where do i even start?

shirley's cleaning of my apartment has turned into a multi-day festival of cleanliness and reorganization. almost everything is spotless. i even got inspired to buy some cabinet organizers... now my multitude of tiny bowls is (is? i think a multitude is, rather than are, right? because you're sort of encompassing many into one for explanatory purposes?) right at my fingertips whenever i need one! or, uh, twelve. i got some wire baskets with little sliding drawers in them that now hold all the formerly loose bags of dry beans, lesser-used rice varieties, dried fruit and vegetables, nuts, seaweed, and dried mushrooms. (the dried mushrooms take up an entire drawer and that's not counting the porcini, which live in a large jar. i think i have enough to last me a while, thanks to holfax's thoughtful (and unexpected) gift from last winter.

the cats, of course, are all in a tizzy. on the one hand, they love shirley because she spoils them. on the other hand, they always freak out when their stuff gets moved. when the trilobite vanished (and it has yet to reappear... coincidence? i think not. curse their crafty, benthic, vagile little carapaces!), iceberg sensed a conspiracy! (constant vigilance!) last night, he attacked and killed an interloping roll of paper towels shirley left, and the carnage has daddy-o neurotically pulling out all the fur on his belly and leaving it in little piles around the apartment.

anyway, yeah. my apartment looks great. oh, and that kilim i bought off ebay? the pictures didn't do it justice. it's gorgeous.

the downside is that saturday morning shirley took everything launderable that wasn't in a drawer or on a hanger, including the towel from the bathroom (fortunately, i had a spare towel in a drawer. one spare.) so i've been wearing the same pants since thursday and i'm running out of socks and underwear. i do hope she'll let me have at least some of my laundry back today, because these jeans are pretty stale.

it's official

You Are Not Scary

Everyone loves you. Isn't that sweet?

How scary are you?

of course, that's what i've been trying to tell everyone all along. it's not my fault people are such cowards.

is it just me,

or are commercials in which animated sweets are laughingly threatened with consumption kind of creepy?

pants

my laundry has returned. it's all folded so beautifully that i'm afraid to touch it.

gave shirley a dozen roses to thank her. of course she tried to give them back to me, but i told her smugly that i'm allergic, so she'd have to take them. i am a clever girl.

have almost no rash.

iceberg does it again

starting a late dinner, i decided to open a bottle of wine. i reached into the just-run dishwasher for a wine glass.

it came out with white fur stuck to it.

i have absolutely no explanation for this.