So: 2005, and everything. I’m ashamed to say that Chris and I bailed on each and every one of the New Year’s parties to which we were invited. We were sitting around on Friday thinking about which one we should go to when we realized that for the first time in recent memory, we live in a quiet apartment building and could really just ignore the whole holiday as we’ve wanted to do for years. Last year we were driven out by the god awful music from our god awful neighbors in Manhattan, and the year before that we suffered through god awful music from my god awful neighbor in Brooklyn, but this year we stayed home and didn’t hear a peep from anyone until midnight, when cheering could be heard from the air vent in our bathroom. I love me some concrete construction, I tell you what.

So I’m sorry for ditching all of you, but I promise we’ll be a little more social once the novelty of being able to enjoy our apartment wears off. Which I’m sure it will. Eventually.

As for the cat scratching stuff: a number of you suggested those little plastic tips that go over trimmed kitty claws to keep them from mauling everyone and everything. We’ve considered it, but trimming the cat’s claws is itself quite an undertaking, as he’s a demon hellcat from hell and would probably disembowel us if we tried it. But we might anyway. The scratch mat seems to be the most effective thing so far - he absolutely loves it and hasn’t touched the couch since we bought it. He sits on his mat constantly, and scratches it whenever he thinks of it. We’re thinking of getting a couple more for other rooms. Maybe it will break him of his habit of eating my hair in the middle of the night.