I know Slinky is feeling affectionate when she lies near me on the couch. She only climbs on me if I have food she wants.

Aw, mid-level cat might be optimal.

Jadzia is a tabby/calico. She kind of looks like a patchwork of tabby. Tortoiseshells are my favorite but I haven't had one in a long time. They are so pretty. And never male, and those sex-linked genes always fascinate me.

I could do without Loki's penchant for knocking things off/attacking jewelry when bored or whatever, but I do like both of their physicality. Devi was a proximity cat, but always near and always talking. But it's nice to have a frequent not fussy lap/full body cat too. MK, oh, that cat. So pokey, so determined, so impossible to resist. Current crew actually has a back off mode, chosen by them, of course.

Koogie insisted on being on me, but his ideal was to be draped over my shoulder with his butt on my arm. This left my dominant hand free and was not too inconvenient. The Happy Cat, however, wants to be held, and even then can't decide if his butt or his head needs to be shoved into my face.

Still, neither of them can match Shadow, who when an adorable black fluffball of a kitten, once curled up in my cupped hands and took a nap. Besotted me sat there and held him for half an hour till he woke up.

Second batch of macaroons is in the oven.

So, my wall oven is basically broken (the lower heating element is visibly broken into two pieces and I don't know what I'm going to do about that, it doesn't look like it unplugs for replacement and the company that made the oven has gone out of business (or at least the business of making/selling ovens, I believe they are all about artisanal jam now) but the top element still works so I guess I have a broiler? Anyway) and the oven that is part of the stove is smaller so when I determined that I cannot fit two of even my smallest (not toaster-oven-sized) cookie sheets in it side by side I was resigned to baking these macaroons one sheet at a time. Which was fine for the coconut recipe that just baked for twenty minutes but the chocolate latte recipe calls for baking for 10 minutes at 300 and then an hour at 200 and doing two rounds of that would be...difficult. Lost control of that sentence. The point I was trying to build to is that I can't just move one of the racks from the wall oven to the stove oven because they are too big. However, it turns out that my largest cookie sheet that I thought would be too big to even fit in the stove oven (it doesn't fit in the dishwasher unless I fiddle with the geometry extensively) just sits on the little ledges that can hold the rack that goes with that oven (it also has legs and can sit on the bottom of the oven) so I managed to get two sheets in to bake at once. Triumph!

the company that made the oven has gone out of business (or at least the business of making/selling ovens, I believe they are all about artisanal jam now

That line tickles me.

None of my cats are lap cats, nor do they like being picked up. But they like sleeping with me and being in the same room as me, and they do like being petted. I could do nothing else, if I wanted to make a career of it.

Burrell was a nobody-but-me cat; Luna is quite the extrovert by comparison. Actually she's quite the extrovert compared to most cats.

That line tickles me.

Here, let me cite my source: [link]

Y'all, I pulled a muscle in my chest this weekend. A pencil thin muscle, but one that protests mildly on inhale when bra'ed. Or downstroke holding breath. Which is really annoying. You can't ice, heat or foam roll that shit. Just wait it out. And cough from pollen and try not to grab your boob at work. Nice.