I wonder what he does when we're not home...

The unpacking continues, slowly but steadily. I managed to empty about four boxes yesterday -- a couple of them were stacked in the guest bathroom, and were rather in the way of anyone who may have been in there. So now that I've emptied the boxes, broken them down, and readied them for the recycling bin, I have at least ONE room that is completely organized, neat and clean. Everyone is invited to my place to use the bathroom...

One of the fun things about a loft is that everything is open -- even though we have two bedrooms, they're divided from the rest of the space by walls that stop several feet from the ceiling. Apparently, these walls make a great cat perch:

It took us a while to figure out how he got up there -- that bookcase (that cursed IKEA bookcase with the innumerable wooden dowels... :)), is too high for him to jump on top of it. But Rick's study is on the OTHER side of that open wall, where a short cabinet is standing next to a higher set of shelves... and that set of shelves is situated right next to the wall. So a jump up to the cabinet, followed by a jump up to the top shelf, followed by a jump up on the wall, and you've got a smug, much-too-pleased-with-himself cat:

I am fairly certain he is looking down upon us as if we were his lowly subjects... his minions, perhaps.

Anyway... I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. We were invited to Faisal's place to watch the fireworks at Navy Pier... and stupid me forgot my camera. I'm so used to seeing those Navy Pier fireworks from my own living room -- I usually just grab the camera off the shelf and start shooting. No more fireworks from my living room... sigh... :) (Although I did notice, after Saturday's fireworks, that the residual firework smoke eventually made its way down Grand Ave. to our place. So I can't see the fireworks anymore, but I CAN see the smoke. Wait... that's nowhere near as cool... :))

Well, I suppose I should stop blogging and start unpacking again, lest I live in a cardboard-box fort for the next two years. (Hey, cardboard box forts were super cool when I was a kid! :))