Rats and Rat Poop...and BTW who ate the bananas???

Day 1:
A typical morning.... but no. The doorbell rings at 9AM and it is Henry, Amanda's latest boyfriend. He has a spray can of something in his hand and he wants to know if all of my orafices are plugged up. My orafices??? Evidently, his girlfriend had some bananas. They were on the granite counter next to a pass-through window to the patio. When they woke up one of the bananas had a huge hole dug into it by something!! AND there were RAT DROPPINGS ON THE COUNTER!!

OMG!! Call someone!! WE HAVE RATS!!!

THEY ATE THE BANANA! AND POOPED ON THE COUNTER!

So Amanda goes to work but leaves the boyfriend to call Nozzle Nolan - the exterminator. Not convinced he could do it right - or do it by himself - she also called her Concierge Service and asked them to stop by to oversee the investigation and extermination.

Henry is at my house spraying foam - I'm still in my PJ's. My dog is barking and jumping around while Henry scouts out orafices in my house where RATS could enter. He is spraying some icky beige foam into every crack he finds....

While this is going on I grab some shoes and the keys to Amanda's house and go check out the banana caper. Who or what ate a hole in the banana? And when did it happen? Are there rats still in the house??

Amanda seems to think it could have been a bird, a bat or a rat that came in the prior evening while she was sipping cocktails on the patio. Yes, that bat/rat/bird zipped into the kitchen, undetected, and grabbed a bite of banana??? Some feat. They flew over the pool, over the outdoor bar and into the window to grab that banana!

Anyway, back to the mystery. I'm at the house checking out the banana and the droppings. Jack arrives from the Concierge Service, Henry finished fixing my orafices and now he's back at Amandas. Nozzle Nolan shows up and checks the entire house for rats, bats or other rodents.

3 hours later the rat team still included the boyfriend, the concierge service, the neighbor (me) and Nozzle Nolan who said the rat poop on the counter was dried blueberries. Ha ha. A 4 alarm call to action, foam getting sprayed into neighboring A/C vents - all for dried blueberries!!

We still don't know who or what ate the banana but we are holding the evidence until we get the perp.

The Story Unfolds....5 Single Women Move Into the Neighborhood - On The Same Street!

This is an episodic tale of 5 single women - their friends, their jobs, their relationships and much more. It is a compilation of select excerpts from the daily lives of real women. Names and actual places have been changed to protect the identity of the characters. And so we begin....

DAY 0:
Morning begins peacefully every day on Sugar Plum Circle, a quiet cul-de-sac of homes built just after the war. The homes are of modest size and they pretty much all look the same - with several variations in square footage and floorplan. Beautiful landscape - regulated by the "association" - is mandated for every well-manicured yard, as is the color of the house paint and what types of accessories are allowed in the driveways and in the yards. All so very prim and proper.

No basketball hoops. No offensive trees that create droppings or attract pests. No trucks, no boats, no trailers, no vans. Hmmm.... Just very pretty little houses in a perfectly maintained little community just on the edge of town.

What you see - day or night - are cute little dogs, large dogs, multiple dogs, dog walkers, kids playing, skateboarders or rollerbladers, bikers, walkers and generally 30-something moms and dads off to work or "the club" or whatever. You will also see a daily influx of workers who help to maintain these homes in pristine condition - doing such things as the yard work, landscaping, tree trimming, pool cleaning, house cleaning, painting, driveway sealing, pest control, dog grooming, yard fertilizing and rodent control. In the evenings you may see parties hosted by a plethora of party planners - often including live music, tents and catered food.

Large HD TV's dominate the landscape throughout the meandering streets at night and most residents keep their front drapes open so you can see what everyone is watching. Not that this is the goal, but the point is - it is a pretty open and hospitable neighborhood. Joggers line the boulevards morning and night while landscape lights and motion lights twinkle at night to light your path. Trees are trimmed to look like the mushrooms or toadstools in Alice In Wonderland. Life is pretty tame. A family oriented community to be sure.

It is into this bucolic family setting that several single women - recently divorced, professional and otherwise "experienced" - decided to settle and build their nest. Coincidently, they all happened to land on the same street.

The Sugar Plum Chronicles begins to unfold!

We promise to give you drama, intrigue, passion, deception, humor and lots of great adventure!!

Sugar Plum Chronicles

Welcome to the Sugar Plum Chronicles! This is a log of real life episodes on a street where real life and fiction become entangled. The characters are fictitious but represent the ordinary and extraordinary challenges of several "over 40" women. It's about their work, home, family, men - husbands, ex-husbands, and boyfriends. It's about health, and finances; it is also about dating, divorce, remarriages, cheating spouses, lies, deception, and illness. It is a chronicle of the lives on this quiet little cul-de-sac that come to life when it begins becoming populated by a gaggle of SINGLE WOMEN! All different. All unique.

The setting is Boca Raton, FL. The street is a small cul-de-sac in the heart of the City. The events are fictional embellishments of real life events, but beware....this could be YOUR street too!!

Join in the fun!!