Roger is a great name for a cat, especially a sex-crazed tom or a bird-fancier who spends his waking hours chittering at visitors to the back fence.

I, too, would like to know how Leonard is faring.

Rodney the HVAC guy came to estimate our air-conditioning needs yesterday and ended up with a laundry list of upgrades and maintenance issues that should keep us broke till Christmas. I would like a whole-house humidifier mounted on the furnace, but the furnace and the cellar drain are separated by twenty feet of finished basement, and what would we do if the humidifier malfunctioned and its water supply ended up on the floor? I pointed out that a daily check of the humidifier would be less of a nuisance than cracking skin and nosebleeds in February, and got a shrug and "If you say so" in reply. The water heater -- the tankless kind that is supposed to save money and provide instant hot water and doesn't do either -- needs descaling to protect its fragile flow sensors from the liquid limestone we call water in these parts. Alas, I did not know (although I should have guessed), but now I do. Another item on the lengthening menu of tasks essential to a comfortable life in this house and this climate. As for the furnace itself, I earned a brownie point for my obsessive care of its air-filtration requirements and barely restrained an urge to preen with pride. But it needs cleaning each year before the beginning of the heating season ... ? Yep, add that to the quote.

My new book contract should start next week. Good thing, as Rodney's recommendations will probably eat about half of it.