I have no good excuse for not updating, just that I keep finding better things to do.

I can�t believe how quickly the summer is disappearing. It was sort of a shock to realise that I have less than three weeks left in Chattanooga � it seems only yesterday that I arrived in the States. Visits with Bonnie are always so long coming and are over in the blink of an eye.

We�ve spent most of our weekends working on the house, since the contractor is doing another disappearing act. We now have paint in two rooms, and my choice of colours look pretty darn awesome if I may say so myself. I�ll have to post pictures when the house looks more like a house and less like a construction zone.

Last weekend, however, we took a break from house chores, and spent the weekend building Pandora�s Palace.

You see, Pandora is moving up in the world. When we first took her in, she spent the first day with us in a cardboard box. Then we got her a pet carrier as a temporary home until either we could find her owners, or get her a proper cage. When we couldn�t locate her owners we got her the biggest cage we could find� but Pandora is an active little pig who loves to run, and even the big cage seemed too small for her.

The sad fact is that pet stores simply don�t sell cages large enough for guinea pigs. As one website put it, pet store cages are glorified litter boxes. If you want adequate space for your piggy to tear around like a psycho, as Pandora is fond of doing, you have to build your own. And so we did.

This is Pandora�s new home, which as you can see takes over the entire dining room table. (Good thing we don�t mind TV dinners.)

The sides are metal storage cubes from Target, and the base is plywood covered with vinyl tile (laid and caulked by yours truly). It has a loft with a ramp, a wooden hidey house (all hand built by Bonnie out of scrap wood), a planter (so she can have fresh grass all the time)� all that�s missing is a few turrets and a moat.

We must be nuts. But Pandora loves it. We cannot believe the activity � she runs laps, she popcorns (a funny little hop that guinea pigs do when they are excited)� she is generally a perkier and happier pig. The way she�s been piling the weight on we did think for a while that she might be pregnant, but now it seems that she�s just pudgy. Pudgy instead of pregnant sure would be a relief.

[Once again I have written an entire entry about my guinea pig, Goddess help us all.]