Cats At Work, and a Potential Good Book

One of the things I'm liking about working from home is the opportunity for a quick bit of fuzz therapy as desired. Sometimes I go to the cats, and sometimes they come to me.

Several times on Tuesday, Belmont came along and meowed at me, and seemed to like it when I picked her up and petted her, reading over her shoulder while I did, and then I would put her down and she seemed okay with that. This morning, however, she was much more insistent, and I came to realize that, a, I was probably going to need to put a cat bed on the new desk setup, and b, if I wanted to get any work done before that setup happened, I'd better come up with an interim plan.

So I moved a small cart next to the desk and put a blanket in the top section, and after some initial protests, we achieved peace.

Not long after that, Himself came along and wanted some loving, too, and the next thing I know, there was this between me and the keyboard.

He spends most of his day on the bed or in the window, but there are times when a boy wants his mama. He proceeded to lie down and make himself comfortable, or as much as he could when I wouldn't let him be on the keyboard. After a while, unable to fully stretch out, he left. But near the end of my work day, he came back.

So, although I'm not sure there's going to be room for two cat beds on the desks, something may have to be done.

I did bring the desk in from the car (oof), so getting it set up will be the next step. It's pretty solid, and a good size. I think it will do nicely, once I've moved things around a bit.

This was in the kitchen: I have since moved it into the office, and made a plan for what has to happen, in what order. Which will not be happening tonight.

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Quite a few years ago, I signed up for the Books-A-Million book preview club, which emails the start of a different book every week, Monday through Friday, so you can get a taste of them and see if you want to read more. (Sadly for BAM, when I do want more, I go to the library, rather than buying it.) I get the fiction, mystery, and sci-fi samples, and quite often I at least try them out, though sometimes I don't end up finishing the books.

I bring this up so I can share one with you, which sent me to the library to request before the week was out. Obviously, I don't know if I'm going to like it, but I like the writing style, the author's tone, enough to guess that I will. I had liked Monday's and Tuesday's bits, but then I came to this:

Ben is twenty-six, and this is his first job. He is small, weedy, and terribly, terribly serious about his work. "His." Not anyone else's. He despises everyone else's.

And boom, requested. The book is A Murder of Magpies, by Judith Flanders, and I will report back on it.