10:17 a.m. Fabulous mouse pictures! Only on the web! See his wind-y tail? See the terror in his little beady eyes? See me shaking behind the camera?

For a while he couldn't get out of the tub. That was the good news. The bad news is that Igor must shower and shave and go to a meeting. So he (Igor) threw on some shorts and a sweatshirt and raced over to the hardware store to buy a humane mouse trap -- the obvious answer.

Except they don't have humane ones ... just black plastic ones with a nice red padded bar that comes blamming down (on your fingers) the minute you grab at the cheese, which we've shredded and placed inside. A nice combo of peccorino, belgioioso, and Monterey Jack, I might add, since it would be a last meal.

Or not.

This picture shows him beginning his massive leaping jump to try to scale the sheer shiny surface of the vertical tub wall. Over and over and over he made his running jumps. I tried to take action shots. Then we closed the bathroom door to trap him in until we could get the smaller trap.

We vee ... errrrrr ... y carefully opened the bathroom door and slowly pushed the loaded trap into the bathroom ...

But by this time, the mouse had made his heroic leap and he was out of the tub and he'd already squeezed back through the walls from whence he came and he was back home to safety.

In a way, I'm secretly glad for him. What a leap he must have made, swinging on the chrome lever and then a Jackie Chan onto the side of the tub. He is a fine mouse.

If I caulk up the hole he must have squeezed through, will that keep him on his side of the wall? Is it time to get a nice kitty?

More later ...

2:00 a.m. On a completely different note, the package from Canada arrived today and I shook it a little, turned it around a little, and then wrote to Catherine to let her know that it arrived safe and sound. Unfortunately, my mail's not getting through tonight, probably because of the AOL merger, right?

I will officially report on the box's contents tomorrow -- but I have to confess that I've already ripped into it and am enjoying some of its treasures as I type. What a great box of goodies ... I'm going to have a ball tomorrow documenting and playing with them.

As for the mouse, Brittly has pointed out that it's not really true that mice like cheese. If I want this trap to work, I'm going to have to go back and put some peanut butter in there ... and I wish I didn't have to do it, because believe me, that little bar really hurts when it comes crashing down.

Which brings me to a strange realization. If they would just stay within the walls of the house, I could live with the idea that I'm sharing my space with many creatures great and small. I know that entire mobs of microscopic beings live on each and every eyelash, for instance. I've got plenty of photos of the dust mites who make the vacuum cleaner bag their own home sweet home.

I love and respect nature. I don't begrudge any of my little rodent friends the endless gerbil run of pipes and crevices behind the wallboard ... but I don't particularly want to glance up from my leisurely bubble bath and see one of them staring at me from the rim of the tub, either.

So, we have an uneasy truce here.