So proud of myself

[Ann72]

I host remotely and have never been able to figure out how to provide guests with special snacks, drinks, flowers, or other welcoming touches.

Finally think I've hit on it - I had these little note pads made up.  They cost $1.45 each.  I'm getting pencils too, also with @Diagonair stamped on them.

Aren't they adorable?  :):):)

[Ann72]

@Robin4 I am laughing out loud about your possums!  They sound determined and dastardly!  They are not pretty and I would be very startled to find one in the kitchen in the middle of the night.  Kudos to your cool-headed Kiwi guests!

We had bats in Maine at one point, but not since guests have been there.  It took a while to find the tiny hole they'd made between the chimney and the roof.  Since the roof is metal, their guano was regularly washed away by rain, which in turn made my garden grow like Jack's beanstalk.  One slipped around the drywall hugging the chimney and got inside in the middle of the night.  Picture me running around with a quilt over my head shouting to my poor beleaguered husband, "Open all the doors!  It just wants to get out!"

[Sarah977]

@Robin4  I'm surprised your dog doesn't keep the possums away. Remember that crazy possum story I PMed you? I didn't have a dog at that point and couldn't get rid of the darn thing. But then I went to Canada for a couple months and sublet that house I was renting to a girl with a dog. That possum left and never came back.

[Robin4]

@Sarah977 

I do indeed remember that story!

What's that old expresion Sarah....'Familiarity breeds contempt'! The dog and the possums are regular buddies....more often than not they will exchange pleasantries on one of the pathways at night. And as I have shown you before, the bloody things are so brazen. Here is the shot of that one trying to get into the kitchen one night while I was preparing dinner.......

  Ade is dead scared one is going to run up her leg one night to get to a tasty treat she might happen to be consuming!

I wish I could say there is a nice side to possums but, the reality is, there isn't! They raid the garden, deficate everywhere they go in quantities that beggars description, and they are all the time trying to dream up ways of joining us at the dinner table.

New Zealand has the right idea, there they are classified as a noxious pest and can be destroyed....Here the bloody things are protected!

Cheers......Rob

[Sarah977]

@Robin4  Could you live-trap them and take them for a drive, somewhere far, far from your place? I'm about to do that with a feral cat who's decided it lives at my place. 

As you know, I completely agree with your assessment of possums- there's nothing cute about them, they're quite disgusting to have around.

My dog would chase a possum away, but there's definitely some critters she wants nothing to do with. We have these giant toads here in the summer. They are supposedly poisonous to touch- my dog just lays there, watching them hop across the terrace. They're also disgusting- they poop and pee on my terrace, and as they're omnivores, their poop looks just like a human's, only smaller. They also sit in the dog's water bowl at night- poor dog, I'll see her just standing there staring into her water bowl in the morning, and they'll be a toad turd floating around in it.

[Ben551]

@Sarah977 @Robin4 @Ann72  Bats... Possums... Toads.... and turds. Sounds like the title of a best seller. Perhaps we should compile a book on the whackiest host stories and publish it under that name lol.

[Susan151]

@Ann72 . And now you can have a marketing campaign to encourage repeat bookings– "Collect all Three!"

🙂

[Ann72]

@Susan151 LMAO You are so brilliant.  And then there are pencils that just arrived, in nauseating pastel shades - millennials love pastels.  Kill me.