1. After months and months and months of listening to Deutsche Welle podcasts as I drive to and from work (my knowledge of current events is bounded above by my limited understanding of the langsam gesprochene Nachrichten), I’ve been listening to audiobooks again. Ones that I have checked out from the public library via their app because I am cheap.

  2. Previous book was a novel that I checked out on a whim because one of the characters was supposed to be based on someone I’ve met. (I was not impressed with that book’s portrayal of that character.) Current book is Hunger by Roxane Gay.

  3. The absolutely most compelling part of Gay’s memoir is that she keeps writing things like, “I had experience E and felt feeling F because of events X, Y, and Z,” and I am sitting in the car listening to her read the book, and I am thinking, “I also had experience E and felt feeling F, too! But because of events U, V, and W, which are nothing at all like X, Y, and Z!”

  4. I ordered FitBits for the cats. Well, I say “FitBit” the way that you would say “Kleenex” to mean facial tissue. I bought pet activity trackers. One of them is attached to Sophie’s collar, while the other is sitting in a box waiting for the support team to email me back. If I do not hear from them by tomorrow afternoon, it is going back to Amazon.

  5. I strongly believe that Gwen’s activity tracker was previously purchased by someone, paired to their account, returned to Amazon (for whatever reason), and then shipped to me as “new.” Thus, I can not pair the device to my phone because it has already been paired. There is no tiny hole for me to poke at with an unfolded paperclip to reset the device. My suspicion is that the problem is that the device’s ID number is attached to the original owner’s account in the device-service’s database, so they would need to do the unpairing on their end. Poor design.

  6. So far today, Sophie has slept for over 15 hours. There are roughly 4 hours left in today. So, if I was wondering what Sophie does when I am away: She sleeps.

  7. Yesterday Gwen went to the vet for a weigh-in. In January Gwen weighed 8 pounds. Yesterday, Gwen weighed 7 lbs, 11 oz. She used to weigh about 10 pounds. I have an anorexic cat.

  8. Gwen is supposed to eat 1/2 cup of cat food each day. She typically eats about half of that. We have bought every cheap and fancy brand of cat food. We have bought every type of cat treat. We have purchased cans of tuna and chicken meant for people. We have drizzled duck fat from Whole Foods on her food. Gwen is not interested in eating.

  9. Recall: Sophie will steal the carne asada off your burrito. Sophie was sitting on her perch when Jim walked by with a grilled cheese sandwich, and Sophie bit a dripping string of cheese off his sandwich. Sophie weighs 11 lbs 8 oz. Sophie is terrified of Gwen. Gwen is the sweetest cat that you’ve ever met. Unless you are another cat.

  10. Sophie has to eat a prescription food because she barfs a lot. I feed Sophie her perscription food in a “puzzle” feeder where she needs to dig the food out because otherwise she will binge and purge. Yes, I also have a bulimic cat.

  11. Gwen has a battery powered food dish that magically opens when it detects her microchip, to keep Sophie from stealing her food. Yesterday’s vet visit also included an x-ray that reveals that Gwen has two microchips. (This can happen when you only have used cats.) I told Gwen that she can use 2FA to keep Sophie out of her dish. Gwen didn’t think that was funny. (I am not the biggest fan of 2FA.)

  12. Michelle is still dead. Recall: Back in 1989 or 1990 or so, she was taking some sort of antidepressant because the doctors thought that it would help with her eating. Apparently she weighed about 86 pounds around the time that she killed herself on April 1, 1992.

  13. The veterinarian prescribed Gwen a medication that was approved in the United States in 1996, so it was definitely not the one that Michelle was taking. Within 45 minutes of taking her first dose of this medication, Gwen emptied her food dish. Since cats don’t really experience a placebo effect the way that people do, I expect that this medication really does increase appetite.