Feline obesity

I had to take my cat to the ASPCA for a check-up and shots the other day on East 92nd Street -- and he almost broke the scale. He weighs 16.8 pounds! When you are a cat, you can't convert carbs to energy. It goes straight to blibble. No wonder I can not breath when my cat sits on my neck or chest at night. Not sure what to do. I suppose I could switch him to the very stinky canned food -- the stinkier the better, as far as he is concerned --- but he eats one smidgen and then I put the rest in the refrigerator. There, in the corner, with a plastic lid that barely fits, the cat food stinks up all the other food items. He is a great cat but his laziness is pervasive.

heading for Santa Cruz

It's for real --- I'm heading for Surf City in a week and a half. I can't wait to catch up with friends and family, stuff my gullet with Takara sushi, hang out at Pleasure Point, run the trails through the Forest of Nisene Marks, and, I hope, get a lot of writing done. I love New York City but I'm tired of dodging buses, crazed taxi drivers, and disgusting rats lurking around the laundry room of our building. Before I leave, I'll try to cram all the NYC experiences I've been putting off -- a reading at Symphony Space, exploding soup dumplings at Joe's Shanghai, and a run down to the Battery. Then I'm going into my final round at Columbia -- thesis, teaching, and, I hope, training for the NYC Marathon if they take me in the lottery. I also went to the dentist, which was an unfortunate experience. They cleaned my teeth, all right, but one of my teeth (or most of it) fell out almost immediately after the cleaning while I was eating Thai food. Bummer. In the next three days, bits of my molar fell out one by one at inconvenient times. I stored all the pieces in an empty film cannister (which is starting to look like a medieval reliquary.) My advice to everyone is to put off going to the dentist as long as possible if you value your molars.

Leaving Manhattan Temporarily

My first blog entry ever. Inevitable, I guess. We're taking a roaches-n-rats break next week, heading off to babysit a beagle and live in a house by the beach. Can't wait. I hope to get a lot of reading done, support my wife on her upcoming book tour (She is featured prominently in a book about the secrets of marriage, with a story about yours truly), train for the New York Marathon (if they select me) and catch up with all my friends and family.