BTW, I know how fast alligators move - I 'd be much more careful than those people were.

Kitty~ma, Jilli!

Happy B-day, Epic!

Continuing Dallas~ma and wallet~ma, Trudy.

Thanks for all the good wishes, all.

wrong thread.

Packing update - I think I'm about 80% done. Still need to run some stuff through the wash. Gah - I don't think I've taken an 11 day break since my honeymoon which was almost 19 years ago. I feel like I need to pack EVERYTHING!

Go Suzi with your bad packing self!

Someone just called to ask us to shut our dog up, only it's the neighbor's dog who is barking. This has somehow led to Henry going out to talk to the guy who called, who is apparently out in the street. Weird.

Libkitty, I say Go Letter, Choose Letter. So long as it's a polite letter, I don't see how it can be of the bad, and it's not like they've given you any kind of explanation for why your reasonable suggestion isn't reasonable.

Good luck with the kitties, Jilli!

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: Do not read the rest of this post if you are squicked by insects.

Meanwhile, in the world of me, apparently the cockroaches got the memo that my flatmate has left. Last night a Giant (nearly 2 inches long - much longer if you include the antennae) flying cockroach whirred its way around my living room while I made noises only bats and dogs could hear. I killed it dead with Baygon, whimpering all the while.

This morning one of its kin was waiting for me in the bath. Happily it was not armed. Unhappily, it was in the bath.

I want to take a bath.

This will involve disposing of the roach AND cleaning the poison out of the bath.

Man. This just sucks.

(Happily the binman rang the doorbell at 7.30am, and I got him to remove the cockroach from the living room, amidst much Wobbly Arabic apologising and praising and utterances of gratitude. But I didn't have the nerve to ask him to come remove the bug from my bath, so I've still got to do that.)

Kitty update: Tzepesh has been all over the house a bazillion times now. I don't think Ruthven has even fully explored the basement yet, poor timid kitty. Both boys are fascinated by Trinian which is unfortunate as she is not at all interested in them. She is the hissing growling machine. Worst freakout was when she accidentally ended up stuck between them both (this was an accident, I saw it).

Anyway, we are keeping our fingers crossed, and hoping that Ruthven dares the stairs out of the basement sometime soon.

hides from Pete

Oh, and Fay? You failed in your hiding attempt.

Loom

Ugh, Fay. My sympathies.