I am OFF for the next 4 days!

And not a moment too soon. My PMS and the convergence of problems and stupid people and people we pay good money to and who lie to our faces this week pushed me to the breaking point. But it's all right now, because I am off for the next four days. Whoo.

We are in an El Nino year (insert the tilde in your imagination, I have no idea how to make one in Blogger) so our winter dry season is not dry. Rain is supposed to move in tomorrow evening and rain for the next 3 days. I could not be happier. Tomorrow I am doing lunch with cousins and my mother, and we should be done and outta there before the rains move in. Then I have three solid days of very good reason to Not Do Jack Shit. Actually, I will do Some Shit on Saturday - Murphy is going to the beauty parlor, and Borders sent me a really cool discount certificate, and I have holiday bucks to spend there AND a gift card, so I am buying CDs or DVDs, because I can get $100 worth of stuff for $50. I will brave Publix to buy things I feel like eating. Not cooking, mind you, because I am so not doing any holiday cooking. And after dog salon and Borders and Publix, I am totally Not Doing Jack Shit for the rest of the weekend - or rather, I am doing only that which I feel inspired to do. It may involve Doing Shit, but that will be by choice and not because Shit was thrust upon me, as it is all the rest of my existence.

And I have a picture to post tomorrow, when the camera's battery is recharged. I was getting ready for work this morning and noticed Boris at the back door, looking out, head tilted, fascinated. This is not unusual, because Boris is easily fascinated. My son nicknamed him Boris Gump a long time ago - Boy does a perfect Gump drawl, "Ahh'm not a smahrt cat...." when talking about my beloved cat. But he's right so I can't get mad. Anyway, Boris was fascinated, so out of curiousity I went to look.

I have a tall metal stand on my patio, it holds bedraggled pots of herbs. The tippy-top pot, which is about eye-level with me or around 5 feet off the ground, contains the world's shittiest looking catnip plant. The hot, dry summer was not good to these plants, but it is still alive and I noticed the other day that it is growing up from the roots and making a comeback.

Or at least it was until today. Today some cat I've never seen before found it, and was SITTING IN THE POT, unable to believe its good fortune - it was just checking out a random new backyard, and Hot Damn, there really IS a Santa Claus! So, like any good blogger I ran and got the camera, which is when I realized that the battery that lasts forever had been pushed to its limit. I got a couple of pictures of the cat. The battery is charging, because the camera is coming with me tomorrow. I'll post Catnip Cat's mug shot tomorrow.

The best part is that I confronted him/her (somehow I think it's a boy) through the window, I couldn't open the door becuase the dogs were clued in to what was happening and Murphy was in full lock and load and ready to go kick strange cat ass, which I would never let him do because not all cats are as tolerant as the ones he lives with and also have claws. The cat looked me in the eye, posed for a couple of mug shots like a celebrity with an army of lawyers, and said, "Meeowwww?" I believe he was asking if we always had this great stuff on the buffet, and would I be his new Mommy.