when i joke about being in my manic phase, it bother briggs a little. maybe it's a bit too close to home. i've been enjoying one of those rare periods of lucidity when there are no bogeymen at the other end of unreturned phone calls and simple tasks are enjoyable for their own sake. i've been doing a lot of catching up. on saturday, i rested better than i have in a long time, without too much worry about the week ahead.

in the evening we went to a tree-trimming party, and since we don't have a tree this year, we got some vicarious fun out of suzanne and mike's. their friends were congenial, and i only sneezed once or twice due to the cat (skippy roo), who they share with their neighbors down the block. see those neighbors have a dog who likes the cat just fine, but the cat will have none of it. he started dropping by suzanne and mike's place so often that they essentially adopted him, named him roo (after the pooh character) and gave him a nametag. that day they got a call from the real owners of "skippy," but all ended well and they share the cat. he has new tags that say skippy roo and give their neighbors' address.