Animals Cohabitating

Hello Readers,

I have been posting mainly about the animals I live with lately. My roommates, as it were. Very much like humans, we animals too run into personality conflicts and the like with each other. For instance, Harriet's recent obsession with healthfood. Or Johnny's constant buzzing around my Halloween candy. He keeps saying he's "just looking."

Anyhow. Things could be worse. Here is a video I came across this week of some animals cohabitating and not well.



I hope you're getting along with your roommates. After all, we all need a place to live.

Your friend,
and counselor,
Mickey

Health Food Nut

Hello Readers!

Here I am. Back again. This time to tell you about Harriet who has gone off the deep end with her new health food kick. You know, I have heard this expression "health food nut" many times, but I always thought the nut part referred to eating nuts. No! It refers to crazy. My dear Harriet is almost a stranger to me now. Here she is luxuriating in a wheat berry bath.

She has purchased 25 pounds of wheat berries, which she claims she will eat after grinding them in her new German wheat mill.


And she is telling me that sugar is poison for me. She's telling me to stop eating sugar! This after I just bought 6 bags of candy for Halloween.


She is reading Sugar Blues by William Dufty, a very old book that was written in the 70s, long before I was born. She thinks my frequent irritability is caused by my sugar addiction. You know what's causing my irritability? The smell of whole wheat berries!

Dear reader, I hope that you don't have a food policeman in your house. And please think of me in this time of trial. Luckily I have six bags of candy to help me through.

Wishing you a Happy Halloween, [Harriet says, "Wishing you a Healthy Halloween]
I remain your
good dog,
Mickey

Sad Day

Hello Readers,

It is with a heavy heart that I write to you that Alice the praying mantis has died. Annie stepped on her abdomen on her way into the house yesterday, spilling her innards onto the porch. What a beautiful creature needlessly killed! Annie of course felt terrible, though we can't help but think she might have been more careful about where she was stepping.

Alice's partner, Rodney, was nearby and witnessed the whole thing. He was very shaken up, although when I told him that Alice was planning on biting his head off as soon as they mated he did appear somewhat relieved.

Did you know that certain Buddhists stay indoors for a month each year so that they won't unintentionally kill any insects? Well, it's true! And Alice's death is a perfect example of why.

On a lighter note, I went apple picking with the weasels a couple of weeks ago, and I've been eating a lot of apples. Here is the younger weasel eating an apple in the orchard. Or, in other words, not actually picking apples. I can't recommend the weasels as apple picking companions. Although they are better than the wolf in The Three Little Pigs, who, as you may recall, invites the pig to go apple picking in order to eat him.

But enough about animals eating other animals and stepping on them, Harriet says. It is not what the readers want to read!

And so, with apologies for the sad news and violent subjects here within,
I remain,
your peace-loving friend,
Mickey

The Woodspider

Hello readers,

As you know, we have several insect neighbors in our new home. As Harriet and I know little about our fellow inhabitants, I did some research online and found out some interesting tidbits about the wood spider. I have spotted several wood spiders out back, but haven't yet approached them. I do hope they aren't on crack.



That is all for now.

Until next week,
I remain, etc.
Your Mickey

We're Back!

We're back! Did you think we'd ever return? We were not sure ourselves

We have some very big news for you, readers: we've moved!

Well. I know the first thing you're all probably wondering is whether our new house is haunted. The verdict is still out. Harriet, who is housebound has heard some curious noises during the day. And I caught a bird trying to peck its way into the house through the outer shingles. Most suspicious is a light in the stairwell that seems to turn on by itself. However nothing conclusive yet. Rest assured that I will keep you posted.

Here's Harriet, listening for ghosts and looking a bit worse for the wear after our move.


Otherwise the house is quite sufficient. We haven't got a cow, but have heard from the friendly neighbors that a family of chickens lived here for a time. I don't think chickens produce milk, but they can make eggs, which are also good.

As you may have noticed, careful readers, our neighbors here have so far proven very friendly. I wonder what George is doing these days. Possibly accusing the new tenants of stealing his flower pots?

I know you have a lot of questions about our new digs. I will try to satisfy some of your curiosity here. Our new house is on the slope of a hill and a brook runs nearby. The weasels moved along with Harriet and me. As did Hector. We have a couple of new roommates. There is a fruit fly named Johnny who rents out a room on the third floor, and a praying mantis couple who live on the porch.

Johnny

Alice (husband in background)


I don't generally associate with insects, but Johnny is very personable. (I can't say as much about the praying mantises.) He has a great deal of energy. Harriet complains that he spends a lot of time in the kitchen for someone renting out the third floor.

Well, I shan't tell you everything now. I ought to leave some for future entries. I hope your summer was relaxing and restorative.

Until the next,
I remain your faithful friend
and dog,
Mickey

Taking the Summer Off

Hello Readers,

Harriet and I have both been disappointed with our irregular blog postings as of late. We are quite distracted by the moving of our World Headquarters from west of the Big City to east of it.

In addition, I have just gone strawberry picking and will need some time off to eat all my strawberries.


For these reasons, and two others not mentioned, we will not be posting to the blog this summer.

Please know, however, that you, dear reader, will be in our thoughts each and every day.

And that,
we will return,
in September.

Your faithful friends,

Harriet and Mickey

Followers!

Hello friends!

It's me Mickey. Back again with some very excellent news. The Harriet and Mickey Chronicle now has followers. That is, you can click on the Followers button to the right of this, and become a bona fide follower. Bona fide means in good faith; it has nothing to do with dogs or bones.

All this new technology everywhere. It's hard to keep on top of it. Harriet doesn't even make an effort, but I encourage you to.

Your bona fide friend,
and companion,
in technology and out,
Mickey

The Old Man and the Sea

Hello friends,

It is I, Harriet, writing for a change. Mickey is off somewhere. I can't keep track of him. He just ran out the door and said, "Harriet! Write the blog for me today!"

It is a rainy spring day here in Newton as I write. My favorite kind of day for keeping the window open and listening to the rain. I just finished reading The Old Man and the Sea last night. I believe I read it once before as a bunny, but my memory is poor. What a wonderful, clean book that is. I think I would like to learn more about Hemingway, that he could create such a wise character.

I, too, am old, but I haven't got the strength and endurance of Santiago. I do hope I have a small portion of his wisdom.

I wanted to reread the book after Annie showed me the following animation by Alexander Petrov. This movie was made for IMAX and was done by painting each individual frame on glass. It took him two and a half years to complete. The film is twenty minutes long. I hope you will watch it.



Your friend,
Harriet

Sex in the City Bunnies

Hello Friends,

I hope your Memorial Day weekend was memorable. Ours was quite pleasant.

Today we are offering you another selection from Annie's animation class at Rhode Island School of Design; this one by Alicia Lane. Harriet and I found it very funny, though Hector is a bit offended at this portrayal of his kind. The dialogue is a clip from Sex in the City.



Until the next,
I remain,
your,
Mickey

Press

Hello friends,

I have been neglecting the blog. I am very busy in ways that could be difficult for you to imagine. A dog of my kind... But here I am to bring you back up to date. Annie was in the news this week in the Newton Tab. The article featured one of my favorite illustrations of hers entitled "Barnyard Crime."

Click on it to make it larger.


This crime happened a few years back at Harriet's grandparents farm. You'll be interested to know that they never did find out who killed that fox. But he was a heartless fellow and no one misses him. Perhaps the killer shouldn't even be punished.

This is an ethical question that we won't address in the blog. I am not the Ethicist. You are, however, welcome to post your comments on this.

As always,
I remain,
interested in your opinions,
your good friend,
Mickey

Spring!

Well Dear Readers,

Spring is here. With its sunshine and rain. Here at the world headquarters of H&M, Ink., the trees are blossoming.


Do you have seasonal allergies? Hector does (of course). He never goes anywhere without his "petit hankie," as he calls it. And of course he's using it as an excuse not to bring in the mail. "I can't go out of doors," he says with his French accent. "I can't." And then he blows his nose dramatically.



On one of our recent hot days, I went "out of doors" to go for a swing in the back yard, and the elder weasel shared her popsicle with me.


I hope you, too, are enjoying the spring, gentle reader. It is the best season after all, and we should treasure each day.

Your friendly
friend,
Mickey

e-Postcards Down!

Dear Readers,

You won't believe what has happened. The e-postcard link on our website, where you can send virtual postcards to your friends, has been compromised! An evil-doer in cyberspace hacked into our code and was using it to propagate spam! We are still investigating, but we believe the suspect looks like this:


If you have any tips as to his whereabouts, please email us at stoptheevildoer@harrietandmickey.com.

In the meantime, the e-postcard link is down and OUT. A very sad bunny with striped trousers will let you know.


This is much like we felt when we heard the bad news.

I hope you haven't got a lot of e-postcards to send. You might consider sending paper ones until our site is repaired (long wait). Postcard stamps are 27 cents, but will rise in price in May. So send them now.

Your disappointed,
but not disspirited
friend,
Mickey

iPod Advice

Hello Savvy Reader,

Do you own an iPod? Are you in contact with weasels or water? If so, please continue reading. Late on the morning of March 20th, an unidentified weasel placed my iPod on the bumper of my roommate's car. This roommate then drove to the car wash where said iPod was showered, soaped, waxed, and rinsed; at which point the roommate discovered my iPod. Too late!

My beloved iPod was ruined. How did I know? It didn't work! It won't charge! It makes clicking sounds when I plug it in!

Could this happen to you? It could!



Do you take baths?
Just minutes after this photo was taken, this bird dropped his iPod into the bathtub! Ruining it forever.

I urge all iPod owners to keep their iPods at a safe distance from weasels and water. Both can prove fatal to even the most hearty iPods.

And with that I leave you,
wishing you a not uneventful,
but safe week.

Your friend
and mentor,
Mickey

Hello!

Hello Dear Readers!

I'm back from vacation and feeling very rested. I'm also tan. Not as tan as Big Mickey, of course, but we have different genetic backgrounds.


His breed is from somewhere near the equator whereas mine is from more northern parts. He needs to get more sun than me in order to get enough Vitamin D. But enough of the science lessons, eh, dear reader?

Do remember Leguana? The hot lizard I met in the Bahamas last year?



Well, I didn't tell you before I left, but we met up in Polynesia on the island of Tonga. How was it? It was wonderful. We picked up just where we had left off in our last long-distance phone conversation, and did so over another rum punch.

I don't think I'll ever be able to drink rum punch again without thinking of my lovely Leguana and our time in Tonga. The islanders are very hospitable, and we were treated like royalty (queen and king, not duke and duchess). Here is the Tongan chief greeting us as we stepped off our boat.


He looks very stern, but he's a lot of fun.

Well, I must get back to work. As you can imagine there is a pile of correspondence on my desk and many messes to straighten out from Hector's time alone in the office. Between you and me, I'm not sure that we will leave him in charge again.

Your friend,
and world-traveler,
Mickey

Bang and Booty

Hello Readers,

It's time to open up the sketchbook. Here we have two entries: one entitled "Bang" and the other, "Booty."






They are fairly self-explanatory; which means that they explain themselves. If they aren't explaining themselves to you, here are some hints:

The Bang one is a picture of George, my neighbor, shooting the neighborhood raccoon. The Booty one is a picture of Amigo, the weasels' preschool rabbit greeting them at the entrance of their school.

Now I am off on an Polynesian vacation, so please don't expect to hear from me until late in the month. All inquiries until that time should be directed to Hector at hector@harrietandmickey.com. I would give you his phone line, but his English is so bad I don't think you'll understand him.

Your friend
and dog
in need of a vacation,
Mickey

In-Between

Hello Readers!

Happy wintry mix. I really like the sound of "wintry mix" and I have named my new pet Mourning Dove that. Here she is.



Yesterday was spring and today is winter. We are in between here at Harriet and Mickey's. Neither here nor there, as they say. Not one thing or the other.

We have, however, turned our clocks back. Harriet is ignoring the time change and slept in this morning. She says Congress can't legislate what time she wakes up. I suggested that she move to New Hampshire where they Live Free or Die and also like to drive snowmobiles, but she didn't say anything back.

Yesterday I made a very small snow man.


The smallest one of the season. I'm trying to wean myself off of snowmen since spring is coming.

As you can see, there is little to report.

Yet I remain,
your steadfast,
loyal,
and friendly,
friend,
Mickey

Babysitting

Hello Dear Readers,

Happy end of February. Did you watch the Academy Awards last night? Harriet and I did, even though we hadn't seen a single film that was in competition. Why? Because Harriet is always ordering up Noam Chomsky documentaries to whip herself into a dither, and The Dark Knight keeps getting pushed down in our Netflix queue. You wonder why Harriet looks so old-- it's because she never watches any Batman movies.

Anyhow, I had another busy week. The weasels' parents went away and left Harriet and me in charge. Now, normally I don't babysit (emphasis mine), but we worked out a deal so I agreed to look after them for a short time. I came up with a great project for them:



Until the next, I remain,
your resourceful friend,
Mickey

Going Starfishing

Look here, readers!

Sarah Waldo Jagger thinks I'm cute! http://www.goingstarfishing.blogspot.com/ And she has posted several of Annie's pictures on her blog.

Plus, if you scroll down two entries you can see photos of the weasels' cousins Ellie and Chase doing a Valentine's Day activity. They are clearly more capable than the weasels whose biggest Valentine's Day effort was to stamp messy "H"s and "C"s on Spiderman cards.

Sarah is a famous clothes designer, and Hector is big fan of her work.


Harriet has her eye on Sarah's Gabby dress in yellow. I am going to get it for her for Mother's Day. You know how badly she needs a new dress.


Until the next,
I remain your cute,
Mickey

Otherwise Occupied

Well Dear Readers,

It has been a while since I've written you. I have been Otherwise Occupied. This is a new term that Hector has learned and uses liberally. When I ask him why the daily report hasn't been submitted at four in the afternoon, he tells me, "I was Otherwise Occupied." As if this isn't obvious. What occupies him, I'll never know. Looking out the window at a squirrel most likely.



Or texting his girlfriend.

Well, I am writing you now-- so let's look on the bright side. I am getting adequate sleep and I am well fed. I still don't have a cow, but I am growing more concerned about my lack of a garden. I have a small plot of land here in the semi-suburbs, but it receives very little sun and I like tomatoes and eggplants. I continue to search out a better place to live.

You are probably wondering how I've been carrying on with my neighbor George. (Here he is right now, as we speak, doing something suspicious with a battery operated drill.)


Not bad! Thank you for asking. George has a snow blower and has been snow blowing the long sidewalk in front of my house. "Thanks, George," I said to him after he did it the first time.

"Well," he grumbled. "I might as well do it as long as I have snow blower."

Then I said: "It's good to have a snow blower." I can think of very few things to say to this man.

He said: "I don't have a snow blower. This is my son's. He gave it to me." Which, to me, would mean that it's his snow blower.

I could tell that George wanted to start a fight with me so I didn't say anything back. Not that I couldn't kick his ax in a fight. I am small, but I'm tough. As you know.

YFA (your friend always),
Mickey

Child Proofing

Hello Reader,

My recent problems sleeping have introduced me to the term child-proofing. Possibly you are already familiar with it. Apparently they make a slew of gadgets that allow you to protect yourself from children and their unwanted side effects. I found one such device in my search for a good night's sleep, and I would like to share it with you.

It's a light switch protector.



You screw it on top of your light switch, and small children (the most dangerous kind) are unable to use it.

Every since I installed this $15 piece of plastic, I have slept soundly from 10:15 until 7 am. It has done wonders for my disposition.

Harriet has not been fazed by any of this as she can barely hear and wakes up at 4 am, in any event, as many old people do.

Until the next,
I remain your faithful dog,
full of helpful hints and general good advice,
Mickey

More Trouble with Hector

Hello readers,

Some of you have been asking how Hector has been coming along. Not well. We still the same attitude problems. See this for further clarification.




Please write with any suggestions. In this economy I feel bad letting Hector go, especially when his girlfriend is counting on him for cheese and cigarettes, but we are not running a charity here at Harriet and Mickey's. As you know.

Your troubled friend and employer,
Mickey

Noise Machine Not Loud Enough

Time

Hello readers!

Happy New Year! Now it is 2009, eh? Time moves forward and change is inevitable, and so on. But I'm afraid it's all too true. The weasels, who until this point slept each in their own room, have now decided to share a room. Possibly they are feeling the effects of the economy.

Regardless of their impetus, the effect is that they are now waking together at 6 am (sometimes 5:15!) and making a great deal of noise. I am an equal member of this household. I pay my rent and on time. 6 am is not the hour at which I choose to rise!

Excuse my exclamation points, but I am very agitated! I have been considering a host of solutions. The first is to place some sort of large clock with large hands in their bedroom and tell them not to talk at least until the big hand is on the 12 and the small hand is on the 7. But the weasels are not bright (as you know) and this is beyond their capacities.

Another option is to disconnect the light in their room so that they can't turn it on. Perhaps the darkness will keep them quiet. But the light is wired in, and I am not an electrician. Nor is Harriet. Nor is Hector (obviously).

Finally I have considered placing a white noise generating machine next to my pillow to drown out the weasels' shouts. This is perhaps the easiest solution, and after I try it tonight I'll let you know how effective it is.

Your irritated and overtired,
friend
Mickey.