wha...huh? where am I?

Right, so that was two days nose down in the database, surfacing occasionally to feed a blondish child, and one day nose down in the latest Harry Potter book, and now I feel very weird - well, like I've been concentrating intensely on something for too long. Like my brain has been wrung out like a sponge. I need to get out more.

Fat chance. The AHF still goes to press next month, so is busy for the rest of July, which, admittedly, is not much more. I do like the job, and my coworkers, quite a bit. Then I have a phone-book-sized heap of proofreading to do - this is weird, Robert and I were hired to check a translation of a website, and now for the final check, they've printed out every page - the entire site - in English and in German, for us to look over again. And mailed us this heap of paper that must weigh at least 5 pounds. I can't think why, but whatever. It's a bit of mindless work to do, and will be good for me after the database/600-page novel. Plus I can take it on the train with me if I want - hey! Or do it on the patio! An opportunity to get out, that's good. There's also some neglected JOB stuff to catch up on, and a site update for a client. All small stuff, but I let it pile up and now it'll have to be dealt with.

Oh, right! Another thing, a situation that I have not previously described has had an Event, and now you need exposition. Right, my lovely next-door neighbor, CJ, has this lunatic cat named Vera. Vera is beautiful, a mostly-white Persian, very picturesque sitting around the garden. But yes, she is insane. So are we of course - if you lived in a neighborhood with cats, you would roll up the windows of your car, right? If not at first, then at least after someone had shed all over the interior a few times. Ditto the garage: if it were not a matter of principle to keep the garage door shut, then it would at least become a matter of common sense, once you'd had to free the neighbor's cat ten or twelve times. Unfortunately, we are not as smart as you, so we did it again. Have done it consistently for three and a half years now. And Vera has decided to up the stakes.

She peed in the car.

Now, as some of you may have guessed, Robert does not see it the way I do. Cats are basically a force of nature, and they do not change their personalities just because you glare at them occasionally. And yet Robert continues to expect her to stop going into our garage, and it does not occur to him to stop leaving it open. Actually, maybe Robert and Vera have a few things in common. But don't tell him I said that.