Thursday, August 31, 2006

Poi, my boy, will make a man of you

It's been quite awhile since our last post and a lot has happened since. First off, Becky and I got married on Aug 12. Wedding was great. Perfect weather, beautiful bride, and cotton candy. Couldn't have asked for more. We honeymooned in Oahu, first in Honolulu then at a great B&B on the North Shore. We had a great time although apparently there was a poi shortage in Hawaii. Everything was pretty much great until we got back to Charleston. After a couple days of travelling (Honolulu to Atlanta to Cincinnati to Detroit back to Atlanta then finally Charleston), we get back to our apartment around 9pm to find that we weren't the only ones having a ball during our honeymoon. A rat had found its way in and ate and pooped all over the place including our bed. Needless to say, we spent the night at the Holiday Inn Express. The next morning, we bought a new vacuum cleaner, rubber gloves, masks, and various cleaners and proceded to decontaminate the apartment.

After barricading all the rooms from each other, setting up glue traps and baiting the place with rat poison we left for Atlanta again. This time we were there to attend Husni and Karen's wedding. Great stuff. Congratulations again, guys! Anyway, we went up to D-town after the wedding to see the folks and have a party with the grandparents. When we returned to Charleston, we found some evidence that the rat had returned. Fortunately, it was not as much damage as before. But determined to catch this thing, Becky decided to bait the "pre-baited" traps with granola bars. The next morning, I woke up and found one less trap then we put out. We looked under the stove expecting to see a trapped rodent or some horrific scene where the rat chewed off its own paws to free itself from the glue. Thankfully for me, we found neither. The rat had chewed its way out of the trap but there were no remnants of paws. What we found was the hole in which it had entered our abode. I stuffed the hole with rat poison then duct taped it shut (many times over). Now it's been a couple of rat free days and I'm thinking we're in the clear (knock on wood). I know I've spent more time talking about the rat situation then the wedding, but this rat thing has been our main concern for the last week. Anyway, more posts to come.