... at least so far. It's only 1:00 PM, the crack of dawn to me these days, so I suppose it has the potential to get better.

A) I made myself so sore working in the garden yesterday that I'm not sure I will be able to make it to the Druids parade tonight. The work -- digging out a new bed for elephant ear and stargazer lily bulbs, eating the weeds, putting up a new hanging basket so the neighborhood cats won't destroy my catnip plant -- needed doing and I enjoyed it, but I will purely hate missing that parade.

B) We awoke this morning to a newspaper story about Chris in which he is misquoted as calling me his "wife," even though he took the time to explain to the reporter that we don't use that word in our relationship and why (the short version). The story is well worth reading anyway for Chris' interesting food book selections, but for the reporter to put that word in Chris' mouth was careless and unprofessional, and I expected better from that particular writer, who has done some wonderful stories for the Times-Picayune. I can deal with it being used to describe me in text by writers who don't know any better, but to see the word supposedly coming right from Chris' mouth was hard and painful.

(Please note: I do not think there is anything wrong with being someone's wife ... if you identify as a woman. I am no one's wife and never will be. Chris usually refers to me as his "better half" -- a kind fib, but one that works for us -- and told the reporter so, but she apparently didn't listen or care.)

C) The coffee maker suddenly decided to be broken this morning. This is the same coffeemaker we bought about six months ago and actually spent decent money on because we were tired of buying cheap ones that kept breaking. Can I lay hands on the warranty? No, of course I cannot.

D) Deuce is loose.

I'm sure there are people out there who are having far, far worse mornings than this, but as a wise man once said to me: if you say you have a headache and someone tells you, "You think your head hurts? That guy over there just got hit in the head with a hammer!", it doesn't make your headache go away -- it just makes you start looking around for a hammer.