Herself took the dog on a sopping wet hike Saturday. This left me alone with the cats. Immediately upon liberation of the homeland, my cat wandered around the entire house, reminding herself and me that it was, in fact, her house. This took the form of standing on things and yowling.

The other cat, Dummy, who I believe now has another family with whom she prefers her time because she's rarely home, didn't appear until fairly late at night when it had been raining all day. One minute I'm working on a leathercrafting project while watching a movie, and the next there's an angry, sodden cat crouched on my wi-fi router like a tiny, wet gargoyle. The power of her glaring lured me back from the other room.

After this, I went next door to a very strange Christmas party. It consisted of folks who were old school residents of Venice, some of them since the 70's. They had great stories to tell about the neighborhood and its changes. They also made fun of me for being fat. I went home.

Then it became clear that Herself and the dog would be out for the night. AS if the cats understood this, they both began wandering the house complaining - like little furry Palestinians throwing rocks immediately after the tanks roll out. While they did that, I had a thoroughly wretched bachelor night - I found a stash of forgotten Halloween candy, drank eggnog with plenty of rum, and played World of Warcraft in my underwear.

Today it's rainy. Yesterday too - the dog was practically knocked out after his exertions the day before. He stayed inside and slept through the whole day and the whole night too. There was no peace though. That's my Christmas wish this year, I guess - peace between all the creatures of my household, cat, dog and human. Basically, I need more peace and less candy.