and tomorrow I go back to work. It will be hard waking up to the alarm clock.

I've gotten quite a bit done around the house, and have used the time for a bunch of reading--both geek and mind candy.

Last week a newly ordered book arrived--author is Cynthia Eller and topic is exploring the evidence as to whether there was a period in prehistory when women ruled. In the last twenty years or so there have been some notable works that, based on evidence available at the time, posited a prehistoric matriarchal society. And the shift to patriarchy came with settled agriculture and was essentially inevitable.

I read for a couple of hours this afternoon and am impressed by Eller's scholarship and her arguments. I also found a couple more books (so far) that I want. I'll see if they're in the Newcomb library so that I can check them out before I decide whether to buy them or not.

Of course the last book I did that with I ended up buying. And not just it but an earlier book by the same author. (What would you like to know about monkey $ex?)

Today was a day for "accomplishments"--I started work on weeding the "lawn" adjacent to the patio. The weeds that are tall and plumed when mature are currently less than a foot high, and they aren't going to get any higher if I have my way.

The best part about the weeding is that I can tell where I worked and where I still need to work.

Emma keeps bringing her boyfriend around. He's pretty bashful, but is beginning to realize that I am the source of the dry food that appears in the porch dish. Emma prefers to eat there, rather than with the rest of the gang. Lady may have made the ultimate feline insult of calling her a bitch at some point and Emma keeps her distance from Lady. (For those not in the know--a female cat is a queen.)

So--it's back to work tomorrow. And now I shall watch TV and try to decide what I'm going to wear. It will start out "brisk" and warm up substantially by the afternoon.

My five-day weekend is almost over.