Not much happening

Or at least it feels that way. We're still getting used to having both a cat and a dog around the house. Sophie is still a kitten at heart, everything is a toy, no pen or pencil is safe, she's always hungry, and has no table manners at all. So far she's broken (only) two potted plants. Here she is hoping that we'll look away and she can get something from the table.

Pogo is a late sleeper, but he still gets at least three walks a day. He's been in the back yard without the leash a couple of times, and hasn't made any escaping moves. We suspect it's better to continue walking him on the leash in the village since he's very interested in the local cats and sometimes cows. He loves his walks and trots along with his Yoda ears flopping to the sides like bat wings and his tail curled up and over his back. The fur on his formerly flea-bitten backend and legs is growing back, but it still looks like he's got a bad toupee on his rear end. We hope this improves with time. In the house, he's a sweetie and thinks he's a lap dog, although he's a bit on the big size for that.

In preparation for our new double-paned windows, Ed tore out the surrounds on the existing bedroom windows. On the north side he found the the shallow, built-in cabinet left of the window was not built into the stone wall, but the sheetrock wall was built out from the stone wall (on both sides of the window) to accommodate it. On the right side, there's just a hollow space where we'll add insulation.

On the south side, the existing window is smaller than the opening in the stone wall. We'll use the whole space and have even more light in the room.

Last week, we made two trips to Angoulême to pick up the new kitchen door that wouldn't fit in the little van last week. The hardware store has a van that they rent. It needs to be reserved several days in advance we now know. The door is now standing in the porch waiting to be installed. Work was supposed to start on the bedroom windows early this week, but since today is Tuesday, that will be difficult now. Ah, it's France after all.

Ed's been digging up the garden, trying to locate the filter bed for the fosse septique. We should be able to find another vent pipe at the top of the field, so we're hope the direction of the connecting pipe will point to it. We'll take some sticks down to the South Forty to start looking for it soon.

We've been invited to the old folks' luncheon again this year, but think we'll pass. Too many old folks and too much food.

The weather has been gorgeous, although it's pretty dry.