Well, it's nearly half-past nine in the morning, and I'm still lolling about in my jim-jams...feel downright decadent!

Loads of stuff to do today--whether I'll actually accomplish any of it, remains to be seen. The antibiotics seem to be working, as I feel less tired today than I have all week. I missed work last night, as I was rung up and told that I had to go to the hospital for a special test....next week I reckon my pay check will be about 50 dollars, again. Not good. I reckon if I work 6 hours tomorrow, that will give me about 50 bucks next week, after taxes. Well, at least the rent's paid, and the internet bill, and half the electric bill, roughly. Gives me about 75 dollars left over for food and laundry and medical expenses.

It's the big mid-summer holiday weekend, here. Not that I'll be enjoying it. I'll be running around like a loon today, paying bills, buying food and doing laundry. Damn. I'd rather be at the beach or amusement park, or horseback riding, or playing crazy golf, or whitewater rafting or taking a cruise on the lake...or ANYTHING but boring old chores, trust me on this.

This used to be our traditional weekend for a family picnic night, back when I was growing up. After a day at a state park, the town pool, or at the local beach on the lake just up the road, dad would fire up the charcoal grill....steak for dad, hot dogs and hamburgers for mum and us kids, with tuna-macaroni and potato-egg salad, and fresh corn on the cob, sliced tomatoes (bleh), deviled eggs, Grandma Brown's baked beans and a tossed lettuce salad, as the usual fare, with icy cold slices of watermelon and sometimes cupcakes, for dessert...by the time it got dark, we'd roast marshmallows over the hot charcoal briquettes and then run around the lawn waving our sparklers, amid mum's persistent cautions not to step on any of the smouldering discarded sparkler wires. Later we'd go in and watch the fireworks from New York Harbor on television....or, the alternative to this, was that dad would pack us two girls in the car after our picnic dinner, and take us to a local fireworks display.

Well, no one here but me and the cats, and I just said, "Happy Independence Day" to Bootsie, and he just looked at me and yawned, went back to sleep. Yup, that's about the size of it.