Or Not.

My first cat that I got once I lived on my very own was a beautiful tabby that I named Nyx. Sadly, he is no longer with us, but the holes that he left in the screen when he was irritated by being left outside are.

Our good friend with the Doberman has moved out of state and the only physical remains we have of her are the detached parts of the screen from when she ran through it.

This morning we had a party for one of the semifinal games of the World Cup (soccer). My husband's friends brought over their Pug. When the Pug and our Golden got mad that they were put outside after being too rambunctious in the house, the Pug decided to chew to bits what was left of our screen door.

Once the soccer party was over (the next World Cup I swear I'm starting a "World Cup Widows" Support Group), we did some housework and then ran some errands, including a stop at the home improvement store to get a quote on new patio doors.

We got the quote, but left instead with replacement screen (supposedly pet proof--we'll see about that) and a splining tool. Since we didn't know what size splining to get, I figured we'd try what was left from the previous screen and get something else later if it didn't work.

I spent a good hour and a half sitting on the deck fighting with the door frame, screen, the splining tool (useless), and screwdrivers. During that time, my husband invited a foreign exchange student salesperson in to try to sell me books--you wouldn't think this would be a hard sell with our current library, but it wasn't that great of a deal and since we'd just gotten a quote on new doors, it was fresh in my mind where I'd rather have our money go. She seemed irritated that after a considerable sales pitch we didn't want to purchase. I didn't feel that sorry for her considering right at the beginning we told her, "We like the books. How much?" She didn't answer but went on and on about how learning is good for our daughter, don't we agree? And so-and-so from around the corner loves them because of the beautiful pictures, blah blah blah. When we finally discovered that you can't buy just one book, but you have to buy the whole entire set (it's only $166 for the first set and $149 for the second), we told her we weren't interested.

By that time, I was irritated, covered in mosquito bites, and my screen door was only half-screened. When it was installed at 11:00pm, I went to bed.