Ah, the end of the week. Hard to believe I've been back at work for only 5 days, it seems as if I never left. I've spent the week cataloging and weeding, both rewarding activities, if repetitious and a bit mundane. The weeding is a bit cheery: there's light at the end of the fiction tunnel, as I'm in the SCH's. The cataloging is not as cheery, as the demand keeps increasing and the material continues to amaze me. This week's batch wasn't so bad: children's books. Plenty of SpongeBob SquarePants stuff, which goes really quickly. Infinitely preferrable to old videos, especially when one considers that children will actually WANT to read these books.

I dreamed that Tom Cruise was hot for my body last night. Now what was THAT all about? I hadn't seen anything about Tom Cruise, nor had I seen him on any show or in any movie. Nor do I particularly fancy Tom Cruise. I love the human brain, especially when it's "at rest" (not that it ever rests). Anyway we were working in tandem to reach the top of some building (impossible heights) and he was carrying me up the wall. What, am I climbing the walls here? A metaphor? The past two days are the first of this week that I have felt remotely normal and relaxed, actually enjoying myself and feeling happy to be at home with my dogs. Yes, they need more than I give them right now, but they're loving and sweet and relatively content with our routine. Tess' bout with faux mange is a reaction to ragweed, according to the vet (did I already cover this?). She's taking Prednisone for a month. I rushed them all to the vet on Wednesday, carefully isolating Tess from others in the waiting room. Mange, for the unitiated, is a disgusting and highly contagious skin parasite that pets of spam-sucking trailer trash and wild animals get. My dogs had it once before, got it from a wild animal in the woods, apparently, since I am NOT SSTT. If it had been mange it would have meant a series of injections of an insecticide over a period of 9 weeks for all three dogs. Is this better or worse? A month of steroids for what will now become Super Dog, what may become an annual event (an will occur during each Summer Olympics, too). She's still scratching but not as much, I guess. Everyone here is suffering from sinus problems. The goldenrod is in full bloom and so, apparently is the ragweed. Personally I think people confuse the two.

This weekend the shoreowners' association meets at our camp. My cousins/former in-laws were kind and cleaned it in preparation (I'm the offical hostess, as I am the secretary and chairperson of the Hospitality Committee, and volunteered the site, as I do each August). What they found was mountains of garbage, a filthy living room and a dispan full of water and dirty dishes. The last people there just walked out and left it that way. What is wrong with people? What were they thinking? Anyway, my Saturday afternoon will be spent in the presence of other laker people, a group I enjoy being part of and am happy to count as my friends. It's supposed to rain, so at least I won't feel cheated out of a nice summer afternoon. And Sunday dinner is being postponed to an actual dinner hour, in the evening, so that Ken and I can use a gift certificate for a nice restaurant he was given for his 90th birthday celebration. He's eager to see if we can eat and drink up the whole $50 worth. I said the drinking part will be easy but eating that much will be harder for the two of us.

Today is warm and sunny, hard to be indoors where it's cold and flourescently lit. I turned on the small heater at my feet this morning--I'm just so tired of being cold all day in the air-conditioning that blows on my cubicle all day every day. The vent is just above my head, and since I'm stationary during much of the day, it really sucks. No, it blows.

I overheard some of the board's Executive Committee meeting with their attorney last night. What I heard was this: the union's behavior was REPREHENSIBLE. huh? Not sure what we did that was so bad, but am sure the attorney needed to justify her fees. We had written a letter to the board members directly, explaining our stand and our feelings, and this was referred to as a POISON PEN LETTER. again, huh? Just warming them up for my grievance hearing, which is coming up soon. I meet with my union attorney in two weeks, oh boy I can hardly wait.

I bought a small can of nuts this morning at the drug store when I went to pick up my prescription, thank you dear sister. "Just try buying a can like this the next time you're hungry and at a rest stop or convenience store--it's much better than junk food and fills you right up." Yes, older sisters are very helpful and wise. And I really enjoyed watching her pick up her can each night as we watched a movie, eating a nut or two until all that was left were the peanuts. They promise the can includes "not more than 50% peanuts." How do you suppose they measure that? Suppose they come across a bunch of peanuts that weigh less than the average? Then you get more.