Stepping into the shower in our apartment is like sitting at a table at IHOP (the International House of Pancakes). The variety of body soaps, shampoos, and conditioners is astonishing and they all have some tasty ingredient: cranberry, apple, ginger, coffee, blueberry, and so on. As in picking a syrup for my pancakes at IHOP, I can never decide which luscious soapy substance to indulge in as I stand naked in our claw-foot bathtub with the water flowing down by body.

I am sure you didn't need to picture that. Nonetheless, every shower has become a sensory exploration.

As if the dog has not had enough trauma in the past couple of weeks (roommate moving out, packing up, driving cross-country, adapting to a mostly indoor lifestyle, having a pair of dogs living upstairs), I took him to the vet today. Since we still have not established a vet for him in Boston yet, I drove down to Providence to take him to his old vet there. He used to not care about going to vet. In fact, he seemed to like it. There were so many intersting smells there and if he was lucky he might even get a treat. Today he was fairly nervous, but not like some dogs I have seen that try to run in the opposite direction as soon as you get them out of the car. He was due for his shots, so it was not a fun visit. He behaved though. He also got a clean bill of health. He does have some excess tartar on his teeth, but nothing serious.

My computer finally made it - although I am still writing on Sara's laptop. It might take a while to make some space for it and get it hooked up. I do think Sara is ready for me to stop using her computer, so she might have some incentive to make space and set it up. So stay tuned for some pictures....