My big accomplishment today was replacing the wiring in a stained glass floor lamp that the puppy (now 3 years old) chewed up in his first six months. I had always known it was easy to do but kept forgetting to buy the kit. The hardest part was feeding the wire through the base and stem. I have a love/hate relationship with wire hangers. I try my best to keep them out of our closets but I'm always thrilled that I can find one when I need it. In addition to threading wire through the lamp, I have used them in the past year to thread cable through the wall, pick a lock, free a sock from the vacuum hose, attach a handle to a broken bucket and fish something important (for the life of me I can't remember what) out of a drain. [Actually, my big accomplishment wasn't really fixing the lamp but finding my favorite ratcheting screw driver complete with all of its bits which had been missing for over a year and was in the side pocket of an old bag.]

Gambit is apparently recovered (although still gassy) but will be on the EN food for a few more days. Veterinary bills totaled about $545.00.

Kittens are bounding through the room like a pack of velociraptors with furry feet and are getting into everything. They sound much larger than they really are. They only weigh about four pounds between the two of them but then again they do have eight feet. Lodi, the smaller and shyer of the two, and the one who was so sick I was afraid she wasn't going to make it, has really come into her own and will even stand up to the dog now. Right now she is snuggled up behind me on the back of the couch purring. 'Noni is perched on an enormous pile of freshly laundered blankets stacked on a chair and is fiercely attacking them. She's been gnawing on everything the past couple of days. We must be getting into teething time.