I come to you in a room that’s filled with cardboard boxes. Luckily for me, our cat’s favorite chewing material is cardboard. She loves to nosh on a box corner, especially when she’s determined that it’s food time. We feed her a tiny bit of wet food every four hours, because if we give her more she’ll puke it up. Sometimes she still pukes it up! There are no winners here. So every few hours, right on schedule, she’ll trot in and start a-chomping, ARNCH ARNCH ARNCH. We love her, I keep telling myself.

We’re in pretty good shape, packing-wise, but every time I spend more than a few hours packing, by the end of the day my lower back is in a spasm (and the rest of my back is not much better), so I have to spend the next day gobbling Advil (doesn’t work) and stretching (sort of works) and lying down with a heating pad (good excuse for a nap). My pal Melissa, who writes the brilliant Saturday edition of the NYT’s The Morning newsletter, recommended this short workout for low back pain.

According to the comments (2500 and counting!) this practice will transform my life. I’ve tried it once and it’s only 12 minutes, but holy hell it’s hard. I’ll report back after I do it regularly for a while. After I work up the nerve to try again.