I had another power outage yesterday but finally the winds have died down and I'm all ready for a hot day and a long nap. That's because the stupid cat decided to stay outside all night, which meant that I spent all night composing a painful imaginary letter to my son explaining that his cat had disappeared, and fretting over the dog's heartbreak over losing her little friend, and wondering what I would do without my favorite menace.

And then, at 5 a.m., "Yowl, yowl, yowl": yes, the cat came back, smug and insouciant. And then, by 6:30 a.m., I had to throw him out again because he wouldn't stop stealing the dog's special old-folks breakfast.

Just another day in the life of a cat owner. [Remind me to tell you someday about coaxing him to climb down a ladder at 4:30 a.m. As you can see, many of our busiest interactions take place at the most godawful hours.]