I am awake now, 1:08 am, just me and Butterscotch the hamster. Everyone else is asleep and we are wide awake moving about in our little hamster cages. Mine is the front room of our apartment, the room where everything happens, the livingroom/kitchen/diningroom/playroom/media/office/den/foyer room that seems to be shrinking as My Kid gets bigger. Moving from the sink to the table to the garbage can clearing dinner and washing the dishes (by hand!) after everyone else has gone to sleep, I feel like a hamster on a wheel. It is an apt metaphor for housekeeping.
(The first draft of this post had 11:08 pm in the title, but now it is 1:08 am and I am still awake and, after a laptop digression, I am still attempting to clean and the hamster is still busy in his cage.)