The asbestos is gone and now it's primer time. We've got to prepare all the ugly orange moldings throughout the house and obscure them with heavy white paint. I really wanted to strip the paint and stain the moldings but preliminary stripping revealed at least 4 previous layers of paint; this is pretty much on every inch of molding on every door jamb, on every window, in every room of the house. I have neither the time, nor the inclination (ever notice how people who don't have the time rarely have the inclination, too?) to put that much work into restoring these moldings. Some appear to be fairly ornate, original pieces, but it's still not worth it to me now. After I win the lottery I'll be able to afford to have all these things ripped out of the house and sent off to a stripping facility somewhere. In the meantime, what's another couple of coats of paint?

So last night while Jeannie was inspecting the asbestos-free basement, she found something odd: a cat. This shouldn't be odd, since we have more cats than people in this house, but this cat wasn't ours. A stray cat somehow got inside and was apparently hoping no one would notice the addition. All I can think of is that during the asbestos removal, the cat ran in through the open cellar doors and hid behind some boxes until the guys left. We returned the cat to the wild, but not before she gobbled most of the cat food. I fear this means the cat will never stop hanging around, but so far it hasn't returned. I always suspect these cats have a round of places they hit up for chow. Like that old cartoon with the bulldog who pimps out that cat ("This time, I didn't forget the gravy …") Meanwhile, Freddie the Formerly Stray Cat is adjusting nicely to indoor life, but she still slinks around like a thief in the night. It's impossible to make a cat appreciate something like never having to worry about food or a roof over your head again. I guess children are similarly ungrateful.

Here's something weird too: I don't have a photo of the stowaway cat, but I searched the web for a picture of a cat in a basement and found a cat that looks very similar, also a stray cat in a basement somewhere. It's happening all over the country!