The house is empty. ND may be upstairs, but the only sign I have of life is randomly loud commercials blaring from him computer. This neither proves nor disproves his presence. I could go up and poke my head in, but that may result in conversation, and I am not sure that I am at that level yet.

256, misslake and Mx returned early this morning. Despite this, the house is still empty.

I made a noble effort; I would sleep, I would! But the sound of 256's combats pounding past my room was too much too bear at 2:30am. As such, I am still awake. There was an adventure out for chinese food to a restaurant that wanted to sleep too. They would only serve two of us take out. There was talk of breakfast only hours away.

I keep coming back to the house being empty. I know where they are. Airport. Seeing off E.

She has left the house full with material belongings, things that she wanted to have a good home but couldn't take with her to the Netherlands. But more than that, I can feel her in every room. She is a part of the 'Shack in a way that goes beyond the books, the vcr, the clothes, or the glass pie plate.

I'm really going to miss her. I am not the only one, not by a long shot.

["I met Wayne Gretzky. Fucking Wayne Gretzky."]

A contributing factor in my anger has been Aiko. Please note: Aiko is supposedly a feminine name. Aiko is not a feminine cat. While lacking two of the basic male elements, he possesses no female anatomy. Aiko was a misspelling that somehow stuck. He was in fact named after the game, Ico.

I have inherited him from K-Star, who has also left the Shack but for Chicago. Two days after she left, Aiko developed an incredibly infected abcess on his head. No pictures to follow; it was gross. At any rate, we had to keep him inside.

The first use of his litter box in months revealed that there was blood coming from somewhere. But really, anywhere is bad.

It was discovered that he has crystals in his urine.

$400 later, kitty is hopefully okay. He's bitchy again and finished the antibiotics. The anti-spasmodic have two more doses left to help prevent his urinary tract from clogging.

I hate it when my creatures are sick. Since I predominantly keep rodents, sick = dead. This has been my first happy ending. It is very hard to find a vet that will operate on tumours in a mouse, even when they are deforming their head.

["Light beer? What the fuck is up with that?"]

Further, it is now - finally, after unpleasantness and pleasantness combined - official.

December I will be leaving the Shawshack. ncmt and I are taking that horrible, frightening, ghastly step: co-habitation. OOOOooooOOoooOOooooOOOOO! The sitcom at nine!

["Where are we going?" "I dunno, but we're leaving in five minutes."]

I seem to have come into more work than I can handle. Three websites and a day job. Shits, yo.

Anyway, that's it from your foreign correspondent, Trixie the Pixie.

P.S.
I saw two Darth Vaders and five Storm Troopers this weekend. Not to mention the Cardcaptor Sakura and Yuna and Rikku pairing.