Being around people was good. Our friend has installed a big fancy tent (for lack of a better description) in his backyard with a hard roof and screened sides so we got to sit outside and enjoy the evening with no bugs and good food. He did the grilling miracle, which is chicken – somehow it did NOT come out burned on the outside and raw on the inside.

And there was a wonderful dog named Bailey there, too. Lily was a wee bit WTF when we got home. “You left AND petted a dog?!”

It was nice and weirdly exhausting – got home and stretched out on the couch to watch some TV and suddenly couldn’t keep my eyes open and despite a fair amount of sleep, I am still knackered this morning. Very, VERY happy we’ve got a three day weekend and very jealous of my coworker who is taking this entire week off.

I yearn for the day when everything – even nice things – aren’t so damn exhausting – it has to happen eventually, right?

I need to get a trail cam of some sort for the porch – something had some fun with the catnip plant last night. (Yes, it is to be repotted shortly.) I’d love to know what it was. Cat? Fox? Squirrel? Chupacabra?

At least our mystery guest left the cherry tomato plant alone. It has TONS of little green tomatoes on it! I have no idea what the varietal is, I picked it up at the farmers market and it had a bunch of blooms on it already and some little tomatoes, so I figured it at least had a solid start, and I’ve not killed it yet.

I’ve also got a new addition to the indoor plants – an orchid! From the grocery store, no less. (Not sure if my green thumb grandma would think that was awesome or horrifying.) And smart marketing on these – they call them 3 ice orchids – because you just have to put 3 ice cubes in the pot once a week.

And they’re cat safe, too! For whatever reason, I thought that orchids weren’t good to have around cats – but the googles tell me I am wrong, which is nice, because I do love orchids and have wanted to try my hand at them.

Not sure what I’m going to do with myself today – I think maybe some time with dirt, a few bits around the house, and try hard not to doomscroll. The doomscrolling is going to be the hardest part, I am sure.