Met with the new client again. What shall I call him? Let's call him 'Octavian', because I intend to turn him into a Caesar.

Octavian has followed all of my instructions. His eyebrows are now under control and his skin is beginning to improve. He complained about the diet - too many vegetables - but I nipped that in the bud. I don't care if the dietician tells him to drink nothing but carrot juice, he'll follow my directions to the letter or regret it. I'm not saying I can't be swayed by a carefully worded plea or, you know, the traditional offering of burnt flesh, but you'd better come as a supplicant with the proper amount of humility.

I do admit that monotonous diets are a sore point with me - who is he to complain when I spent how long on just nectar and ambrosia?

Tomorrow we'll be meeting with a real estate agent. He needs to make a marital alliance, and I've got two young women in mind. One is an elementary school teacher and the daughter of a venture capitalist. The other is a hematologist who's the best friend of the young wife of a certain CEO. Luckily for me they both live in the same neighborhood. And there just happen to be a couple of places on the market....