Philadelphia Mini-Menagerie

While in Philadelphia I'm living on the top floor of the Philadelphia row house recently purchased by my classmate Bret and his lovely wife Emily. It has been much work, as the previous owners weren't too sharp on the upkeep front, but quite fun. I've learned about drills and crowbars and caulking. We're going to knock down some walls in the winter: big fun.

Apart from Bret and Em, the house is also occupied by a couple animals.

Lena. She's outgoing, very chatty, and quite large (she has a slow metabolism... it's genetic... her parents and siblings all have big bones too).

Etta. An extremely large turtle, Etta belonged to the previous owners, who opted to leave her at the house, even though they had lived with her for twenty years! (These people were strange...) Bret and Emily aren't entirely sure how they feel about Etta yet. She has free range of the first floor, wandering around like some kind of triassic cat. Her favorite things to do are to wallow in her water tray, relax inside a rolled up rug (yet another cast-off from the previous owners), and sit on top of the wireless router (pictured). Right now she's on notice: she pooped three times on the floor instead of in the water like she is supposed to. Any more strikes against her and she might be relegated to the role of 'yard turtle' instead of 'house turtle'.