Instead of talking about my usual boring stuff, I will tell you about the three kittens who now live at the bottom of our apartment block. There are three, they've been around for about a month now (although Terz could give you a better idea of their age, since he actually had a cat one time), and they are rather adorable. But then, most cats are. One is jet-black, one is tabby, and another is that generic brown-gray that I like so much. There was an older brown-gray cat that used to live at the next block whom we were so tempted to bring home because it was very friendly and yet never needy. I'm not sure if it's still around.

Anyway, these three cats might be new in town, but they already know how to be wary of humans. The black cat is the boldest, the tabby is the wariest, and the brown-gray (there must be a proper term for this) is the prankster in the group. He kept nipping the others in the butt and chasing them around the table on the void deck (ground floor of the apartment building) two nights ago. Someone is feeding them, so I think they're happy.

The other cat I'm familiar with lives in the grassy area besides the walkway that runs from our housing estate to the train station. I see it every couple of mornings, snoozing on the grass, and then I think being a cat ain't bad. Other times it's chasing bugs or, on more ambitious days, a crow or three. It's one of those cats that totally ignores human beings, too --- I guess because living near such a busy pedestrian stretch has taught it all too well that most human beings don't give a damn about its welfare.

* * *

I'm waiting for Terz to get done playing Battletech with three of his students so we can go get dinner. He had them over today and on Monday, when he trounced their teenaged butts soundly on Monday. I'm not sure what today's outcome will be like. The kids are okay --- boys, aged fifteen or sixteen --- and we had dinner with them (at Kim's Place) on Monday, but I think I'm a little too tired to listen to them today.

Not that I had a particularly tiring day at work. I've been rather off this week. I actually let myself surf the internet when I'm supposed to be working on stuff. That's what happens when deadlines aren't immediately pressing, I guess. I mean, I'm not totally slacking, but this is the least efficient I've been since I got my e-mail account.

Last night, we met our Relatively Newlywed Friends for dinner. We hadn't seen them since we saw Black Hawk Down back in --- January? I don't remember. Anyway, we agreed to meet at Buckaroo's, which is way up north in Sembawang, but we forgot it's not open on Tuesdays. So Terz and I pull up, and I call them, and we rearrange to meet at Casuarina to eat crabs at the corner coffeeshop which has good crabs --- except guess what? That was closed too. Bah. So we had dinner at Tamako's, which is this sorta home-cooked Japanese place. The food was decently priced, but the quality was so-so. I think eating giant sushi in Vancouver last June really spoiled my palate for Japanese food.

Speaking of which, I really should sit down and plan all the places I want to eat at when I'm in Chicago in May --- within a reasonable budget, of course. I might even try to convince my old college roommate to go up to Northwestern for a nostalgic campus tour. They've put up new buildings since I went to school there (which was barely five years ago).

Oh, and this morning I was trying to review the daily media coverage of education issues, but got totally sidetracked by a full-page Northwest Airlines ad, offering flights to Chicago for $999. I called my mom promptly, but of course she had already been quoted that same price by the travel agent the day before. But that's a lot cheaper than what we were quoted earlier.

Gotta go eat now. Terz is ready to abandon his boys and he wants us to slink off and not eat with them tonight, either.