A Sighting of the Living Room Carpet!

Joshua and Mel have removed all the extra bits of whatever it is they're doing with all that salvaged wood, and I actually have a living room again - mostly. Except that to the current cast of characters in the house we have now added Mel's girlfriend. (Studio apartment, studio apartment, studio apartment...) It's only for another week or so, I'm informed - and by that time I'll have a new kitchen floor and freshly painted bathrooms. It's just that I'm beginning to feel a tiny bit overpeopled...I've got them basically trained not to address me in the morning (Joshua is the worst in this regard - he wakes up talking about Wittgenstein and the Jewish Diaspora and wants to share), but they haven't quite got a handle on the first hour after I get home from work yet. All I want to do when I walk in the door is sit down, drink a beer, and smoke lovely indoor cigarettes and look at the mail, do a crossword puzzle, read...and the minute I turn up, the entire crew leaps madly at me to tell me all about their day. People - I'll be fascinated in a an hour. NOT NOW.

A deeply annoying day at the office. There is this thing in tax law which is called the CCH, and what it is 22 volumes of the entire United States Tax Code. Well, our tax code changes about every 22 seconds - not necessarily much, but enough that the information in these looseleaf binders (thick, THICK looseleaf binders) needs to be updated. And that's what I have spent the entire day doing...take out pages 22,388 to 22,389, replace with pages 22,388 to 22, 389, etc., etc., ad infinitum. For 22 of these damn books. And I thought sitting there reading a book was dull.

And my beloved Saint Tiger Lily: You're going to catch a cold in your toes!

Love, Wendy