You’ve seen the gruesome sight before.  Tom (i.e. the Cat) is in hot pursuit of Jerry (i.e. the Mouse) in one battle in their epic war of dominance over disputed territory (i.e. the Kitchen).  Jerry scurries, legs pinwheeling, circumnavigating around a kitchen table, then darting into the sanctuary of a half-oval shaped hole in the baseboard.  Tom, not to be outdone, follows Jerry’s every step like a heat-seeking missile.  He slams into the wall, a split second behind his prey, arms outstretched.  In a desperate attempt to lay hold of the mouse, Tom hurls his feline hand into the hole in the baseboard and rummages around with a look of focused consternation.

A loud SNAP! follows. 

Tom screeches a soprano banshee wail, removes his arm from the hole, and leaps to the ceiling all in one continuous movement.  You see what trap has been sprung–a mousetrap.  Tom shakes his paw vigorously.  The mouetrap’s metal jaw has made pulsating sausages into his five padded digits.

It’s slapstick.  It’s funny.  You laugh.

But not in real life, let me tell you.  I didn’t laugh.  I screamed Christian swear-words like "Son of a Hittite!" 

My thumb was blue for two days and I never even caught sight of the mouse… Oh well, at least our food has remained safe and untampered with.  It would probably be safer for me to just leave the mouse-hunting for more capable hands.  No pun intended.

***

• In other news, the water pipe ordeal has come to a satisfying close.  The new water pipe is in, has been paid for, and we now have water after our 3-day fast.  I smell a lot better.
• It looks like we discovered where the mites "home base" was located roughly speaking.  It seems they were congregating behind Sarah’s chair in the kitchen.  She has suffered the most from them and now we know why.  We eradicated the "nest" or at least the territory we saw, and are hoping this will make life a little less itchy for all of us, mostly Sarah.
• Yesterday, from our front door I saw three or four hairy yak lumbering down the road. 
• My wife has killed two scorpions in the house thusfar.  They have been moving slowly and are quite small.  I killed Shelob (a large spider) in the bathroom this morning having been beckoned by Sarah’s blood-curdling scream.
• My favorite neighbor so far is this little Tibetan boy who looks to be about 6 or 7 years old.  He is small, skinny, very dark-complected (but some of that is a coat of dust) and a bit feisty (in a good way.)  He always sees me and yells, "Hallo!"  This is not unique to children in China, but the reason I like him so much is because he is always excited to shake my hand.  One day I didn’t realize he had followed me about half-way down the road leading away from our house just so he could shake my hand.  I usually give him a good shake, nearly lifting him off the ground, and say "How are you?"  Next time I see him I’ll have to ask him his name because I usually forget.