When I returned from vacation one of my cats was missing. My darling timid Con (full name Amy's Con as we acquired him as a result of a con by one of my husband's students) I immediately blamed myself, if I had NOT gone on vacation then he would NOT have gone missing, it was my fault, purely and simply. I searched all over the house for him, all over the gardens, went to the pound half a dozen times, contacted the Animal protection people. No sign of him. What was so weired is that he is such a home body. For the most part he lives on top of the computer monitor, the furthest afar he goes is the garage where he sleeps in the rafters only to come down for dinner, and he is regular as clockwork when it comes to that, he NEVER misses dinner. Which was so strange when he didn't come in for dinner on our first day back. I called him and called him and put food out at the front door for him every night just in case. I cried alot during the week, I missed him dreadfully. I was composing how I was going to tell my mum on my way home this evening. She loves my cats almost as much as I do. "Con is missing mum" whereupon she would have cried and I would have cried and it would have been 20 minutes of the two of us crying. So I pulled into the driveway this evening and I saw a familiar streak of white running down the neighbor's driveway "Con?" I called as I got out of the car, forgetting the groceries, forgetting to say hello to the vinyl siding guys, "Con?" I called again and he came running to me, almost as if he was in disbelief that it was me. I gathered him up in my arms and kissed him and kissed him and cried all over him. I took him in the house and gave him some dry food, he was obviously starving, weighing nothing when I picked him up. I fed him a little at a time, not wanting him to get sick, then he got a whole can of tuna to himself when I fed everyone else. I have no idea where he was for over a week, but I suspect that someone "catnapped" him from the driveway, thinking perhaps that they were rescuing him (despite the fact that he is fixed and wears a collar) and it took him a week to escape. Needless to say he is now asleep on my lap, fed, warm and content. We have exchanged many kisses and hugs, and kneading and cuddles in the past couple of hours, in a little while I will have to get up and he will get on his favorite spot, the computer monitor, and finally everything will be right in Britty land, my furbaby is home.

So we are having vinyl siding put on our house right now. It was on my wish list of things to do but just recently it became a necessity as large chunks of the old wood siding began literally falling off the house. You would be sat quietly watching tv or whatever and you would hear a "thunk" go outside to see what it was and sure enough yet another piece of siding had fallen into the flower beds. So as the house rapidly began to deteriorate and look, to my shame, more like an abandoned crack house than a well kept home I had to bite the bullet and spend the large amount of money to get it done. Now according to my research it is money well spent because not only will the house immediately increase in value (at least by the amount of money we have spent on the siding) but my heating bills will be reduced too so the theory is that the siding will pay for itself. (We shall see of course). However, it is very unnerving to me to have people over working on the house. I am simply not used to it. In normal circumstances I do everything myself, (everything except anything to do with electricity, I can hook up a ceiling fan or change a light fixture but other than that I do not mess with wiggly amps, I am not enthusiastic about my abilities to do any wiring without becoming burnt and crispy). Even after hurricane Floyd when the house flooded and needed extensive repairs no outside help was called, it was just me and my mum's fiance Norman, ripping out sheetrock replacing insulation, replacing all the carpets with vinyl tile etc., etc. Apart from anything else when it comes to repairs etc., at least I know when I do it that it will be done a) the way I want it done b) will not damage something else c) will more than likely be done right or close enough for government work and d) it won't cost me an arm, a leg and my first born child. As it is the vinyl siding guys are merrily tromping all over my flower beds, stomping on who knows what lovingly nurtured plants, breaking all sorts of doohickies that I have hanging around. Yesterday I came home and the phone is no longer working. Now considering that when I left in the morning it was fine and they had been working on the side of the house where the phone junction box is located and when I returned the phone was dead I would be comfortable putting money on the fact that they had done "something" to kill the phone. They assure me they haven't but you know it wouldn't take Sherlock Holmes to deduce that yes, they did. Not to put down the vinyl siding guys, they are good hardworking boys who are working under difficult circumstances seeing as me, the homeowner, has done her level best to make their job as difficult as possible (with aforementioned flower beds and doohickies.) One of the head guys at the vinyl siding company happens to be a friend of my boss (which is why I got such a good deal) therefore I have a direct line to the boss so to speak and I know that they are being as careful as they can, knowing as they do that the boss is not going to be best pleased if they annoy me. Still it is disconcerting to me to have virtual strangers doing things to my house. It is even more disconcerting to the dogs, who have just about destroyed every obstacle between them and the front garden in their efforts to get out there and corral the invaders, so that now they are confined to the house during the day so that the vinyl siding guys do not end up as boxer food. Today when the boys were working out there Cueball and Judy followed the banging noises around the house in an attempt to make sure that the invaders were not coming in through the walls. They were beside themselves not being allowed out to take on the trespassers and I am sure that given the opportunity they would have given them a serious barking to. The cats of course ignored them thinking as they do that unless the vinyl siding guys were carrying large amounts of fresh tuna in their pockets they were not worth bothering with. Finally the most annoyed members of my (extended) family were the birds. The majority of my bird feeders are out back on the patio, and that is exactly where the guys were working today. The cardinals (my largest population of birds along with the mourning doves) sat in the trees just complaining at the top of their lungs. Whereas when I am pottering around in the garden they will tend to ignore me knowing that I am no threat, the strangers were an obvious threat and they were not willing to risk visiting the feeders while they were present. I have no doubt that tomorrow they will be glad that it is Sunday, even if they have no idea what Sunday is. So now you see that posting a story about vinyl siding has given me excuse to post a bird shot

Whereas my dogs actually missed me while I was gone, and greeted me with the most exhuberant welcome, the cats viewed my absence as a severe inconvenience. I saw a t-shirt while I was gone, it read "dogs have masters, cats have staff" and read in large letters on the back of the t-shirt "staff". After returning from my vacation I am now convinced more than ever that I am merely my cats "staff". Whereas the dogs greeted me with joy, the cats greeted me with distain, "where the hell have you been?" sort of look, "how dare you leave for a week and leave an underling (the next door neighbors) in charge of our welfare and feeding, that is completely unacceptable." After getting a severe telling off from my cats they proceeded to do what cats do, go to sleep on every horizontal surface in the house, (okay so I fed them twice their normal daily ration of tuna to make up for my absence, so beat me I am a sucker) Within minutes the cats had decided that everything was right with the world again, the staff were home, and their every whim would be provided for..... it was time to sleep on something very valuable.

This is the longest vacation I have had since 2001. Seven full days away from work, the house and everything. Had a great time. Charleston is a wonderful city, and very accomodating of people who like to walk everywhere, like my husband and I. There are also lots of very nice places to visit around the area. We went to a swamp (I know how many people would actually enjoy wandering around a swamp for half a day?) Anyway it was the Audubon Center at the Francis Beidler national forest and was a glorious morning of wandering around the silent swamp just listening (and trying to identify) the birds in the forest. We also visited Cypress Gardens (another swamp!) and took a boat out around the swamp, what a glorious time that is, silence, crystal clear, still, black waters, with reflections like mirrors, not a single thought for the office or the other stresses of life. Took lots of photographs as you can imagine. Loved this one. I call it "The Cypress Sisters"