For those of you who have been waiting to see James’ tile work in Megan and Rob’s bathroom, here you go! I think it’s really pretty. And like I said, if there’s anything suggestive there, it’s pretty subliminal. It looks like a flower to me. You will all be happy to hear that Rob and [...]

Living on the edge You may have noticed that I rarely complain about work, when I can and do complain about almost everything else. If there were an Olympic complaining event, I’d be clanking with gold medals, a living legend. Though I’d probably still complain about the Olympics and how they’re constantly on TV*. Part [...]

People have been asking to see the inside of my odd little house. Here goes: Come on up the front stairs. Which are at the side of the house. The window is where my desk is (you’ll see it later). The staircase to the sleeping loft is right in front of you when you walk [...]

Star (left) and Schatzi take a break at Big River Yesterday, Roscoe decided it would be fun to kill a bird and play with its mangled corpse all over the house, tossing it gleefully into the air, catching it again, and running around with it in his mouth. He was utterly unconcerned by my screams [...]

A post-adventure nap What’s worse than letting Audrey out at 4:30 in the morning? Bringing her in at 4:30 in the morning. Last night, our Princess came by at about 7:30 for the second sitting of dinner. She dislikes eating as unfashionably early as those ill-mannered kittens, and tends to nibble part of her dinner [...]

So Audrey woke me up around 4:30 this morning. As I let her out onto the balcony, I noticed that it was flooded with moonlight. I put on all the outdoor lights as usual, my talisman against predators, and went back to bed. The kittens took this opportunity to start climbing all over me like [...]

Morning light on my staircase You know how they say mothers forget the pain of labor, and that allows them to have more children? I think the same rule applies to kittens. I find myself saying (or thinking) “I don’t remember June and Audrey doing that” multiple times during the day. It probably took me [...]

Hanging out As usual, the kittens woke me up earlier than I would have really enjoyed this morning. They leaped joyfully on me, kneading, purring, and occasionally biting. It reminded me of being woken up by Olivier and Thierry those long-ago summer mornings in Nice. It’s weird to think that those little kids are fully [...]

Early rain, early morning Wow. Has it really been almost a week? What have I been up to, you ask? Well, there was unseasonable rain the night of Rob’s birthday and into the next day. I attempted to capture the rain drops on the trees (see above) with the new camera, which I am learning [...]

Since you asked, yes. I’m still trying to figure out my “simple” new camera. I may need to borrow a teenager. So no visual aids today. You should all be glad that I also don’t have access to Smell-O-Vision. On the way to the vet, the boys expressed their dismay in their traditional manner. The [...]

Today I got an email from Amazon, saying they couldn’t deliver the package that was delivered yesterday. Maybe I can ask them for a refund. Today I also received my new, undesirably-colored camera. So far, I have figured out how to put in the batteries and the memory card, and set the date and time. [...]

As I write, Roscoe is perched on my shoulder, purring and chewing on my diamond earring. The kittens have very exclusive taste in chew toys, preferring diamond earrings and the edge of my iMac to more mundane toys. I’ve been letting them out at will during the day, though I keep them in after dinner. [...]

Of course, the September Issue is the most-anticipated of the year – and the heaviest. This year’s tome couldn’t fit into my size zero mailbox, a phenomenon unfortunately familiar to most women, “Vogue” readers or not. I loved a lot of this year’s clothes. Jessica, Erica and I oohed and aahed over them on Saturday. [...]

Despite having no maternal instincts whatsover, I seem to have been baby-sitting a lot lately. On Friday, I looked after Star for about half the day, giving me time to get work out of the way before settling in to watch “Love Story”. Star and I agreed on how romantic the snow looked, not to [...]

Before After They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Maybe the crazy gene has finally caught up with me, since I kept trying to make my old camera work, and voilà! I was actually surprised by how much better the house looks – [...]

We’re not kidding Well, Megan completed her first full week back at work on this cold, sunny morning. While she was off, everyone she worked with called to check in on her, including the janitors. Working the night shift brings you close to your colleagues. They know all about each other’s families, ups and downs, [...]

There’s gotta be more trouble I can get into! Yesterday, I heard someone outside and went to investigate. It turned out to be Mark, who was here to operate on the new-ish window. He applied flashing to weatherproof it, and topped it off with some weathered boards using a magic compressor nail gun, and it [...]

Rooftop Roscoe The boys don’t turn three months old until tomorrow, but they’re celebrating a little early. I came downstairs this morning to find that they had overturned an entire glass of water onto my terminally ill camera, performing a liquid coup de grace. Later in the morning, after I let the cats out, I [...]

Well, we’re 0 for 3 in the birthday department. Megan’s birthday barbecue got rained out for the first time in living memory, and was almost immediately followed by a serious knee injury and simultaneous root canal. My birthday continued the rained out barbecue theme, and was capped off by the tragic disappearance of the Beautiful [...]

The Queen surveys her domain Audrey may not particularly enjoy her new roommates’ company – the growling and cuffing whenever they cross her path seems to suggest that she does not – but they gave her a boost in dragging me out of bed this morning. Audrey was, as usual, asking to be let out [...]