Last night, I had dinner with Quartet New Generation (QNG), an (are you ready?) all-female recorder quartet from Germany. They’re pretty fantastic — I heard them play at Carnegie last year — and I might be writing a piece for them. If you’re picturing four women playing little soprano recorders like you played in elementary school, you’re way off. They have recorders of all sizes, including one that’s over 6 feet high. It’s a crazy sound, like an ancient organ gone terribly awry, and it would be a blast writing for them. As is often the case, the trick is finding a way to finance such a thing…

I didn’t get home until about 10:30, meaning AEJ got home from work before I was done with dinner. AEJ had a terrible day yesterday (one of those days that would be funny if it wasn’t happening to you or somebody you know), and as if it wasn’t bad enough before she got home, she walked in to find Loki a few feet from the door, meowing a strangely melancholy meow. Loki normally runs to your feet like a puppy greeting you upon your return home, but this time, Loki seemed to be talking to his toy on the floor, as if to say, “why aren’t you playing with me?”

So, AEJ looks at Loki’s “toy,” and realizes that yes, it’s a dead mouse. This is now the third or fourth mouse that Loki has killed since we got him. He’s quite a little hunter, which makes me kind of perversely proud, but I felt bad that AEJ came home alone to find (and deal with) Loki’s latest kill. AEJ immediately hung up her purse (we have to keep it up high, because Loki likes chewing on the leather handle), and in the short time it took her to return from the bedroom, Loki had resumed playing with the now-dead mouse, tossing it into the air, at one point throwing it and allowing it to land on his own head.

Needless to say, AEJ took the deceased mouse outside and threw it away, and returned to Loki’s pathetic “but we were still playing!” meow.

On a completely different topic, I found a new favorite website yesterday: The Superficial. I enjoy Defamer, too, but The Superficial is much, much meaner. And that translates to funny. I can’t really cut-and-paste this story here, because my blog is “family-friendly,” and The Superficial is not, so click this link and read a sample.