Yesterday was Open House. I got up around 9:00am and got ready. I wasn't supposed to be there until 11:00am but I left the house about 40 minutes early just in case it took me a while to find a parking spot. That turned out to not be necessary because I was able to park where I normally do for class.

I wasn't quite sure where I was actually supposed to go but I had a vague memory of someone saying the rats were set up downstairs by the bookstore. So that's where I went and I got lucky because that's where the rats were.

My partner was there and he already had Ping Pong out so she was warmed up a bit. She performed amazingly. I ran her for awhile and then gave her a rest and used my partner's rat. He never got around to naming her, at least as far as we knew, so when people asked what her name was I just said Number Two (all the rats had numbers before they got names and her number was obviously, two). I ended up running ping pong for most of the day because she seemed to be more into it.

Throughout the day I saw a lot of people I knew. My mom and sister stopped by fairly early on. I let both of them hold her for a bit and they seemed to like her. Then I saw a friend from work. She had to sit at her sorority's table but she had come early to see my rat. Then there was an old friend who I used to work with and then another friend that I currently work with. Then my dad, step-mom, and brother stopped by. It was pretty cool seeing everyone.

Most of the visitors that stopped by were pretty good. All of the kids loved the rats. Some were a little uncertain at first but once we let them pet one or feed one, we had won them over. That happened with a few adults as well but there were still a few that never seemed to get into it.

There were only two really annoying kids throughout the day. The first was a girl that was there in the morning and then came back around in the afternoon. She was obsessed with feeding them and holding them and always wanted to carry them over to the starting platform. I avoided her in the morning but she latched on to Ping Pong when she came back. At one point she dropped her a few inches from the floor. That's when I drew the line and wouldn't let her pick Ping Pong up anymore. She also had a balloon and seemed convinced that the rats were following her balloon so she would keep it in their faces all the way across the rope. It was more of a distraction and just really annoying. The whole time her parents just stood back and let it all happen. They were older so I think that had something to do with it.

The second girl was just dirty. Somewhat close to where we were there was a table set up where kids could make their own pottery. This girl had taken them up on this opportunity and it looked like she went swimming in the wet clay. Her face, shirt, pants, arms, and hands were all covered in wet clay and she came running up wanting to touch all the rats. She managed to get a few fingers on Ping Pong before I could pull her away. Ping Pong got away but I got clay all over my shirt. I put her back in her cage and used some of her water to wash her off. I let her hang out in there for awhile.

After Open House was over I helped load up the rats in a car and then drove over with them to help put them back in the room. When we got into the building I went ahead to look for the elevator. I got turned around because I hadn't been in the basement since I was a really little kid with my grandpa. I ended up walking right by the elevator. I turned around and the guy I was with was standing in front of the elevators and said "Aren't we looking for the elevators?" All I could say was "Wow, I'm retarded."

When we had everything put away I went over to the library to see if I could finish my 3D bottle. That didn't really happen. I got the label part on but I couldn't get the actual label picture on. It was ridiculous. I worked on it for about an hour but couldn't get it right. I ended up giving up for the day and going home.

I wanted to pick Ping Pong up that night so my mom and I went to the pet store to buy a cage. I was going to buy it but my mom said she'd get it for me as an early birthday present. Worked for me. We got it home and got it all set up and then we went over to have dinner with my grandma.

After that we were able to go get Ping Pong. I went up to the lab and found out that the light in the colony room is on a timer and there isn't a switch. The room was pitch black. There was a doorstop but it was too short for the door. I ended up using a latex glove box to prop the door open a crack. It kind of felt like I was stealing her being in a pitch black room and then putting her in a shoe box.

I got her home and got her in her cage and she just kind of hung out at the bottom. It's got tubes and stuff but I think she'll outgrow those fairly soon. She hasn't really tried them so I don't know if she'll even go for them. Luckily she can climb the sides of the cage to get to the different levels.

I let her hang out for awhile but she wasn't really moving around so I got her out and she sat on my shoulder and ran around on my bed for about an hour.

Right now she's hanging out on my bed. She ran around for about an hour going under the pillows and making tunnels. Now she's burrowed in under a blanket and curled up taking a nap. It's pretty freaking cute.

Now she's eating lettuce but she's still up in the blanket. I'll put a piece down and she'll peek out and then drag it up into her hiding place. Rats are pretty cool.