Last night as we were waiting for the commercials to be over so we could get back to the House season finale, Andy asked me, “Do you know how much I love you?”

“How much?”

He holds up his hand with his index finger and thumb about four inches apart. Now maybe this doesn’t seem like much, but I figure it’s all relative, so I ask, “How much do you love Sana?”

He holds up his hand again; this time his finger and thumb are only about half an inch apart.

Hm. “How much do you love cheese?”

He holds up his hand one more time, and his finger and thumb are again about half an inch apart.

“And how much do you love Sana?”

Finger and thumb half an inch apart.

“And cheese?”

Half an inch.

“You love CHEESE as much as you love SANA?”

“Well, cheese is very yummy.”

The commercials ended and House was back on, so the discussion mostly ended there. Every now and then I’d look at him out of the corners of my eyes and say, “Cheese??” Later that night as we were getting ready to go to sleep, Sana was playing mousie with Andy. (To play mousie, Sana brings one of us her mousie. We throw it, and she fetches and brings it back.)

“I can’t believe you love cheese as much as you love Sana. Sana is cute and fuzzy and purrs and snuggles and brings you mousies.”

Andy agreed that this was all true, and for a moment he seemed to be rethinking his cheese and Sana love measurements.

“Of course,” I said, “cheese brings you mousies, too.”