Tired

Today was a long day. Lots of stuff done and to do, but managed to not stress out completely. I think that counts as a win in the grand scheme of things, though I'm hoping it doesn't leave me too tired for tomorrow, given how late I'm up.

Anyways, a few short stories today, mostly about the ratties. I did take lots of pictures, but haven't the time to check them out, crop and post them here. Maybe tomorrow for that. In any case, they did do some rather cute things today.

I had chow mein for dinner. This seemed like a good idea, I like noodles with assorted vegetables and beef. I suspect the problem was not actually in the choice of meals, but the environment in which I ate. That would be while sitting on the floor of the bedroom, trying to keep track of where all the little rats were running, while L was working on cleaning their cage. On the one hand, eating dinner while sitting on the floor did make it a lot easier to keep track of all the rats: they were all climbing over me, trying to figure out what the great smell was. The worst it got was with Cao Cao, who is small enough and daring enough to climb all the way up my arm and onto the back of the hand that was holding the fork I was trying to eat with. I think he had this grand plan, of reaching the hand and then making a dive into the chow mein and eating all that he could. Sadly for him, that plan was thwarted by the distraction of being offered a noodle if he would only leave my hand alone so that I could eat. On the whole, though, I think the dinner was enjoyable, as there is something really cute about the way the rats eat noodles.

I have come to the conclusion that our rats like us. Or maybe just people in general, or it could just be that anyone moving around attracts their interest. I suspect it's more than just the latter though, as some non-person movement can really startle them. When we let them play in the room, inevitably there will always be at least one or two near us, if not climbing around directly on us. Lu Bu, Blue and Scotty seem to be the most friendly and generally more likely to hang out. Cao Cao tends to always be off getting into trouble, though he has been known to hang out on the keyboard tray under L's monitor. Barrick tends to hide the most, as usual. I've also been teaching them to come when called, right now just a general call for all of them, as teaching them individually is a royal pain. It works pretty well, of the three times I called them tonight there was a 4 rat average response. Lu Bu and Blue in particular make a beeline straight for me, usually on an accessible path. Scotty, on the other hand, tries to reach the call from wherever he is, which today led to an amusing scene with him sitting on top of the clothes hamper on my chair, while I was sitting at the foot of the bed. He stared for a while, trying to figure out how to reach me, before I reached out to let him climb across.