Thank you for all the kinds words about Tasha. I am grateful that I was with her, holding her, when she died. We have placed a framed photo and her collar in a special place in "her room," and I'm going to hang up several pictures that the kids have drawn of Tasha with angels and other angel-cats and angel-dogs (and an angel-bunny named Hasenpfeffer). Once the weather is warmer, the kids and I will find/make/decorate a gravestone for Tasha and bury her ashes.

As might be expected, the kids have been talking a lot about death and what happens when we die. It has made for several interesting and colorful cosmological conversations. On the subject of mortality, Liam decided that I would die first, to "get things ready" for everyone else. However Maya thinks that Daddy should go first, since he's the oldest. Either way, they're happy that Tasha will be there, waiting for us all.

And back in the mundane world, our kitchen is finally starting to be reconstructed! After living with nothing but drywall, plaster, the laundry sink in the basement and my parent's old stove, Casa del Lobos is finally getting her kitchen!

The tile installer Robert, who is wonderful, has been here since yesterday laying down the Saltillo tiles. Today he adds the accents pieces, and tomorrow the grout. The cabinets will be delivered on Friday, and the carpenters arrive on Monday.