Minou is sitting by the front door meowing pathetically. Pauvre Minou. The little cat, which is no longer quite so little, although he's still stupid, has been beating up on her. Currently Minou's eye is swollen shut and she's running into things due to a lack of depth perception and head butting K. and me like mad. The latter act has less to do with depth perception and more to do with her wanting some loving. It's her way of reminding us that she exists and is soft and therefore deserves to be pet.

Even though I don't have to write papers this winter, I still sympathize. I remember the pain, both mental and physical that they cause.

My Palekh-inspired postcard is almost complete. The bird looks a bit like the one on this box, but less garish and in various bits of red paper from the Japanese Paper Place. I'm a bit bleary-eyed, though, from cutting all of those tiny pieces out and then gluing them together... I guess that the coolness of the final project makes it all worthwhile. Just another reminder that on scale of one to awesome, I'm super-great. -Zh.