love is all you need

I've never experienced a cross-country move before. In fact, I've lived in the Dallas area since I was 6 months old. Sure, I've done the small move to a college dorm, and to many apartments since. But I've never moved 1,550 miles before! We're closing in on about a month until our big move and so many things are whirling around in our minds.
Joey, his brother Aaron, and a friend Eric are all flying up to Brooklyn this weekend to hopefully succeed in finding a safe, affordable apartment for us to rent. Fortunately, they're staying with a realtor-friend of Eric's, so that will hopefully help them zone in on the good stuff.
I'm going down to my parents' farm this weekend for a girls knitting weekend with my mom and sister. My mom scored a few bags of wool from a neighbor who raises sheep and we're going to try to clean it and spin it. And no, none of us know how. I've printed out a few instructions I found online, but we're just gonna see what we come up with. I'm sure hilarity will ensue. I'll make sure to take lots of photos for you guys.
In other news, we've still been fighting off a few remaining mice. About a month ago, Joey and I purchased "The Rat Zapper," in high hopes that we could just get these mice out of our house already. Basically, you throw some dry dog food into one end, and the mouse gets a high-voltage-battery-powered-so-quick-its-almost-pleasant-zap on his way to the food. Within four hours of setting it up, we had our first contestant. He quickly won the grand prize all expenses paid trip to mousie heaven. For the next few days and then weeks, nobody else showed up and I thought we were in the clear. Then one night as I was snuggled on the couch watching my new Elizabeth Zimmerman Knitting Workshop DVD, Daisy started freaking out and sniffing under and behind the couch that I WAS LAYING ON. She sniffed and circulated that thing for hours that night, so I brought the Rat Zapper in and set it up near the couch, hoping our little friend would come out for some food and entertainment. Apparently this guy was being a couch potato and did not wish to compete in our little game show. Then a few nights ago my brother in law, Aaron told us he had seen "Ratatouille" (as we so affectionately call our mousie friends) in the kitchen. I moved the Rat Zapper Game Show set to the kitchen and waited a few nights. This morning I found our next contestant. Let me just nicely say to you that the Biggest Winner of All Time, was in fact, the Biggest Winner of All Time: he wasn't a cute little mousie at all. He was a 5" long (not counting the tail) rat. In. My. House! I'm still shuddering as I recount this tale to you. Now, my dilemma: I can't just go on and pretend that I did not catch that thing in my house, but I cannot go on to catch more of them, because that will just freak me out further. Good thing I'm moving in a month. Please, oh please don't let our apartment in Brooklyn have rats. (Go on and laugh at my naivete.)
Moving on, we found out last week that Henry is heartworm positive. The vet said that he was in great shape and his heart sounded excellent, so he was probably still in the early stages. (Meaning they probably hadn't done much damage to his heart.) She said she would have no worries at all putting Henry though the painful and somewhat risky procedure to kill them. We took him in on Monday morning and received his first injection. We called the vet and checked in on him later that day and they said he was doing fine. He received his second injection yesterday morning and we were able to pick him up last night. The injections are extremely painful, and Henry is sore as all get out on his back. He really doesn't feel up to moving much right now, which is a good thing because he has to be extremely calm and inactive for the next two weeks. The injections are a form of arsenic that kills the worms and also a little tissue at the injection sites. Henry has disintegrating worms and arsenic floating through his bloodstream right now. He even has to eat a special dog food to help ease the load on his liver. He's pretty mopey and tired, but I've taken the next few days off of work to take extra special care of him. "I don't feel so good, guys."