I don’t care what anyone says, that’s a job.

Mrs E got hired at a nursing home a little while back for a full-time nursing position, so all the household chores and stuff moved over to my plate. So far, I’ve done these things in the last 8 hours:

• Changed and cleaned the litterbox and the poop closet (as opposed to routine scooping)
• Did 3 loads of laundry
• Did 2 loads of dishes
• Cooked gravy steaks, rice, and corn for our supper tonight without setting off smoke alarms
• Did some more work for Chez Ebbles between these chores

Yesterday, I vacuumed the place and squared away the living room, then cut the housekeeping short to run errands with Mrs E. Tomorrow I’ve got another large chunk to cross off my to-do list.

That’s nothing to a real housewife. They take care of kids, they go grocery shopping, run errands, clean up after everybody else, and they cook 3 meals a day as opposed to 1. Day in and day out. And they don’t even get paid for it. I’m not a stranger to this, but the last time I was the Strangely Masculine Housewife of the family was…yeah, 2002. I’d forgotten what a job it was.

So, this post is for all of you full-time housewives and househusbands out there. In case anyone hasn’t told you this lately, thanks for keeping households all over the world running smoothly.

Now I gotta go get out of this French maid outfit. Fishnets chafe.

Just got back home. I’m still a wreck.

I didn’t want to bury Bug in the backyard of a rental property that we’re not even going to be living in a year from now, and we didn’t want to dispose of her like she was garbage or something. I don’t even know how to explain it, it’s just…I wanted something better than that for her.

We made arrangements for her to be cremated and took her in late this morning. We’re picking her ashes up tomorrow afternoon. When we buy a home of our own in a few years, that property will be her final resting place. I still have her favorite printer, the one she used to nap on all the time when she was little. I’m going to be burying her urn on top of it, so she’ll be napping on her favorite printer forever.

I’d like to take the opportunity to thank everyone for their support. It means a lot to us that you guys care, and it’s a big help to me emotionally knowing that you guys are there, and we don’t feel so alone.

The financial support you guys provided in the hopes of saving her was enough for us to give her a dignified and proper farewell, and I’m extremely grateful for that. I would have been even more of an absolute wreck if we’d had to dispose of her or leave her behind on some rental property, but you guys made it possible for her final resting place to be a far more appropriate one.

I’ll be working on a memorial page for her later today. I think it’ll help me work through this, and it’ll give me a chance to share a little of the happiness and joy that Bug brought into my life.

I really appreciate all the comments from you guys in the previous post. I can’t overstate that enough. Thank you.

Update: Her memorial page is now up here.

We’re taking my cat Bug to the vet tomorrow morning because she’s pretty ill. She had some sort of urinary tract infection that inexplicably went from “almost better” to “much worse” in just a few days, so we called around and found a vet that had an opening for tomorrow.

It’s an unexpected expense, but fortunately I was able to scrape together the $193 the vet wants for the visit, blood work, and miscellaneous stuff. However, any prescriptions or other medical procedures will be additional charges on top of that, and I’m a bit worried about being able to cover those additional costs. If you know anyone who might be interested in supporting the spaceport set or picking up one of the shuttle variations, I’d be grateful if you could spread the word.

12 years ago, when she was a kitten, she decided she wanted me to be her best friend and she turned me into a cat person. This is hitting me pretty hard, and I’m not dealing with it very well emotionally. Posting about it helps a little.

I hope she’ll be okay.

Update: She didn’t make it. She passed away around 7:20PM CST. I was on the sofa with her when it happened. Thank you, everyone who helped out and sent us messages of support.