I hate losing stuff.  I just realized that I have misplaced the cord that connects our digital camera to the computer.  There are many good reasons why this cord happens to be missing like the fact that we are living out of two homes in two different cities (in a foreign country) and just made a trip to Thailand that involved 7 different flights and a series of long car rides.  That’s part of it.  The other reason is that it’s hard to keep track of stuff when you’re camping out. 

Christa mentioned yesterday that living here feels a bit like camping.  I agree.  It’s comfortable camping (and we’re blessed to have this setup), but it still has that semblance of living in the great outdoors: gas stoves, critters lurking, layering ourselves in fleece, cold mornings, starting fires for warmth, etc.  I just wish I could find that cord though.  Here’s what you would have seen; picture it if you dare:

• Another dead rat!  Yeah, one of those early metal traps I set snapped on a fat rodent’s head in the tool room.  The cringe-worthy crime scene looked like something out of CSI.  At first I thought it was an overdose.  The body was laying prostrate on a pile of flour/concrete mixture.  I thought it had succumbed to poison or a concrete stomach.  After further investigation I noticed how close the rat’s head was to the trap.  There was blood and gore.  Aren’t you glad I can’t find that cord?
• A fried, dead frog.  Once upon a time this frog lived the fairy-tale life of a princess (see previous post), but it seems her story will not have a fairy-tale kiss type ending.  The poor little amphibian just dried up.  What’s strange about this death is that a.) it did not occur at the less-than-gentle hands of Sarah, and b.) it seemed unrelated to the cold snap we’ve been experiencing here in Qinghai.  We’ll have to wait on the autopsy to be sure…
• Swimming photos.  Yeah, we got some good shots of the girls enjoying the swimming pools of Thailand.  Anna diving, arms outstretched with knees bent (as if in prayer) was my favorite pic of the lot.
• Fire!  I started burning coal this morning.  It sounds easy, but it’s tricky.  You have to make a fire that burns between 60-70 degrees without hitting 80 degrees (which I’m told will cause a steamy overflow of water in our bathroom).  There’s something very Dickensian about wrapping a pair of tongs around a big fat piece of coal and dumping it in the hopper.  It makes me want to come inside and eat a bowl of porridge or something.  Bit worried about Marley’s ghost visits though.
• Stink lines.  OK, I can’t really take a picture of this, but if this were a comic book you could see the stink lines coming from the rafters near the ceiling of our bedroom.  I think there may be ANOTHER dead rodent up there somewhere.  The smell isn’t too severe, but it was noticeable when we arrived back here.  We set out a lot of poison before we left and were a little fearful that this might happen.  Thankfully, the fumes aren’t too noxious or anything.  Let’s just hope we are eradicating the Mickey population significantly.

On top of all this I’ve also killed a scorpion and spider since we’ve been back.  I feel like Thundarr the Barbarian.  I’m thinking about writing a book, too.  If you have any suggestions what type of book you’d like for me to write I’m open to suggestions, but be aware that I may just laugh at your ideas.  Feel free.