That darn raccoon! I think it pretty much cleared out of the bottom attic, which continues to be guarded by motion sensors and screeching sirens. Now it went into the upper attic atop the second floor addition. I hooked up sensors and floodlights up there too, but it is a much larger space and I couldn't jury-rig enough sensors to cover it all. I pointed the light and stereo towards where I thought the raccoon was entering and, although it got tripped every so often I thought that it had scared the raccoon away. I checked every time after the alarms went off and saw no vermin.

Since the security system did go off sometimes, I wanted to make double sure whether it was a raccoon or just some random wind. To that end, I found an old laptop and some old webcams, updated the little motion detection program I wrote from when we lived in Edmonton and tried to catch a raccoon getting in. Nothing for several days, but yesterday I found the evidence. Raccoon climbed in over a vent and chilled in the attic. Might even be a different raccoon -- them things all look alike! I chased it out this morning and it didn't come back all day.

I'll seal up that entry with chicken wire but I do hope that our contractor comes quick to finish the exterior!

So after we discovered the raccoon I looked up some FACTS! on the Internet. It turns out that they like to live in attics because they are warm, dry, and safe. Raccoons also like to poop, which I would expect. I didn't expect that they would poop in their homes, which is our home. I thought they would just live there, like a dog, and instinctively want to poop outside far away from their homes. Nope, they poop their own homes.

Also, interestingly, Raccoons carry this nasty kind of roundworm that can invade humans, burrowing into their brains. That's not a joke. Mishandling Raccoon poop can make you go mental.

Another thing I found out is that raccoons have babies in the late spring or early summer. So, pretty soon. And once a mother has babies, she'll never leave them.

We had to take action.

Step 1: Check if she's still up there. So we pointed a light in the attic and Bogusia spotted the sucker. She's still in there, and she's taken poops because it stinks.

Step 2: Send in the dogs. We tossed Joxer in the attic and he scared her out no problem.

Step 3: Clean the toxic poop. I did that because I've had a longer happier life than Bogusia, so if I die it would be better. She has her whole future ahead of her and I'm just on a decline.

Step 4: Install a light and motion detectors. We have two old portable motion alarms that emit a siren when anything moves. They now protect our attic so when the raccoon wants to come in for a quiet rest after turning over trash cans, she'll be screamed at by the alarms and have a light in her face. Another function of the alarms is that it tells us when to send Joxer into the attic.

Step 5: Dunno yet. The alarms tripped yesterday a couple of times but I don't think the raccoon stayed. If she doesn't get discouraged enough to find a new home then I'll have to take further action. I'm going to try to set up a night vision camera to film where she gets in. I suspect it is a cedar next to our house. Perhaps we could cut it down, electrify it, tie up the dogs next to it, something like that.

We'll see.

I love to tell our kids horror stories about ghosts, vampires, monsters under the bed, that kind of thing. Not to mention that I frequently hide behind a door or a wall and jump out as family members walk by screaming `BOO!`. Well today I`m putting little Robert to bed and I hear a scary noise. There is shuffling around in the corner of Robert`s room, but on the ceiling like it`s upstairs. That should be ok except that I thought everyone was downstairs. Konrad in bed, Jakub going to bed and Mom getting him a drink of water.

"It must be the dog," I think and mentally make a note to double check. But I'm a little worried. It sounded a little bit too clear, too close. It was almost like the noise was IN the room.

After finishing Robert's reading I go upstairs to check for dogs, but they aren't there. Hmmm. Maybe they were up there, but went down in the few minutes that I read the book. So I confirm that everyone is downstairs and I take a stick to just knock the ceiling a little. Nothing. Nothing. Then a little shuffle, maybe. I knock louder. This time there is a shuffle for sure. Great. We have a critter somewhere in the attic.

Well, turns out that a cute little raccoon took advantage of our construction to hide in the little space of the roof overhang. Now how do we get rid of him?

Jakub has been in the hospital for the last 8 days. He went in with a fever and sore ribs, which were diagnosed as a Staph Aureus infection. Staph is a tough bacteria to kill when it's inside the body, but it is all around the outside, apparently especially in the nose. One of our doctors said that Jakub could have got it from another kid who had picked his nose and then touched a scrape that Jakub had on his knee. Or maybe Jakub picked his own nose. Anyway, he was sick on Thursday afternoon and we took him to the hospital on Friday morning. The initial advice was that he was just constipated, causing the pain in his stomach area, and had an unrelated infection causing the fever.

I was very impressed that the doctor took blood and x-rays. She sensed that the initial explanation was maybe not 100% right. Turns out, after a day of culturing the blood, that he had Staph and the hospital called us back.

Now the tests and treatment really started at the Montreal Children's Hospital. He went on intraveinous antibiotics and rounds of x-rays, ultrasounds and gallium-bone-scans to find out what was causing the pain in Jakub's chest. Staph enters the blood and then can cause infections usually in the lungs, heart or a bone. Since the pain seemed to be in a rib the doctors suspected a bone infection at first but they also had to eliminate the heart. The bone is a bad place for the staph to hide because the treatment is very long, perhaps six weeks. While the investigation continued he was kept on antibiotics assuming the bone, and his blood cleared of the staph infection. Unfortunately, he still had the fever and pain so the search continued for the hiding place of the bacteria.

After the tests the doctors believed that the staph was isolated in the lung causing a pneumonia in the left lung. Additional, the pneumonia caused an accumulation of fluid around the lung, which would explain the fever and the pain. Since the fliud was not easing on his own, Jakub was scheduled for an emergency surgery to drain the fluid. He had this surgery on Friday morning and is currently attached to many wires. He is in good spirits, eating well and generally seems to at least be no worse off than before the surgery. Hopefully the fever will break after a day or two and he can be released in a week. The doctor gave me only a 20% chance of this optimistic outcome.

I must also say that the Montreal Children`s Hospital is fantastic. He has a team of doctors looking after him as well as specialists from infectious diseases, respiratory illness, and now surgeons. Each day they answer all our questions with endless patience, tell us what puzzles them and their strategies, and teach us whatever we need to know. Nothing is held back. He gets whichever tests and procedures might help his recovery but not more. We don't take ourselves or the kids to the hospital for colds or bumps so we don't experience the 12 hour waits that we always hear about. Every experience we've had: childbirth, ear infection, a scary high fever in Newfoundland, and now this, has left me very satisfied with our care.

The Montreal Children's is very children oriented. They have playrooms, videos, games, and an outdoor terrace with a playground on the 8th floor. The only thing they don't have is good food, but I hear that no hospital has good food.

Special thanks to all Jakub's friends who visited him in the hospital or sent get-well-wishes. He appreciated those visits so much and says THANK YOU to everyone. And thanks from Bogusia and I for the many offers of help. Thank you also to CN and my VP and director for not hesitating to give me the flexibility to care for Jakub.

Here are some pictures of Jakub from this week.

Last week, Jakub invited us to his school to show off his "portfolio". Wow, what an event. He had to dress up in his official clothes (tie and blazer and all) and show us all the work he's done all year. We sat at tiny tables in tiny chairs and listened to Kuba telling us what each thing was in his portfolio.

Since I talk to my son and come to get him everyday from pre-school, I know what he does, so none of it was news to me. But it was very important to him. In fact, we had to play "Portfolio Day" just yesterday where we pretended we were kids showing our portfolios to our parents (Jakub chose a few books to represent the portfolios). Very cute.

Sunday March 15th: "You better get all your work done Alex, he's coming. I can feel it!"
Seven days later the prophecy remains unfullfilled.
Sunday March 22nd, the due date: If he doesn't come today then we have to see the doctor to schedule an induction.
Monday March 23rd: At the doctor`s. Everything is as fine as it could be so no induction needed. The doctor schedules one for a week later just in case.
Tuesday: Nothing
Wednesday: Nada
Thursday: Boring. Until about 8pm, when Bogusia starts to get some really good contractions. It`s not nearly enough to go to the hospital yet, but he`s coming for sure. Bogusia tries to put it off until morning so the kids can go to school, but by midnight it is apparent that we have to drop them with the neighbours. 2am and we`re at the hospital. At 4:30am Konrad is born without much difficulty at all.

The doctors keep Bogusia in the hospital for the requisite 24 hrs and we`re home just after lunch on Saturday. The existing kids, the dogs, the grandparents, and the uncles get their introductions and are natually impressed by the handsome new baby.

By the way, Konrad means `Brave Counsel`, but we chose the name mainly by sound and suggestion from our friends and family. One of my superiors, named after the god of wine, was shocked that we hadn't researched the meaning of the name just in case it meant "fig tree" or something more ridiculous. Luckily it turned out well but thanks for the good advice!

The middle name, Mariusz, simple means "Male". It was chosen as the closest thing to Bogusia's recently-passed grandmother's name Maria.

Have a look at some pictures of Konrad:

Guapa stole some vermicelli from the table, and she doesn't feel that guilty about it.

Finally the weather is nice. Spring is here. We decide to go to the library by walking, about 4K round trip. Jakub wants to take his bike. If he succeeds, this will be by far the furthest distance he will have crossed by bike.

We start off with Robert on the bike, because he insisted. His feet scarcely touch the pedals and he doesn't quite get the steering, but he has a good time being pull by his balloon string.

Then comes Jakub. He still remembers how to ride, but not at 100% efficiency. He especially doesn't remember how to stop and there was one scare when he kept on rolling almost into the street. Luckily he bailed into someone's lawn.

Jakub proved that he had the stamina, if not pride enough to keep a short spell of whining inside.

Have a look at Uncle Mark impressing the kids with his skills of disgusting behaviour.

Once again, the Hexa-Trex puzzles got published in the Games Magazine - the the February 2009 issue (out now in your local magazine store). They're on page 40 of the magazine in the pencil-wise section. Have fun!

If you want to try some online, I post a Hexa-Trex puzzle everyday. Also you can purchase a book full of these puzzles from the Nucleus Learning Store or on Amazon.com.