In late-breaking Frasca news, a prolonged examination of her paperwork and the Commodore's paperwork, which I've carefully saved this last year and a half, shows that, in a "Lost"-style twist, while they were apparently not littermates, they lived at the shelter at the same time in 2005, and got all their shots on the same days and got altered on the same day and microchipped on the same day. So, they almost certainly spent plenty of time together back in kittenhood. Then Frasca got adopted by some chucklehead who gave her up again because her living situation was changing, and the Commodore got adopted by us. This totally explains why Frasca keeps saying "Don't I know you, brotha?"

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Frasca Sedgewick:


We thought that the Commodore should have his own thing going on when the baby comes home, and also that we had room for another cat, so we decided to take the plunge, and got Frasca from the shelter yesterday. She's very, very sweet, and totally unperturbed by the Commodore's getting-to-know-you strategy, which consists mainly of hissing, growling, and trying to sniff her. (I'm not sure why he thinks that last will have any success, given the hostile way he carries on most of the time, but you know how men are.) Actually, he seems to be applying some very odd criteria to his hissing and growling--he was outraged when she had the temerity to get into the bathtub, for example, but he watched her eat some of his beloved wet food and he was all, eh, all part of life's rich pageant. All in all, they seem to be working things out well, if strangely to our human eyes.

Here it is--our new car. I'm extremely, extremely fond of it, even more so now that I've figured out how to turn it on without pushing buttons ineffectually for five minutes or so. So far, we're averaging 44 miles per gallon, and yes, watching the little fuel monitor is totally addictive.

I have a question: do you think we can start using "Andy Bernard" as an adjective? For example, in the sentence "You know how she is--she finds the most popular person in every crowd, and then she goes all Andy Bernard on them."

Still too obscure? And if not yet, then when?