pest control

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Hi everyone, the mouse problem in my kitchen is becoming intolerable and I need professional help to deal with it. I had a recommendation for Best Pest Control and talked with one of their guys yesterday. They sound pretty good, although I'm not sure how I feel about putting down poison throughout my house (even "all-organic" poison which he claimed would do no harm to my children or pets -- I'm just a little skeptical on this point). Mainly, I want to seal up the cracks where the mice are getting in, and it sounds like Best Pest will do that.

I was wondering though, for the sake of completeness, whether anyone here might want to recommend a different company. Preferably one that's not too expensive and not booked out till November. (I am a homeowner, so alas, I cannot push this off on "the landlord" to deal with. If only!)

Before anyone starts to give me unsolicited advice on how to deal with mice, let me add that a) I have a cat; he's good for nothing in this department (literally I have seen him lounging around on the kitchen floor while a mouse was frolicking on the countertop), and b) I have tried the "zapper trap" which is supposed to electrocute them -- put it in two of their apparent favorite places, no luck whatsoever. Apparently I have smart mice, or something. It figures.

social media for social change - boston based fund raiser event

[sekala.livejournal.com]

I work with goodguygrady of GradonTripp.com and DesignBoston.org. Gradon, who is very entrenched in the social media scene, is a veteran of many tweet-ups(twitter meetups for the uninformed) and other social media events. He had an idea awhile back that instead of just meeting up for the sake of meeting and having drinks, food, etc. that there should be a meetup that's purpose was something greater than that. He decided to host a small Boston based event for charity whose only advertisement was through social media (twitter, blogs, lj, digg, email, forums etc. anything non-traditional media).

Since then his endeavor has grown considerably. Through social media, his charity event which he calls the Social Media for Social Change fund raiser, is really taking off. It's bigger than he first imagined it, and now is looking like it might not be the end of the project, but just the beginning.

The fund raiser itself will be hosted at The Harvard Club on October 10th and will benefit Jane Doe, Inc.

Please spread the word, and if you are interested in helping, Gradon is looking for assistance, donations, and sponsors.

For more information: Social Media for Social Change

You can also subscribe to the RSS feed of the blog on lj: sm4sc

And you can join the livejournal community: sm4sclj

Please check it out, and if you know anyone who would be interested in knowing more about the event, or even better, helping to sponsor it, then please direct them to the website.

Thanks all!

Somerville Journal coverage of Thursday's bike-path and street robberies

[ron_newman]

The Somerville Journal has published an article about last Thursday's street robberies and about the long LJ discussion that followed. The article says the evening's two robberies were unrelated to each other.

Also, Scott posted an update here after talking to Alderman Jack Connolly.

Edit, 8/21: The printed Somerville News also has quite a long article about this, on pages 3 and 11.

Free couch - On the curb now!

[firepail.livejournal.com]

Free couch! It's on the curb on Grand View Avenue [runs between Vinal Ave and Walnut]. The foam in the cushions is one year old.

( Couch Picture )

Edit: All gone!

Davis Square outdoor benches

[ronhaha108.livejournal.com]

So I've always found it funny that the park benches in the square along college ave are ALWAYS covered with bird poop.  Funny thing is that the other benches around the square are under trees as well but not as pooped on.  Anyway, tonight, as always, I've seen people look all excited that they found a free bench and then turn away in disgust.  I wonder if it's possible for the city to put those spiky things found to keep pigeons away on sills and such on the branches right above the benches.

Either that or maybe a sniper perched on top of Tedeschi's to take out the offenders!

please don't paint while dumb.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

Ok, not all of them. But man; I have never seen as many half-assed interior paint jobs as I have seen in Somerville in the last week. Seriously bad paint jobs.

So, I implore you, people of Somerville (and anywhere, really, but man, the amount of crap work I've seen in Somerville astonishes me):

If you're not going to take the nails, let alone the thumbtacks out of the wall before you paint, just leave it, mmmkay? That also goes for taking the plates off your outlets, putting up masking tape, spackle the holes and sand them after, and all these basic things you will learn from 10 minutes of watching HGTV. Painting a room is not an easy job, and if you do it half-assed, you can do a lot of damage.

The room that I'm in right now, someone left one of those $5 wall mirrors on the wall, and painted around it.

Then when they moved out, the took it with them.

And yes, I did indeed just discover the room I'm moving into has painted over thumbtacks.

So, Tenants, I know it's not your property, you feel like, 'hey, I know, I'll paint it purple', and I'm cool with that. But if you can't do it properly, just don't do it, since someone else is just going to have to clean up after your damn mess.

I'm have to go spackle more now.

Found kitten!

[amethystmoon.livejournal.com]

Latest Update: owner found! The cat's 4 months old, and his owner is trying to get him acclimated to the outdoors. So his "I'm not really an outdoor cat" behavior is really more "Let me get the hang of this...". :) So, if you see him around Hancock in the future, say hi, pet, but don't worry. If you see him terribly much further than Hancock, you may want to give a heads-up. The owner is very grateful for everyone's concern, and says he's going to get the kitty a collar.

Update: Animal Control is posting to the city's lost-and-found website, and in the mean time a friend is taking care of him. No shelter, yay!

I found a gray and white kitten on Hancock St., between Summer and Highland. If you think he's yours, please contact me! He is currently in my house, tomorrow morning I'll be giving him to Animal Control.


More photos

Description of kitten:
Wicked friendly. No collar. He's probably less than a year, more than 5 months (but may be older than a year - I'm bad with judging age). Has some distinctive gray spots on his pink nose, and patches of grey on the backs of his white legs. White belly, white muzzle.

I saw him on Hancock without a collar on Monday morning, and then tonight some other people were fretting over him. I called 311, who asked me to keep him overnight and leave a message for Animal Control. Since the cat is SUPER friendly and let me pick him up to take him in, that's what I'm doing.

Comment or email cemberley (at) gmail.