  Sometimes, I wish I did…

Last night, my oldest daughter wakes me up at 4:35 AM (yes, I looked at the clock) with a gerbil in her hands.  She is mad.  And, proceeds to tell me that she found her little sister’s gerbil running around in her room (the gerbil made it out one room and into the next… impressive!)

Half asleep, I actually laughed.  I couldn’t believe it.

Then, I got up and we put the gerbil back into the cage.  I put duct tape over the open hole (where is the darn plug that goes into the hole to keep itty bitty gerbils inside???).

(Side note: Luckily, duct tape DIY is all the rage right now and we had a roll of duct tape sitting out just waiting for just this type of event.)

So, I asked my daughter how in the world she found a gerbil running around in her room in the middle of the night…  She told me that the cat was running around her room and woke her up.  She turned on the lights and saw the gerbil running away from the cat.  Oh.  My.  Goodness.

Thank you, daughter, for getting the cat away from the gerbil, chasing down the gerbil, catching the gerbil and THEN waking me up.

Much appreciated.

More gerbil escapades:

the gerbil update…

(another) gerbil update…

(yet another) gerbil update…

(sad) gerbil update…

another gerbil escape…

the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society…

Another book I read recently (and loved) that I neglected to add to my blog was The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. 

I borrowed this book from the library on a whim and absolutely loved it!  So happy to run across it! 

The  interesting thing about this book was it is written as a series of letters.  You hear the story told back and forth from many different points of view.  I laughed.  I cried.  This was an incredible book! 

Goodreads describes the book:

“I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.

Please view “reading now” for current and past book postings.

life of pi…

I just realized that I never recommended Life of Pi by Yann Martel on my blog!  This was an amazing book that I highly recommend.

I read this book for my neighborhood book club.  It makes for a great discussion.  Not all books are fun to talk about, but this one was an exception.  It was very interesting to hear people discuss their idea of the book and the ending.  Everyone had a different perception of the book.   We were all surprised to hear the reasons we all came to a different conclusion.

Great book – read it! 

Goodreads has an incredibly long description of this book.  Here is the last bit:

As Yann Martel has said in one interview, “The theme of this novel can be summarized in three lines. Life is a story. You can choose your story. And a story with an imaginative overlay is the better story.” And for Martel, the greatest imaginative overlay is religion. “God is a shorthand for anything that is beyond the material — any greater pattern of meaning.”

In Life of Pi, the question of stories, and of what stories to believe, is front and centre from the beginning, when the author tells us how he was led to Pi Patel and to this novel: in an Indian coffee house, a gentleman told him, “I have a story that will make you believe in God.” And as this novel comes to its brilliant conclusion, Pi shows us that the story with the imaginative overlay is also the story that contains the most truth.

Please view “reading now” for current and past book postings.

another gerbil escape…

We have gone quite some time without a gerbil escaping.

That streak stopped tonight.

We are ringing in the new year with a gerbil escape and recovery mission!

My daughter was supposed to be cleaning her room and I hear “Mom, can you come here?”  This is never a good sign.  Normally, someone just screams “Mooooom” and expects me to come running no matter what.  She was far too polite – something was wrong.

This is my older daughter that banishes her gerbils to her closet at night because of the gerbil noise.  Apparently, last night the gerbils planned an escape.  They chewed through 2 layers of duct tape (there is a plug missing, so she covers the hole with duct tape) and left the cage.  (We obviously need to change the duct tape strategy). 

Luckily, the closet door was shut to reduce the noise from the “gerbil ruckus,” so they did not get far.  By the time I got to her room, one gerbil had been recovered and we were waiting for the other one to make an appearance.  The gerbil poked it’s head out and we saw it.  Now, it was just a matter of waiting it out.

It was actually a hilarious scene.  The gerbil would poke it’s head out of one side of the closet, we’d try to catch it and it would poke it’s head out from the other side of the closet.  Meanwhile, the cat was waiting with me for her opportunity to “help.” 

Finally, the gerbil was “rescued” and all is right with gerbil life again.

(Do you think the gerbil thought of this as a rescue?) 

If you are so inclined, please read about our other gerbil escapes and tales:

the gerbil update…

(another gerbil update)…

(yet another) gerbil update…

(sad) gerbil update…