Here at 4715 Nash we our on our third “creature plague.” Creature plagues here, while annoying, are not nearly as bad as in Minnesota because our creatures do not a) bite or b) stink. First came the flies, which we eliminated with sticky fly strips. Second came the fruit flies, which I largely eliminated by pouring cider vinegar over the fly strips. Now we have mice. At first we were content to let the little buggers be, but when they started sleeping in Ali’s bed and nibbling the apples on our kitchen counter, we decided it was time to declare war. So out came the snap-traps, and down went the mice. Three overnight last night, and four more today. One trap under the kitchen sink has caught five of the mice, so I’m guessing they are coming in near there. In any case, we plan to keep up the trapping until we have depleted our local mouse population.
I had no academic duties today, so I started collecting research papers on biological hydrogen production and accumulated a list of ~70 or so. Tomorrow between classes I will start reading some of them.
I installed my scanner/antenna this evening, so we’ve been listening to Union Pacific and the Corvallis police.
Yesterday was the first day of class. I must say I am disappointed at the quality of the teaching here compared to Carleton. I also feel like classes here will require significantly less time commitment, so I will have more time to read and think about my project and to get acquainted with lab work.
