I am opposed to strongly-defined gender roles, but somehow at the same time I have been enjoying doing Man things around the house. After 2 hours of tech support calling and 45 minutes of wrestling with interfaces and cables, I put our DSL modem into bridged mode and manually set up our router, which appears to have solved our internet-cutting-out and phone-going-silent problems (fingers crossed here...). Thanks to the internet, I figured out why our dishwasher wasn't effectively using the detergent. And I wired the TV, VCR, digital converter box, and antenna down in the basement and it worked on the first try! It's not actually so gross-looking down there now. It feels good to get these things accomplished, and to have a nicer home as a result!

~~~

Oliver is a charmer, and frustrating, and charming in his frustratingness. He has boundless energy. Unlike Nadia, who pretty much gives up when you yell at her to get down, stop, etc. (at least for five minutes), Oliver generally immediately starts looking for an alternate route. (It's cute, though, because he often starts prancing or leaping when he knows he's doing something wrong.)

One of his most annoying habits is his sudden need to enter the bathroom whenever one of us goes in there. We have an accordion door that doesn't quite line up with its (weak) latch, so he often succeeds (after much rattling of the door). Needless to say, there are times when it is inappropriate for a cat to be walking around you in the bathroom.

Last night we watched TV (in the basement) for the first time in this house. Oliver could usually care less about our computer screens, but he was enthralled by the TV. It didn't hurt that we were watching Nature for a while, and he stood on his hind legs with his paws on the DVD player, occasionally pawing at a fig wasp on the screen. Even when we switched to History Detectives (turns out fig wasps are kinda gross, and we had just eaten) he would occasionally take a break from whirling around the rug chasing his tail to sit and stare at the screen from a safer distance.

Shortly before the move, in Sara's old apartment (thanks to Wan for this picture!):

During the move (note the boxes--still stressful for me to see, even in pictures):

Helping to set up shelves in the living room:

Both cats love the mini-couch, and they're willing to sleep closer than this now: