Ixi keeps various bowls of “stuff” around the kitchen. Usually they contain tasty treats such as japanese candies, almonds, scones, apples, an occasional onion or potato, and at least two fruits of the earth. Ok, sometimes, a bowl may contain…catfood. Yes, three bowls to be exact. One per cat. Two mornings ago, Ixi was sampling some honey-roasted soy nuts whilst conducting business on the computer. I think we can all guess what happened next. Reach for nut, put in mouth…confused look on face as taste buds kick in…slow, “hey…this doesn’t taste like…ahhh” spit spit. 


She said it tasted like corn. And fat. Corn + Fat.


The same day Ixi received this text message from me: Groundhog just ran into Walgreens and is under register two. How many times can one say that, right? I knew something was going down when I saw the cop and several employees looking down at the ground. Naturally, I thought someone had died. Sounds reasonable. Anyway, I was quick to stick my nose into the business at hand and asked “What’s going on!?” Thats when I learned a gigantic rat-like critter had run in from the parking lot, through the automatic doors, and burrowed under the check out counter. They all figured it wasn’t a rat unless it was the biggest anyone had ever seen. I grabbed the flashlight from the cop who was making sure the Ground hog didn’t get “out of hand” ( Really, what’s a groundhog gonna do?) and sure enough, I did spot a massive rodent. There proceeded to be a stream of other cops, who, having heard of the “situation”, had to check it out and make fun of Groundhog Cop.


Wendy asked me if I saw its shadow.