Still truckin'.

I'm sitting here in long pants, a long sleeve shirt, and a sweatshirt. I am slightly warm, but you'd think I'd be unbearably warm. It's the middle of July! I should be thankful for the one or two cool days that we get in-between the sweltering, humid days of deep summer, but still. This throws a wrench in my plans to spend my Friday night hot and sweaty as I watch a movie on the couch with a fan turned up to high speed blowing directly on me (and keeping the cats away).

Speaking of cats, the cat integration is going. Inch by inch, row by row, we're gonna make these cats get along. But my god this particular integration is slow going. Maybe I am misremembering the previous integrations, but this one feels particularly painful. Sasha is relentless in her hissing and screaming. Meg is relentless in her hiding. Sherman is relentless in eating us out of house and home, scratching at his cone, rubbing his face all over our feet and shoes, and leaving us the largest, most malodorous deposits in his litter box that we have ever experienced. Other than these things, the integration is going well :) Of course, things are better than they were, but we are still faithfully sticking to our "No cats in the bedroom" policy each night so that we can actually sleep in peace. It's no fun to be woken up at 3am to the sounds of the devil coming from deep in Sasha's being.

I don't have any more photos of Sherman, either. He's very difficult to photograph, this cat. He will not sit still. Plus, it's hard to get a good photo of him with his lampshade. We'll have more photos of him at some point, but I'm thinking it won't be until we can take off his lampshade and he stops being itchy and fidgety. Which reminds me... he needs his drops. We are trying ear drops and prednisone to alleviate (and confirm) his allergies. His itching has lessened, but he's still uncomfortable. I hope we can find a solution that works for him, because then Doug and I will be able to sleep better at night. Literally.

Doug's watching soccer on TV right now, while the fish and potatoes are on the grill and my strawberry-blueberry muffins are in the oven.* Wolves v. Chelsea. Doug's enthusiasm for soccer has been rekindled after having see the Revs v. Man United game on Wednesday night.

It was a good game, despite the rain and the long lines at Five Guys with Fries beforehand. The Revs held their own against Man U for the first half, but once Matt Reis was taken out of goal and Park and Giggs were put in. The Revs lost, 4-1, but it was fun to see Gillette practically full and the fans really pumped up. Of course, most of the fans were really pumped up to see Man United. I had no idea that there were so many Man U fans in this area. The stadium was a sea of red and yellow Giggs and Rooney jerseys on men and women alike. Once again I felt like I was missing out on a huge cultural trend the likes of Glee and iPads. How come I didn't have any Man U gear? How come I had never heard of Ryan Giggs before? And how come all 55,000 of those fans had? I think I need to get out more.

Timer for the oven is going off - time to get the muffins out. Think I'll join Doug on the couch and see if I can learn something about soccer and feel more part of the world.

* Lest you think that we eat like this all the time, let me quickly correct you. I had cereal one night this week, and then a taco salad from Qdoba. And we eat hot dogs more than we comfortable admitting.

Tonight is an exception, and hopefully a tasty one.