After getting home late last

After getting home late last night after a surprisingly long, and yet non-season finale, episode of Alias, I forgot to set my alarm clock. Turns out it didn’t matter because at precisely 7:36 we were woken up by some passionately angry guttural cat screams. Soterios Johnson mumbling a weather report and an update on Iraq it was not. Turns out our apartment comes with a bonus neighbor cat (Angel?) who lives in our yard. Max and Pinky are beyond fascinated by this and I can’t quite grasp the relationship they’re establishing with this new cat. Since our cats aren’t allowed outside, all the interactions happen with a window screen between them; they vary from alert stares to lots of yelling and hissing. The fights can actually be fairly humorous, like when Max was sitting in the window on Sunday afternoon, not noticing Angel sneaking up below him. Angel suddenly popped up like one of those gophers in the Bop-em arcade game and spit: HIIIISSSSS!

This left me with the task of putting my cat back into his skin from which he’d leapt and that, my friends, is not fun. Fun-NY, yes. But as it tends to go for the rules of cat antics in general: happens at a party or in the afternoon = comedy gold; happens in the middle of the night or break of dawn = consideration given to overseas shipping charges for live animals.

The apartment itself is quite lovely. We have tons of space now and the spacious kitchen and yard are so far living up to their expectations of increasing my apartment dwelling quality of life. It’s strange moving into a new place at first, because you have to work out the functionality of all the little nuances. The outlets, for instance. I drew some pictures so I could show you more effectively the random placement of some key outlets. Here is the kitchen:

You will notice that there is lots of counter space to the left of the stove, but all the outlets are on the RIGHT of the stove, above a little square of counter space where the microwave and KitchenAid mixer live. Where does the toaster live? GOOD QUESTION. Right now it is on the left of the stove, unplugged-in. In fact, if I wanted some toast, I would have to bring the toaster over to the microwave KitchenAid neighborhood and have a crowded appliance party. I think I’ll have to run an extension cord behind the stove, but is THAT safe?

Now, the bathroom is a whole other issue. There is but ONE outlet (we quickly got a three outlet plug-in) and look where it is located:

Now imagine you have gone several humid weeks without bothering to blow dry your hair, but it is THURSDAY and you are having drinks after work and are feeling like you want to spruce up a bit and decide, what the hey, I’m blow drying my hair today. Now imagine you would also like to employ the straight iron for kicks. NOW imagine where you would put all those things and where the cords would be stretched and how you would have to contort your body to get your hair dry and straight but also not get yourself electrocuted. Mornings are fun! While I’m not sure about the stove, I DO know I can’t run an extension cord along the foot of the bathtub and up around the sink to give me better outlet access. Right? Water + cute hair instruments = not so good? Wow, we have lots of math in this post!

Quickly: can you believe Naima won? It was like finding out there’s no Santa Claus when Ahe’s pick was wrong. I want a cookie.

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