Hiding Seek

The title is more understandable when you know that the girl has named one of her hamsters, "Seek". Yes, one of the little rodents is on the loose, unless it's become a snack tartare for one of the cats already. I'm feelin' Cassandra, and it's not good. It happened when the boy got s/him? out unsupervised while the savant and I were unloading groceries for Thanksgiving and the girl was on wastebasket patrol. The boy put s/him into a basket in the toy room then went to do something unspecified. The girl discovered her loss about 15 min. later, and although we looked for two hours, we found no signs of the beast.

Yes, I did come out of my righteous indignation funk re the way the rodents got here and helped. Although I did have to sit in the basement for about 15 minutes, to get my tongue under control. *And I called Dee, of course.* And I did have to drop a heavy hint to intervene when I felt that the savant was going over the top in castigating the boy. That's the best I could do in the situation. Sweetness is not one of my qualities, esp. when I'm DMS-ing.

So, I'm walking around this AM with trepidation, wondering if I'm going to end up squishing the hamster, or worse yet, finding only a part of s/him. The savant thinks s/he's either a) already become kitty food, b) in the basement where s/he'll never be found or c) in the walls of the house via the pocket door in the kitchen. How long does one wait before declaring a hamster legally dead?

*****

In other news, the basement folks called Monday to reschedule the warranty work. There was some situation that needed their care. *hope it wasn't a wet basement* They've reprieved me until Dec. 14, which was the earliest time for me to get a morning appt. However, I want to get the work done by the time Scooter gets into the country on Dec. 5, 'cause I'm sure that the kids will be dragging him everywhere whenever he makes it down. I'll try to work on it Friday, since we'll once again be celebrating [Buy Nothing Day](http://www.adbusters.org/metas/eco/bnd/) and staying close to home.

And, I'll take a moment to answer your comments in one fell swoop:

Jen, the girl turned 8 on Sunday. The party was then, and it was fun, though sparsely attended 'cause I did a rotten job in getting invites out. We had a 3-legged race and a potato sack race which were hysterical. I encouraged the girl to designate Cat Welfare as an 'in lieu of gifts' kind of thing. This was only moderately successful, on her part and on the part of our guests. I guess it is kinda fun for kids of this age to buy gifts for other people...a more concrete way of giving than $$$ for some unknown cats. However, we have yet to take the $$ to Cat Welfare. I think the girl will really get it, then.

Scott, I must confess. I really didn't spell 'daquiris' right at first. Even published it wrong, but kept looking at it and finally looked it up via google, then edited my entry. And, for further disclosure, the whole idea of the dacquiri party came from Sharon, anyhow. It's still a good one, though I'm thinking more pina coladas.

I loved everyone's dance songs. Guess we'll have to get them for the party. I'm thinking a pj/sleepover kind of thing. We have air mattresses, the couch, a futon and the kids' bed; I think we could sleep everyone. Alissa, you are more than welcome to come, if you can put up with our high school/college reminiscing.

Gotta go. Homeschool, hamster hunting and breakfast all await.