Crunch & Judi

Crunch & Judi
Originally uploaded by Tokyorosa

There's a bad cell phone photo of Judi perching an elf hat on Crunch. That (along with a stuffed Santa that is to be held in his mouth) are his Christmas outfit. (At Halloween, he wore a witch's hat.) Look at how perfectly he's sitting in that photo. He's such a good dog.

For the last week, I've been hanging out over at Judi's during the day. She's having her kitchen redone and wanted someone to keep track of things (the comings and goings of the workmen, the deliveries, and so on) while she's off doing her own thing. (Yes, she's paying me. And, yes, I would have done it for free if she were doing stuff like going to see the doctor or whatever, but in fact, she's doing stuff like going to get her nails done, so I'm taking her money.) I call myself her substitute control freak.

Basically, I'm getting paid to hang out with Crunch and Betty the cat and watch cable TV and eavesdrop on the workers' conversations, like the cabinet installer and the painter talking about how El Paso is simply being overrun with Mexicans, or the plumber gently guiding his new, wet-behind-the-ears assistant through drilling a hole in the concrete floor.

Yesterday, while the concrete drilling was loud enough to drown out the television, I pulled one of Paul's books--Comrade J by Pete Earley--off the shelves. It didn't sound all that promising to be honest, but that was a ruse. I was quickly sucked into it. It's about one of the highest ranking Russian KGB spies ever to defect to the US--after spying for several years on our behalf. It's a bit of an eye-opening book, and a quick read, too.

I've also got a bunch of books on the way from Amazon about gulags and such. (Just a little light Christmas-y reading, I guess.) But even as I write that, I realize that I need to think more about slugging back some positive reading material like...like...You know, I can't even think of positive reading materials. Maybe I'll break out the coloring book and crayons Dave gave me for my birthday.