Perhaps the three most disturbing phrase in the English language is one day of vacation left. Now it beckons like an executioner watching a condemned man approach the gallows.

On a rainy Sunday afternoon, following a wicked storm that choked off power to many areas in New Jersey–including work, this is my vacation retrospective:

Electricity and running water, ticket stubs for Crazy Heart and Alice, a freezer full of fish sticks, a roll of toilet paper ( unused ), half bottle of gin, a cherry red tandem coffee maker, a diagram which shows the connections between the characters in next Mike Brody novel, a stack of index cards ( one card per scene, each card documents one plot point ), unfinished outline.

And cat hair. Lots of cat hair.