(PICTURE: The leak in my ceiling)Two other small anecdotes about the flood:
Anecdote 1: While cooking dinner yesterday a mouse scampered across my kitchen floor. He darted from behind my refrigerator towards the front door. After comforting Huyen who is deathly afraid of mice and rats, I went looking for the critter. There are only a couple places he could have gone to and I deduced he must have gone down a drain in the 1/2 bathroom on the ground floor. I went outside, found a loose brick and placed it over the drain. Problem solved. Well, not quite. I clearly deduced wrong because while eating breakfast the next morning the mouse sprinted out from behind the refrigerator again. Once again I had to comfort Huyen and then went looking for the mouse. For those of you who have been avid readers for a while, you'll recall this is my second rodent problem. Huyen and I figure this mouse must have come into my house the night we couldn't put down our front door. Fortunately this mouse is about 1/3 the size of the rat at my old place. Hopefully stick traps will do the job.
Anecdote 2: I have a small leak in my roof which has been dripping on my nicely polished wooden steps on my fifth floor. As you can figure out water + polished wood equally a slippery surface. Well, I'm officially an old man because I slipped on the stairs yesterday and fell down eight steps. Both my arms and my upper right butt are really bruised. The stupid thing is that I walked on the slippery step about twenty times prior to slipping and every time thought, "Put down a towel." I've now put down a towel.
(PICTURE: The set of stairs I fell down)
