In the crypts at St. Michan's?

Yes! Where you get to shake the hand of the crusader, but really it's more like you touch him. I was surprised at the number of folk who turned down the option.

Why does everything hit the fan whenever one takes a vacation?

Because you are not there to clean it up, obviously.

In Ireland? I wonder if it was the same mummy hand that I touched once? Dang, that was decades ago.

In the crypts at St. Michan's?

Welp, gotta go back to Ireland.

in re cats:

non-cat owners, hearing a weird noise at night: oh god, this is it for me, i'm done for. that's got to be a serial killer who climbed in the window, or a ghost, or perhaps satan himself to drag my soul to the pits of hell

cat owners, hearing a weird noise at night: god damn it scooter go to bed

This particular cat owner, hearing a weird noise at night: Look at nearest cat to see if he cares. If he doesn't care, it's nothing. If he cares, it's one of the other cats. If he cares way too much, it's an animal outside. If he hides, it's a human - oh no!

Scooter, ha. I'm naming a cat Scooter. I need moar catz. (No, I really don't.)

Quick question for my Jewish friends. My husband's ex wife just had a baby girl on the 12th and I would like to send her a congratulations card because I'm courteous and the baby never did anything to me. Is there a Hebrew salutation that is appropriate or is there anything that is not appropriate to say in a card, is there anything that I need to know about that I should or shouldn't do. Thanks!

Todd, I have often reflected that one of the reasons I like having cats is that it keeps from getting too paranoid about living alone. The dog is probably better for letting me know if there ever was an intruder or something.

That cat people thing is how I feel about having a roommate--if she's around I assume any weird noises are her. If she's not I assume it's a killer come to murder me.

And like Laura, I get annoyed by FB the company and their changes and ways to make it HARDER to see things you want...but I love that there's a semi-passive way to keep up with friends who are scattered everywhere! God knows if have lost touch with most people if we had to send regular emails catching up, instead of just seeing and commenting on FB.

The dog is probably better for letting me know if there ever was an intruder or something.

Kato is THE WORST watchdog. He doesn't give a crap if someone comes to the door. He doesn't bark at anything but other dogs. So if someone broke in and had a dog with them, he'd bark. Otherwise, he'd just be all "Hey, you here to see the humans? They're down the hall. You got any peanut butter?"

Chloe the dalmatian, OTOH, barked at EVERYTHING. A bug. The wind. At us if we walked into the living room from a different part of the house. So if anyone tried to break in, she would have barked at them. But we got so inured to her barking that we wouldn't have thought it was for a legitimate problem and we would have just ignored it.

Walter is not a barker EXCEPT when someone comes to the door (although he has been getting lax about that lately. It just occured to me in the last week or so that that he might be losing his hearing, he also ignored my vocal commands more than he used to (without looking like he is deliberately ignoring me, which he has always done but it's obvious that's what he's doing). I'm trying to be more consistent about using the hand signals that we have, fortunately, always had as part of his training) so he is actually pretty reassuring when there's a noise and he just keeps sleeping. He will bark at racoons or whatever that come into the yard, but those are technically intruders, I guess.

Damn, now I have a meeting. I just got up to thinking about today's issues!