the saga of the mouse house.

so here's what's been happening.

sarah and i got the apartment we wanted and on april 3, her dad came down from st. cloud. we spent all day going back and forth from plymouth, up and down stairs, getting her situated. all seemed well. i looked around and assessed things, and found mouse droppings. since one of the previous tenants had rats, i figured they had been running around.

but there was an odd smell too. i looked under the baseboard heaters and saw even more droppings. and lots of holes and spaces for mice to come through. and that's when i knew we had mice.

this didn't bother me so much. mice are cute. we went to target and bought a couple of traps. i also bought some gladware so when i moved in, i'd have something sturdy to store rico's food in so as not to attract more mice. i left the containers in the plastic target bag in the middle of the floor of the room, set the traps, and left for the night.

sunday, april 4 i was with val most of the day. when i got home that evening, i packed up the car with stuff and drove it over to the new place, leaving it all in the common area. i went up to my room and found that one of the traps had been sprung, but caught nothing. and the target bag had been nipped and chewed at...it was full of holes.

when i spoke to some of my coworkers about this who had lived with mice, they winced and told me i had a major mouse problem.

sarah and i talked it over and came to same conclusions.

we called the landlord and asked him to take care of it. he didn't seem too urgent to get back to us.

finally, yesterday, on april 5, he called and told me an orkin guy would be coming out. when i asked for a timeline so one of us could be there, he gave us some shill about "he doesn't need to come into the unit, he just needs to take care of the outside." but...if they're already inside, i told him, we need to patch all the holes under the baseboards and get some opinions on how to manage them.

and we found another problem in all of this: fleas. mice have fleas, and the carpet was housing some, and i have the bites to prove it.

today i called sarah and she checked the traps. mouse caught. i called the landlord and told him that the problem had to be dealt with. he basically told us that we were getting too riled up about it. i said, um...we just moved in 3 days ago, how about we fix some problems now?

apparently, he is an ass, because he wasn't willing to deal with the problem. he told us that he thought we were being demanding and that he would never be able to make repairs to the extent that we needed him to.

and then he gave us an out. in writing.

we have to decide by tomorrow, but he gave us the choice to leave after april and get our security deposit back. i have to talk it over with sarah, but i think it's the best idea. the problem won't go away, the bedroom is unlivable, and this guy is obviously not going to address our problems. (there were quite a few other indicators that he's a douche, so best to get away from him.) there are definite losses, we sunk some money into installing internet and setting up electricity and making some minor repairs/replacements and pest control methods. hell, i'm out a month's rent, since i never actually moved in.

but i think it's the best choice. for sanity's sake.

i have yet to talk to sarah about this. and it may be that she wants to stay. if that's the case, we'll figure something out. she's my roommie and much wiser than i. so. talks will ensue.

but i hope talks lead to moving out. i just imagine mice ripping my mattress apart and making a nest out of it and i cry.