The Break-in

We got home from work last night and I went straight into the bedroom to change out of my work clothes. Things from the closet were out on the bed and strewn about the room - the camera bag and the case that our hair clippers are in (it's shiny and looks expensive I guess) and my jewelry were lying around. The dresser drawers were all opened and had obviously been rifled through.

We went back into our front room area and noticed that the wood slat holding down the screen near the back door had been pried out of place (not that it was hard since the wood was rotted and the nails rusted, they apparently used some bbq tongs to pry it up), the screens lifted up, the glass louvers carefully removed and stacked, and then they just crawled right in.

They took all kinds of stuff. Some kind of random and other stuff that was clearly valuable. Our laptop, iPod (which I racked up all kinds of Westlaw points to earn - arg! and it was the big one), iPod speaker, 2 cell phones, a bunch of jewelry, a cooler backpack, Simon's allowance out of his wallet, some of Simon's tee-shirts with cartoon characters like Batman and Spiderman on them, bathroom stuff (hair gel, hairspray, my face cleaning stuff), and medicine (children's Tylenol, NyQuil, etc). The interesting thing is that they didn't take the Wii or our camera, although it looked like they may have accidentally left the camera behind. And the jewelry they took wasn't the expensive stuff, but some cheaper things that I just really liked.

Simon was pretty sad about his shirts (not that he needed as many as we brought since he wears uniforms to school most days) and allowance money. But he and Everett were glad that their toys were all still there, as far as we could see.

It's really frustrating, not so much the monetary value (although partly since we can't afford to replace things), but that it was so easy for them to get in. And then that we sold nearly everything we owned to come here and someone took the few comforts of home that we had decided to bring with us. There is so much that's irreplaceable on our computer, like all our photos. And the iPod was our only way of listening to good music - the radio stations here play the same 10 songs over and over. The funny thing is, I'm almost just as upset over my Clinique face stuff that they took because it's just as impossible for us to replace.

more snorkeling stuff

Sometimes the call of the ocean is too much for us to handle and we go snorkeling even though we should be doing all kinds of responsible (boring) things like feeding our children and getting them ready for bed. Tonight was one of those nights. It was totally worth it!

I saw a black-blotched porcupinefish and a barracuda (far away enough and small enough that I didn't immediately get out of the ocean!).

Right before they rang the bell for Sa*, Clif saw a red firefish (from what I can tell, it's a type of scorpionfish also called a lionfish) near the shore and we all jumped in the ocean to see it. It was very impressive, but we didn't want to get too close because it's also very poisonous. We couldn't watch it for long, but we were all able to get a good look at it before we had to leave.

*I realized that I never explained Sa! It's a family prayer time that happens at dusk and sometimes at dawn, depending on the village. Certain people in the village ring bells (not real bells, big empty tanks that are hanging from posts or trees, I'll have to take some pictures) or blow conch shells and make sure everyone goes in their house to pray. They will either go inside their homes or a fale to sing and pray. People can't be out in the ocean or playing in the parks during Sa, everyone is supposed to be inside praying -at least theoretically, it's not like they monitor what you do inside the house. Some villages are really strict about Sa and others don't observe it as much. Technically you aren't supposed to drive or walk through a village during Sa either, but if you're on the main road then it's ok. They ring the bells or blow the horns again for curfew later (I think it's around 10, but I never paid much attention), but it's not followed as strictly as Sa. From what I hear, some of the people who enforced Sa in the past would occasionally get violent with people who weren't inside, but it's not an issue anymore.

I'm new here

When we were at Tisa's this Sunday, one of the kids there came up to me and asked, "are you new here?"

I said, "yep, we've been here about a month."

Her response, "I could tell because you're so white."

If only she'd seen me a month ago - right now I'm more tan than I have ever been in my life!

snorkel, snorkel, snorkel

I know. It's all I blog about, but it's fun and there isn't much else to do here. Thursday was such a beautiful day that we went snorkeling after work with the kids and puppy at IBM beach. I saw a brittle star, which I thought was incredibly cool.

Saturday we went to Faga'alu where I saw a yellow trumpetfish. We stayed until we got rained out so we drove over to IBM where there was still rain, but no run-off from the pig farms like there is at Faga'alu!

Today we went back to Tisa's. I didn't see anything extremely exciting, but I wasn't out for very long. I did see much bigger fish than other places that we've snorkeled though.

Saturday was a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Because I found a maggot in my hair. (Don't worry, no pictures of nasty stuff. Only vague descriptions so no one gets too grossed out.)

I know that the house we live in isn't exactly a fortress and that screen walls can only keep out so much of the riff-raff, but we saw a mouse a week or so ago and I was not ok with that. We bought some poison and put it out and saw a rat (thinking it was the mouse) and believed that it had somehow escaped death. Turns out, it hadn't.

Friday, our house started to stink. We looked around and couldn't find the problem. Then on Saturday we remembered that we were attempting to be mouse-murderers and looked in our little attic area. We saw a dead rat. It was huge and had obviously been dead for several days. Clif took it out (I'm sure I wouldn't have dealt with it as well as he did) and we waited for the smell to clear up. It got a little better, but it was still pretty stinky.

About 1/2 hour before Everett's birthday party (oh yeah, did I mention we were trying to get ready for a party?), Clif realized that the mouse was dead too in the attic area, under a piece of wood that was under a door. We only knew because the hole in the ceiling for the laundry room light fixture is too big and the mouse was right on top of the hole and some "stuff" from the mouse fell through. Nasty "stuff" that you don't want details about.

So, he cleaned up the mouse too. This time, I helped hold the chair in place that he had put on top of the counter in order to climb up into the "attic" (it's more like a loft above the kitchen/laundry/bathroom). We thought we had the mouse/rat problem taken care of.

Soon after, it was party time. We did all the standard birthday games, pinata, cake, presents... you know. Nothing momentous, but fun. The kids all seemed to have a great time and got really competitive trying to win the gold medals we made out of cookies and ribbons.

We chatted with the kids parents when they picked their kids up, cleaned up, tried to relax a bit and, when I was washing my hands, glanced in the mirror to see a maggot in my hair. I freaked out! I nearly shaved my head and started yelling and, mainly, went nuts trying to figure out HOW it happened.

I have two theories. One, that when I was holding the chair for Clif a maggot fell on my head out of the bundle that contained what was left of the mouse and other nasty stuff. This theory has the unpleasantness of thinking that the maggot had been on my head for many hours (about 4 or 5) including an entire birthday party, several chats with parents, the entire clean-up process, and even a short conversation with some new friends who live in Lion's Park. I don't like that thought. That is much too long for a maggot to have been on my head (it's sad when I have degrees of acceptable amounts of time for a maggot to have been on my head).

Two, that we have yet another rodent that had some tasty poison and is dropping nastiness through another hole in the ceiling. I hadn't been in the laundry room so that isn't a possibility, but there could be another one lurking somewhere in the great unknown that is our attic-ish area. This theory has the unpleasant aspect of thinking that we have another dead rodent in the house, but also is pretty unlikely since the smell is gone and it was mainly created out of my need to believe that the maggot was not in my hair for several hours.

The creatures in this house had been getting to me Saturday anyway. I saw a skink on the "clean" dishes in the dish drying rack earlier and I actually chased it out of the house screaming at it because I was so tired of cleaning only to have all the bugs and lizards crawl all over things. So it was not a good day for finding a maggot in my hair. As if there is a good day for finding a maggot in your hair.

Sunday was great though. We went to the beach and got some snorkeling in, the kids had a blast playing with all the new toys at our house (thanks to some very generous party-goers), and, most importantly, I didn't find a maggot in my hair.

But from now on, we're using traps.

Mountain Dew is Delicious

Even geckos think so. And then they run away really fast.

puppy update

The still nameless mutt is finally acting like a puppy now (as opposed to eating, sleeping, pooping, sleeping, whining, and sleeping) so we figure that's a good sign, even though our toes are his new favorite chew toy. He's looking much better.

These were taken right after we got him - although he had just eaten so his stomach is extremely full! I'm glad the photos don't show just how badly off he was because it was pretty disturbing. The second one was taken after a good scrubbing so he looks really cute!

Just after a few days of a lot of puppy food and a couple shots he's filling out. We can't see all the bones in his hips and his skin doesn't look as thick and scaly anymore.

puppy love?

We are suckers. Someone dumped a pathetic puppy off near the entrance of our street, and we ended up with it. It is malnourished and probably infected with just about anything that crawls. It has a terrible case of mange and it stinks like a dog in old age.

He will probably be cute once he's not so sick, but right now he just looks pathetic. He has the thick skin and hair loss of a very sick animal, but he looks like he's getting a little bit better already.

I took pictures so you can see just how sorry looking our new mangy mutt is, but haven't gotten around to downloading them from the camera yet. He has no name yet so if you have any ideas, let us know!

Oh yeah, Clif and I found out we passed the MPRE today. Clif is happy because now he won't have to worry about exams anymore. I am, of course, glad I passed, but more concerned about the bar results that I'm still waiting for. UPDATE: I passed the bar! I found out yesterday. I'm more relieved than excited, but it's still great news.

Sunday at Tisa's

I'm running out of things to say about all the great beaches here. Another weekend day, another beach (it's a rough life). This time it was the beach at Tisa's Barefoot Bar & Grill, where a group of palagis usually hang out on Sundays. We played in the water for a while and then sat and enjoyed the view.

Tisa's is a really cool place. It's built around the trees so there are holes in the floors where the trees grow through. It feels sort of Swiss Family Robinson-ish.

Oh, and the amazing news of the day is that Simon now likes to snorkel. He hadn't been too happy about trying it, but today he saw fish as soon as his face was in the water so now he's hooked! He went with Clif and when he was done came running out of the water to tell me that he saw a fish that is in Finding Nemo - the one in the tank with a scar (Gill?). He was so excited!

Vatia

We heard it on good authority (thanks to the prior clerks for a great list) that Vatia is one of the best beaches on Tutuila. So we had to go check it out. We loved it!

We snorkeled around and some of the more exciting things we spotted were a ray (Clif), a banded pipefish (Everett & I), and a peva (Everett & I). Peva is the Samoan word. I haven't been able to find an English term other than it's technical name - synapta maculata. But it looks like this.

Just as we were winding up, a group of some new friends showed up. In a happy coincidence they had planned to go to Vatia that day too. We stayed all day and had a great time getting to know them better.

they really should be more specific

Out of the blue today Everett said, "A spider can't save the world."

What!?

Then he explained himself. The song goes, "Spiderman, Spiderman, doing the things that a spider can."* And a spider can't save the world.

They really should be more specific.


*these are the lyrics as reported by Everett. They are not guaranteed to be an accurate or complete representation of the lyrics of the actual Spiderman theme song.

fun stuff

Geckos are all kinds of fun, especially once you learn how to catch them. Everett and Simon have been working on it. And they're getting pretty good at it.

It's a good thing they've found a way to occupy themselves inside since Rainmaker Mountain keeps on making rain. We got rained out on Saturday. Turns out, swimming in the rain isn't that much fun. Well, the swimming's fine, but when you get out and it's cold (ok, we're wimps already) and your towel is wet and you never dry off so the sand never falls off and you end up wet and covered in sand and you try to drive home, it's not so fun. I guess we just need to plan to go to rocky beaches on rainy days.

We were lucky to be invited to a couple parties last weekend which were really fun. And our backyard is pretty fun too. There are loads of these cool, exotic toys sticks lying around for ... uh, swinging around and hitting stuff.

And plenty of lizards and toads to try to spot.

This one, a small marine toad, blended in so well the boys nearly stepped on it.

Of course, I have to mention that there was another event too: this crazy kid turned 8 on Monday. We had a small party with the family.

We'll have even more fun next Saturday when friends come over so we can do it again!