Ladybug and I are back at home in Dear Dirty Durham, after a brief vacation in Colorado.

Since we are geographically dispersed, my family has traditionally celebrated Christmas over Thanksgiving weekend.  However, this year, with the exorbitant cost of plane fare (particularly when we booked the tickets in July), we decided to opt for a cheaper weekend, which resulted in HalloThanksMas.  (By the end of the weekend, we joked that we might as well include Easter and Arbor Day in there.)

My sister was a cat for Halloween.  We went to her office in downtown Denver, where many of her co-workers were also in costume.

The highlight of the trip was several hikes up to the top of Table Mountain (though I’m not sure if it was North Table Mountain or South Table Mountain… heck, we might not actually have been on either of the Table Mountains) early in the mornings.  We took my parents’ new dog Ranger up each morning; we got to watch the sunrise on Saturday but went up a little later on Sunday.  Lots of deer on the mountain and beautiful views.  I took some pictures on Ladybug’s camera but haven’t gotten them up to Flickr yet– I’ll post them when I do.

The lowlight of the trip was Friday night.  I awoke with a start around 5 AM, having had the distinct sensation that I felt something in the bed.  Of course, whenever you wake with a start like that, you freak out for a second before you realize that it was just a dream and you head back to sleep.  I got up and opened the door so the cat could come in. I lay my head down when my heart stopped racing.  But I could not fall asleep.  I kept feeling like something wasn’t right, and realized after a couple minutes that I was hearing something that wasn’t just normal nighttime noise and wasn’t the cat rummaging through the room.  I sat up in bed again and turned on the lamp.  Ladybug stirred and I told her something wasn’t quite right.  I picked up the pillow at the head of the bed to adjust it, and there was a mouse in the bed!

My natural instincts kicked in: I swatted it out of bed with the pillow and yelled “What the fuck?” simultaneously.  Ladybug opened her eyes and said, “What?”  I told her there was a mouse in the bed, to which she replied, “Don’t let it get in my hair,” and promptly went back to sleep.  I was wide awake at that point, so went into the living room and read The Story of Edgar Sawtelle for a while.  My sister came out into the living room around 5:45, talked to me for a while, then fell asleep in one of the living room chairs until her husband fetched her around 6:45.

The moral of the story?

If you see this cat, do not trust her to keep your house rodent-free!  Bad kitty!

You thought the tire slashing and dead bear cubs were rotten.  Now take a look at this:

State Democratic and Republican party officials are decrying the appearance of a casket with an anti-Barack Obama sticker at a Craven County polling place. State Democrats said Saturday the coffin and sticker are an attempt to intimidate people voting early. And Republican Party spokesman Brent Woodcox said the matter should trouble all citizens. “All decent, law-abiding citizens of North Carolina are outraged by this incident,” said Woodcox. The state NAACP says the casket was in place for at least several hours. A bumper sticker on it showed an image of Obama and the phrase “O’ No!” (THE NEWS & OBSERVER; THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, 11/01/08).

Very classy.

So, I hate to be the jerk here, but are there similar incidents that might be construed as an effort to suppress the Republican vote?