unless my husband checks the bed for alligators. I had a very strange dream last night, I think in the middling hour between waking up to go to the bathroom at 5am and getting up at 6am. I was happily sleeping in my bed with my husband when I felt something either on the covers or under the covers, not sure which. Anyhoo I reached my hand down and pulled out a baby alligator (teeny tiny thing), I looked at it bemused, as one would, and noticed another one, and then another, it would appear that my bed was infested with baby alligators. I woke my husband (as one would) and told him, "there are baby alligators all over the bed" he said "where the hell did they come from" I told him I didn't know but perhaps the cats had found a nest and brought some eggs home, he pulled back the part of the comforter that was lying on the floor and there was a full size momma alligator, lying in the corner of my bedroom. At that point I leapt out of the bed, stark naked and ran down four flights of stairs (which should have given me a clue that it was a dream seeing as we live in a two story house and the master bedroom is on the ground floor). Anyhoo, I am not going to bed tonight until the bed has been checked for alligators, you can never be too sure.

You remember the possum sleeping in the kitchen story right? Well tonight I get home late (trip to meet the plaintiff's in our big FLSA case remember - reason I had to miss the prom) well I get home at 11:15 let the dogs out, feed the cats, get myself a beer to sit in front of the puter before going off to bed. I noticed earlier that things weren't quite *right* in the living room but could not quite put my finger on it. As I go into the kitchen to get my beer I hear a male Wren outside just singing his heart out, strange I thunk, it is pitch dark outside and this male wren is singing his heart out. I shrug. Get my beer, sit down by the puter center. At that point I notice a flapping. Which is a bit disconcerting to say the least, I look up at one of the picture frames above the front door and there is a bird. I could not quite discern what type of bird as it appeared to have a tail about three feet long, so not a local then I checked the parrot cage, nope they were both home. At this point you have to understand that my bunion ridden feet have been stuffed in my boots for 16 hours and I am in agony. However there are two scenarios, either I catch the bird and release it, or I drink my beer, check my e-mail and leave the bird alone and wake up to bird guts and feathers all over the living room floor tomorrow morning (I have six cats you remember, all of which were VERY interested in the mobile cat treat that was flying around their living room). I decided that the latter was not an option so I set out to catch the bird. Once I got closer to it I discovered it was not a rare species but a Carolina Wren which thanks to the cobwebs in my cathedral ceilings had "grown" a tail of cobwebs. I have a two story house, hence I have an upstairs and a downstairs, I shall not bore you with the details but I must have run up and down stairs 30 times in the last hour. I FINALLY managed to capture the beast, and take her outside, in a moment of sheer indulgence I picked her out of the laundry basket that I had managed to snare her in and held her in my hand for a moment and scritched her head, and she kindly let me do it, such a tiny thing had caused me no end of trouble, but at last she was free. AND NO I DIDN'T STOP TO TAKE PICTURES! Anyhoo as we speak the possum is back at the front door so the boxers are going nuts.... so how was your day?

So last night I noticed that Nelson had a large piece of chewing gum stuck to his butt, attached to which were several dead leaves. While this may be a new fashion statement for a cat I decided that it was not quite the thing and set about Nelson with a pair of scissors and cut out the offending chewing gum and attached leaves. This is an abreviated transcript of a conversation my DH and I had tonight.

Me: So, I had to cut a huge lump of chewing gum off Nelson's butt yesterday and seeing as I don't use chewing gum it must have been your chewing gum on the driveway.

Him: I don't throw my chewing gum on the driveway.

Me: Where do you throw it?

Him: On the grass.

Me: Oh so the fact that you throw your chewing gum on the grass and it ends up on Nelson's butt is okay?

Him: Sorry.

So Nelson is now walking around with a nekkid spot on his butt cause my DH cannot throw his gum in the trash can WHICH IS SAT ON THE DAMN DRIVEWAY IN THE DIRECTION THAT HE THROWS HIS GUM......If Nelson ends up with any more bald spots there are going to be words exchanged, that I can tell you.

Lots of things to do, no time to do it. Isn't that always the way? Having said that my boss is saying that he is going to retire. So, what does that mean to me? It means I have to decide what I want to do, do I want to stay in this business (the law) or do I want to do something different? Obviously I would love to take photos for a living but that is not close to happening right now so I have to decide what I want to do now. I know that I am good at my job, and I know that when the boss does actually retire and I am "on the market" so to speak I will no doubt get lots of offers from various law firms. But do I want to do this anymore? I have been a paralegal for 15 years now, it is a high stress, high voltage profession, I do not know if I want to continue with this. I would actually like, just for once, a week without deadlines. I would love, for once to wake up in the morning and not think "oh oh I have so and so deadline coming up" which is what happens just about every morning right now. So the question is do I want to do this? Or do I want to follow my dream and take photographs for a living being realistic and know that I may starve in the effort? Or do I want to stick with what I am good at and be able to eat?

Okay so Iran has 15 sailors and Royal Marines in custody, let me tell you what is happening right now, right now as we speak the SAS has the president of Iran's forehead in its crosshairs, behind the scenes the prime minister is telling the Iranian president that if our boys are not released instantly then the trigger is going to be pulled and the iranian president is going to feel a dumb thump in his head as the bullet hits. There is no way my country is going to let this stand. No way. We are a small country but let us not forget that we are the country of Churchilll, we are a great country, and paraphrasing from "Love Actually" "we are the country of Shakesepere, of Churchill, of Harry Potter, of David Beckam's right foot, of David Beckam's left foot for that matter" Iran is going to find just like Germany did, "some chicken, some neck" they have picked on the wrong bully in the playground this time.