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This morning was very traumatic. After spending most of the night working, I got up at 6AM on a Sunday, to straighten up a bit before my house guests arrive. For those of you who don’t know, Lauren and I keep a pair of rats. Yes, “rats in the bathroom,” as Mark says. Their names are Abbi and Addi (we thought we’d make it challenging).

Part of my morning preparations was cleaning the poor girls cage, which I had sadly neglected for far too long. I scooped them out of their cage. Placed them in the usual medium sized box and proceeded, with the cage, to the patio to scrub a way. Obvious lack of judgment aside (in retrospect), I have to say, I’ve done this a hundred times and never had a problem. Not so, this morning.

The cage may have taken just a little bit longer to clean. Or maybe I was just moving a little bit slower than normal, but when I returned Abbi had managed to get out of the box and onto the floor. She must have been as startled as I was, because when I entered the room she bolted. Now, there wasn’t really anyplace for her to go, or so I thought, but she managed to find a tiny crevasse between the counter and the floor.

Okay, I told myself. This is not so bad. She’ll come out. But the fact was, I had no idea what was between the counter and the floor. To give you an idea, we live a very large redev warehouse, so no real telling what lies between walls.

To top it off, in my frazzled state of rattled nerves and lack of sleep, I came up with a brilliant plan to go to the kitchen and get some peanut butter to lure her out. Of course, I ran out leaving poor Addi alone in the open box. When I returned with said peanut butter, the little bugger had wedged herself between the brick wall, a 6×6 steel beam and a tight little drop of several “rat” mile to the floor.

By this point, all plans for my expected guests had gone completely out the window and at the hight of my brilliance, I was trying to rescue Addi from slipping into the dark abyss of the crevasse, by dangling a USB cable as a rescue line.

note to self: spend less time with computer and more time with rats.

the rescue

Some clever thinking, a small cardboard box, a pair of scissors and some masking tape later, both Abbi and Addi were recovered and are doing just fine and my frazzled nerves can rest.

The website project you’ve been working on for the last four months has finally come to a wrap. All of the blood, sweat and pixels you put into the project have finally culminated into something you can be proud of. You can put down your Wacom pen and your text editor and step away from the Mountain Dew. It’s a good feeling, but what can you do to make things go smoother next time?

I’ve been in the web design racket a long time. I’ve done the freelance thing, worked for agencies and now run a firm with my partner Lauren. Here are 5 key things I’ve learned along the way, that I hope will be helpful in your next project.

1. It’s going to cost more and take longer than your client expects

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