Our "Home Invasion"

Saturday night I was putting trash into the garbage bins in the garage. I actually took the long way around by going out the front door...as I finished entering the code into the key pad to open the garage door I saw a opossum scurry into the garage. For about the last 5 weeks we have noticed the cat food bowls in the garage were just about empty every morning. Everyone originally thought there was a stray cat eating the food. Dianna's brother said he saw what looked like a cat when he was house sitting for us on our trip to New Mexico. Here's a picture of the real culprit:

This is a opossum, not to be confused with a possum.

So, Sunday morning I went to a friends house to get a live trap and some opossum catching advice (stangely, he just had a opossum problem, too). I waited until the SuperBowl was over (Arizona should have won!) because we had friends over for the game and I didn't want to deal with the marsupial during the game. After the game ended I went out into the garage only to find this:

The "home invader" stealing my beer

Beer is expensive these days and I really enjoy my Bud Light so, I attempted to take back my beer. Here's what happened as I approached the furry creature:

The "home invader" growling and showing me his incisors

So, I just decided to share my wonderful bottled brew with the nasty furball. When I finished I picked up the basket he was lounging in and tried to "stuff" him into the live trap. Dumb move....he quickly darted back into our garage. I gave it a tap on the head with a paint roller extension handle. I guess he didn't like that because left walking toward the street. He went straight to a curb gutter where he peered over the edge and decided not to go in. I approached him with the live trap which I had quickly baited with some apples slices topped with caramel sauce. It suddenly decided to jump into the gutter.....I don't really know if this was smart or dumb. There is no way for him to climb back up to street level.

One more thing.......the "home invader" had a small offspring tagging along. So, here is the little one's destiny:

The live trap is baited and set....

More story and pictures to follow......

Winter Vacation - New Mexico Snow - Day 5 - Random Thoughts

Day 5 was a safe, uneventful drive home. Of course, we made the mandatory stop at Trader Joe's in Santa Fe. This store rocks!

Random winter vacation thougths
1) New Mexico ski resorts would go bankrupt w/out Texans. Easily 3/4's of all vehicles we saw had Texas plates.
2) Taos Ski Valley was run much better than Angel Fire.
3) Next, for tubing we will try TSV...it's only $7 per person instead of Angel Fire's $20 per. TSV tubing is only from 5pm-7pm, though.
4) Visit Big Al's in the spring/summer for some horseback riding and camping at the same place we went snowmobiling
5) If I had to stereotype some of the staff while dining I would say there is snobby attitude by many Taos restaurant staffers
6) Next time try more New Mex food while in Taos...there are so many places. The problem is that everyone finishes skiing at about the same time and the restaurants get extremely busy
7) One day, I want to raft a Class IV rapid on the Rio Grande outside of Taos
8) Spend more snow play time at that playground in Angel Fire....the girls could have spent the entire day there.
9) It gets dark very early here in December/January - 5pm
10) One day we will move to Northern New Mexico....at the latest it will be where I retire but, hopefully we can get there sooner than that.