first, and most importantly…

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEVIN!!!

it’s going to be an exciting and fun-filled day!  actually, it’s already been fun-filled for him, because early this morning he went down to the dock with lester and watched the fish jumping in the water.

so…now that i’ve finally finished posting all those photos from our trip last year to wales, i’ve had all kinds of free time to post things that have been going on around here right now.

except there have been so many things that i have had no free time.

but last sunday was going to be my day of lolling around on the couch, writing, playing a game, reading stuff.  kevin was going to be off playing with his friend garrick, it was going to be peaceful and quiet and full of a whole bunch of nothing.

i had to get up early and go to work for a couple hours and was going to stop at a couple stores before going home.

but at 9:45 kevin sent me a text – Lester had brought in a live chipmunk and it was hiding under the giant cabinet in the music room.  kevin was in the process of taking everything out of the cabinet so we could tip it back and catch him.

oh boy.

i raced home and  kevin said he’d been getting ready to leave, and both lester and chester were sitting in front of a chair in the music room staring at it intently.  kevin lifted up the chair and they were all quite surprised that the chipmunk wasn’t there.  kevin looked behind the cabinet and could see the chipmunk’s little nose peeking out.

by the time i got home kevin had already removed much of the stuff from the cabinet. it had desperately needed to be gone through for such a long time – it’s full of papers and envelopes and office-type things and so many pieces of paper and random cords for i don’t know what, and on and on.  it has both shelves and drawers.  your basic cabinet nightmare.

but it was almost empty now and Kevin had been piling heaps of stuff all over the bed, and had stacked the drawers on the bedroom floor.

we finished all that, and then it was my job to tip the cabinet forward.  i tipped…and tipped…and was pretty sure i was going to tip it on myself and crush myself to death…but kevin saw the chipmunk and set the tupperware container down over him…and it got away.

oh boy.

we thought he’d scurried under the piano, so kevin moved the giant cabinet out of the room to have more space.  there are no air conditioning vents in this room, and both door were closed so the chipmunk couldn’t escape into the house, so it was getting kind of warm in there.  we looked under the piano but he  wasn’t here.

i opened the closet door, which is kind of like the cabinet, only with many dvds and cds and old games that my parents left here and a huge array of different papers for printing all kinds of things, and on and on.  i noticed that there were some things on the closet floor that shouldn’t have fallen, so maybe the chipmunk had hurried in there?  it’s an old door with a good-sized gap underneath, so it wouldn’t have been any trouble for him.

kevin started taking stuff out of the closet and  there was now so much debris all over the floor that it was difficult to walk.  i decided there was a slim chance that he wasn’t really in the closet, so i looked under the small dresser.

and there he was, crouched way in the back.  we quickly blocked the sides of the dresser so he couldn’t get out and kevin was ready with the container and i poked a stick towards the by now crazy-out-of-his-mind- i’m sure-chipmunk…and kevin captured him!  yaaaay!this was the biggest chipmunk i’d ever seen.  how did les manage to get him through the kitty door and into the house? he’s a Super Kitty.

poor little fella.  it’s probably the most excitement he’ll ever have in his whole chipmunk life.  kevin carried him way into the circle and set him down at the foot of a big tree, and the little guy scampered right up it.

whew.

this had taken about 45 minutes and now kevin was really late to meet up with garrick, so he hurried away.

and there i was, facing the biggest mess i’d seen around here in quite a while.

that plant is sitting where the cabinet normally goes.  and those are chester’s little white paws as he sauntered through, fascinated by the new arrangement of the room.

and soon he was happily on top of the chair.

here’s the view from the other direction – in addition to all the other stuff, a card-shuffler had somehow scattered lots of playing cards all over the place.

i did sit down for a while to gather my strength to tackle all of that, and it took me a few hours to clean and dust and slowly try to get stuff off the bed and into the cabinet and on and on…

it wasn’t the most restful start to the week, but at least we did save a cute giant chipmunk.

and now, birthday preparations must continue.

ok then,

mrs. thursday kevin’s birthday hughes.