Trudging on with the tenacity and resilience of.....a salamander??

I've come to realize that the last 30 hours have not been all bad. My carpets are now closer than I ever thought posssible to their original shade of creamish-brownish thanks to hours of going back and forth with a rug doctor and some heavy duty, odour fighting cleaners. The new linoleum for the kitchen floor is purchased and sitting ready to be installed. We also happened to find our ex-roommates salamander. He had three of them last year. One plucky little guy had decided to make a break for it and take his chances in the wilds of our basement. He was never seen again....until today. Even more surprising was that he was still alive. Slightly smaller and thinner than previously noted but doing all right for an amphibian that was far from home. After some discussion with the kids regarding why we couldn't keep him or sell him to a pet store, we decided that he would be happiest in the duck's unlimited pond. After a harrowing ride to his new home in a bucket and then a starbucks grande sized cup Sal finally found his freedom. We left fairly quickly because knowing my luck as of late something probably came along and ate him....and I'd prefer to be none the wiser. As far as I know he's swimming along happily doing his slimy salamander thing and I can live with that.Except for dealing with the my house is now the outhouse incident, our trip to Winnipeg was pretty good. We ate too much sushi and did a whole lot of nothing particular. It was nice. I think I need to do it more often.