I got the latest collection to a point where I should be able to pick it right up eleven days from now.

I am learning a lot about Licensed Counsellors, especially those of the Art Therapy variety. Can one ever have too much trivial knowledge?

Someone from the President's Office (not the one with the Oval office but the one who learned how to hotwire cars and siphon gas immediately post-Katrina) wanted the details of what was in the PR person's collection. I e-mailed her and simply kept attaching files of the inventory lists till I'd gotten all ten box lists attached. I'm not sure why she wants them. I sort of dropped hints around the library about how happy I would be when I got back and found that those ten cartons had found homes in the archival storage areas.

It rained for a while this afternoon, but it had passed N.O. by the time I headed for home. Instead, I ran into a big slowdown in a place where those don't usually happen. I called it in to the traffic people, and then called again in about ten minutes when I'd made it to the place where somehow a car had gotten itself half into the raised neutral ground sort-of-planter thing. The Motorist Assistance Patrol had the far left lane blocked, and men in camo uniforms--driving a khaki Hummer--were looking at the car, probably trying to figure out how it had gotten to where it was. I called in again and added the details of the slowdown. (The National Guard is still supplementing NOPD. I'm sure that's better than being in "exotic" Iraq.)

So, for me it was Friday. Now I have to start thinking about just what I'll take with me for clothes. I'll have brand new shorts--they just came from Lands' End. I rationalized that, since the hems were tearing off the current ones (which are probably at least ten years old,) I could justify buying a couple of pairs more.

I also stopped at Walgreen's to buy the smallest sizes of calcium and fish oil pills. (Luckily, they were on sale.) I figure it's a good idea to have any and all pills in marked bottles. (I already have a small bottle for the glucosamine.)

My to-do list for tomorrow has such items as "weed driveway," "do checkbook stuff," and "stop at the bank to get some cash," mostly for tips in the airports. I plan on asking for transport at Dulles, because I've never been there and I'm quite sure it's beyond my walking capacity.

I am definitely excited about this trip--it's going on two years since I've been anywhere. (And the temperatures at night are ten degrees lower than they are here.)

Lady has found that the easiest way to get herself let in at night or in the evening is to jump up into the window frame and meow at me throught the screen. (My windows are awning style, so the screens are on the inside.) She knows she's cute.

Tomorrow will be a busy, sweaty day, if I do everything I want need to.