I know you are DYING to know! So we have moved my desk to the living room, had shelves and cabinets custom-built in there to house the new TV and my desk stuff, and generally turned the house upside-down this week. Stevel has been hiding out from the mania at work and in the bedroom. Linus’ response is ambivalence, UNLESS I am using any handheld machine that makes noise, like the vacuum cleaner, drill, blow-drier, or electric toothbrush, in which case, he flattens and slithers to a “hiding place” (there aren’t many places you can actually “hide” when you are a cat who is TWENTY POUNDS large). He also dislikes ladders very much.

Mia, unfortunately, falls into some of her very worst habits. As you know, she likes to lick things, her favorite flavors being (a) leather/suede and (b) furniture varnish. She relishes chewing on platic items such as remote controls, the corners of my laptop, and Stevel’s glasses. She also enjoys eating such delicacies as staples, rubber bands, coins, and splinters of wood. Needless to say, our house is somewhat baby-proofed, sans the baby. When we are doing projects like painting and such, Mia tends to gorge on toxic snacks. Vomit aplenty this week, and we have to keep an eye on it for signs of stripped paint and sawdust. Nothing telling so far, but yesterday she not only skipped her usual begging-for-the-canned-food-beginning-at-3-p.m.-even-though-it-is-always-stricty-withheld-until-dark, but when presented with said canned food, she turned away and returned to the couch to nap in the fetal position (which for cats involves knotting oneself thrice along the spine). She was unresponsive to playtoy-incentives. We worried, but this morning, the canned food is gone, and she is her usual self, growling at Linus and trolling the floor for nails and globs of spackle. If a hammer shows up in the litter box, I promise photographs for you.