Mac and cheese is food of the gods, Emily. And I think Isaac would agree.

I have no core muscles. NONE.

I had none until I took a Pilates class. Now I know I have them, they are mushy and I sadly remember when they were in shape long, long ago.

Are other cats stymied by a finger held in front of their nose, or is it just mine?

I wouldn't say my cat is stymied by a finger to the nose, but if you stick a finger out in her direction, she will typically come over and rub it with her nose. I say typically cause, you know, only if she is in the mood.

By Stymied, do you mean "think it's the best (chew)toy ever"?

Hee! No. I stick it in her face when she gets the bitey face, and she can't quite figure out how to get around it to get to the biting. A couple of times she's seemed ready to go for the finger, but mostly she doesn't see it as a biteable object, just an obstacle. And she glares. Oooh, she glares.

My cat is a force of nature that will not be tamed. And she's MEAN. Man, I love that manic-depressive, whiny, intimacy-averse cat o' mine.

Thanks for all the kind thoughts and postings. I've skipped and skimmed a bit, but Fuck Cancer indeed, PixKristin. I hope they did get everything in your dad's recent surgery.

I'm home for just a bit. My internet access is pretty low this week and I really have a lot of things to get done. By the way, Embarq phone service sucks syphilitic donkey dick. They're insisting on a death certificate to cancel my Dad's account. No one else is asking for that sort of thing. Bastards. I suggested that the could keep the phone live and keep on sending the bills if it made them happy, but after the February payment they wouldn't be seeing another dime. Did I mention the bastards part?

In good news, I took Liefur with me to my Dad's apartment, where my sister and I are handling all the family stuff. He is being loving, charming, and otherwise a spot of joy in a bleak time. My sister's threatening to stuff him in her carry-on and steal him away. Kitteh lovin' FTW. (I'm feeding him Iams, by the way. It seems to have a lot of meat-like substances at the top of the ingredient list.)

Oh, well. Back to Kernersville.

How are you holding up, Calli?

By the way, Embarq phone service sucks syphilitic donkey dick. They're insisting on a death certificate to cancel my Dad's account. No one else is asking for that sort of thing. Bastards. I suggested that the could keep the phone live and keep on sending the bills if it made them happy, but after the February payment they wouldn't be seeing another dime. Did I mention the bastards part?

I'm sorry to hear that you are going through this with the phone service. I know when after my Dad's death we just got a huge pile of death certificates. Some places want them some don't. I'm still sorting out things like that. In fact I need to go and deal with Bank of America in San Diego and finally get into his safe deposit box. He was the only one listed on it and it's been a major pain trying to get into it.

My FIL died 7 years ago and I still have one of his death certificates in with my work stuff from when I had to supply them to folks like his cell phone company. I really should find it and give it to STBX.

I think we sometimes used xeroxed copies of the death cert, sometimes an actual copy.

The lock guy showed up today instead of yesterday and the plumber, that my landlord has been trying to get in touch with for weeks, decided he would just show up today since he had free time. I need to get in the shower; for once I actually have plans. t /first world problems