I managed to lose a book. Honest, I've looked everywhere and the thing has just disappeared. I had a copy of Julie Czernada's Riders of the Storm. I got it the minute it came out, since I'd been biting my nails after reading the first book in the series.

It was on my desk.

But when I finished the current book and went to get it... nada. Not in the office, where I saw it last, not in the library, where it should be, not hiding in couch cushions, not under the bed...

I dunno where it went.

I have been known to throw away needed items, usually in a cleaning frenzy. Not on purpose - more like grabbing a pile of stuff and tossing the whole pile without going through it. Like the confirmation numbers for our refunded tickets to Hawaii.

Gone.

Hawaiin Airlines was happy to search their database by our last name, though. So we were able to use the canceled tickets to book another flight, for a $700 "rebooking" fee.

Wasn't that nice of them?

I'm going to write a letter, if I can find out who to write it to. There oughta be some mercy - we canceled our trip because Rick was in the hospital with emergency heart surgery, fer chrissakes. I can see paying a hundred bucks or so - but SEVEN HUNDRED fricken' dollars?

Please.

We've paid it, and we're going in March, in order to be there for our granddaughter's birthday. And to see my stepson, who TOMORROW, finishes his tour in Iraq and leaves for home.

Which is all the Christmas we need around here.

I woke up at four and finally gave up and got out of bed at five. A crit done at that hour is probably not my best work and I hope my victim is not too offended by it. She has lots of other crits on that chapter, so maybe it will be okay.

As seven approached, I got the paper and started making pancakes and bacon. Since then, I've eaten, read the paper, done my puzzles (screwed up on Soduko), washed the dishes, started laundry, and walked on the treadmill. I dumped the kitchen scraps in the compost. A shower is next, then I need to strip the sheets from the bed and wash them.

I am NOT awake.

Much more cleaning and sorting and organizing awaits me. I've given up (again) and am simply returning everything to where it was before. It will get through my head evenutally: I cannot throw anything away. Or give it away. If it's in the house (or garage or yard or shed), IT STAYS.

Yes. I am unhappy about it.

After all, this includes every magazine that comes in the mail. Or nearly all. The ones that are strictly my subscriptions get recycled. But that's how bad it is. I've taken to piling them in boxes and stashing the boxes in the garage. Goddess help us if there's ever a fire.

Although now that I think about it...

Nah. I'm not that unhappy. I do get to recycle the newspaper.