My favorite thing I've heard all week, from my friend Goo, I mean John, who is planning on moving to Chile in 2008: "You can eat the local sea bass and feel guilty about it afterwards. The high mercury content will also make you lose your memory and your hair. I love how nature has a sense of revenge."

However, what I love more is Nature's will to live. This tenacious little lithop survived my big move, short-term foster care in the company of one particularly mischievous kitty named "Baby" whom I like to refer to as "monster," and the recent 30-something degree weather hovering around the Northeast. Up until this morning, she was just green and bald.