When I bought my two leather chairs from Scandinavian Designs (both of which I've managed to break these many years later) I bought a matching thin black floor lamp outfitted with a single small quartz light that I now use in my bedroom for reading. The design was done more for looks than usefulness, I think, but I find if I leave it on about two feet above the corner of the bed, the heat from the quartz lamp calls to Ms. Emmy like catnip.

So Ms. Emmy, on these overcast days, likes to sleep on that corner of the bed under the light. I wondered how she was able to handle the brightness before remembering cats originally lived in the desert and I suspect they know about light. She will not, of course, sleep on the special made for cats heating pad I bought for her in Oregon but this doesn't surprise me as she's a cat. It isn't just herding that's a problem.

It's now late in the afternoon. It's Saturday and I'm looking forward to watching my Japanese soaps. I have not a drop of wine or sake in the house, but I think I'll skip alcohol for the week. How much of my aching sinus-head thing is sinus-head thing and how much of it is a hangover of whatever severity from the night before? Rather like periodically calibrating an instrument to guarantee it's accurate, I think I'll calibrate my head this week to precisely identify what is nerve regenerating sinus-head stuff and what is wine or sake. Last night it was Ms. Merlot.