The cat came back

in

Dear Fabrizio, Where in the heck were you yesterday? You had Amanda and I worried sick. In fact, Amanda was totally restless last night. She was pacing around waiting for you. We walked the alleys this morning in the rain trying to find you, and then you think you can just show up after we've left for work and expect Sergio to let you in whenever you want? I don't think so.

Normally I wouldn't worry. You take off overnight during the summers, but at least I can understand that you're enjoying the weather. What is your excuse when it's raining cats and dogs? OK, your friends don't come down like the rain. You know what I mean.

At least you've shocked Amanda and me into action to take you into the vet and get your microchip updated seeing that you always manage to take your collars off on your own.

Bad kitty.

Love, Paolo

Birthday salutations

in

This birthday is going to be so awesome that it'll be better than "awesome." Awesome won't be good enough to describe it, so people will look back and call is "Pawesome" to nod to how awesome it really was. People won't even mind that the word sounds like "possum" because people will just think of roadkill and THAT is an awesome testimony to the power of MAN. Speaking of man, I have a gnarly beard for the first time on my birthday, and that is PAWESOME.

Happy birthday to me.

The Thanksgiving-Wedding analogy

in

Preparing for a wedding reminds me of preparing for a Thanksgiving dinner. You spend way too much money buying food and and decorations. You create a list of guests and someone has to get cut out because you don't have enough seats at the table. You always have a great friend who comes in for the event from out of town, and a distant relative shows up without an invite. You can't remember at least one person's name that you should.

Thanksgiving is universally about preparing a big meal, but of course everyone does it a little differently. People have preferences and even pride about what they serve and how they prepare it. There are no laws requiring that you have to serve a turkey, but everyone does, even if it's a pain in the ass to cook and takes far too long to pull off. Because of the mass varieties of food that you and guests try to put on the table, the food is often cold by the time you eat it. The fiasco is totally irrational. Still, you're inclined to host the dinner...

Because of history. Christopher Columbus came to America and sailed the Atlantic on the Santa Maria to eat corn with Pocahontas, or something like that. You don't quite know the history, but you know that it's there.

Because of tradition. You grew up with Thanksgiving meals and so did your parents and their parents' parents.

After it's all over, your house is a mess and all you want to do is sleep. For all it's worth, you feel rewarded enough to have pulled it all off.

That's what wedding planning feels like.