I just said goodbye again to Patrick on the cell phone as he prepared to board his plane...so it's just me and Maya here until Tuesday, when my wonderful youngest brother is due to arrive. Luckily, like any hapless 1950s husband, I've been left with many healthy & delicious frozen dinners (although they aren't actually labeled "Monday", "Tuesday", etc...being an emancipated 21st-century woman, I shall have to be strong-minded and choose for myself which to eat on which night!) and instructions to order takeaway if the re-heating process is too much for me. I have a very good husband. :)

Also, it's made me realize what good friends I have. Not only have my friends from overseas been sending me wonderful email distractions to keep me from moping, but Maya and I have already been given a standing invitation to stay at a local friend's house if we get too lonely, and Maya also has volunteer dog-walkers for the long weekend, to keep her happy, healthy, and fit. I am feeling really, really lucky right now. Thank you guys!

Meanwhile, of course I intended to spend this morning writing hard on my new story, and of course I ended up surfing and cuddling Maya instead...but I have decided that that's okay. I am allowed one designated day of moping and non-productivity. Tomorrow morning, though, I have to write at least 250 words of my new/old short story. And I have a reward planned for it, too - the Village Fête is being held across the street tomorrow afternoon, in the same old 18th-century schoolroom where Patrick and I had our wedding reception. I love village fêtes, probably even more because I'm American, so it feels like an exotic event. (It's kind of like a huge garage sale of books, clothes, and general odds&ends, but with games for kids, high tea with scones & cream for adults, and smoothies on sale too, just because it's summer.) And it feels particularly fun (albeit ironic) to go to it just after re-reading Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog, where the hero spends half the book moaning about the horrors of such events!

Meanwhile...hmm. Well, first of all, I've got the first two Harry Potter films to re-watch, and then maybe Casanova and Moonstruck and...er...and then some writing! Really!

In the meantime, though, a picture from yesterday afternoon: Maya effectively distracting Patrick from packing.



(Until I took the picture, she'd been climbing all over his chest, but as soon as the camera came out, she fled to the corner and turned her head away: Oh, no, the paparazzi! Will they never leave me alone????)

Bon voyage, sweetie! :)