Last Sunday, suddenly our 15 week old kitten Schwartzie became lethargic and stopped eating. We watched him through the day and as soon as our vet opened Monday, I called her and Woody took him in. He was running a high fever and his colon was absolutely packed.We believe he may have been fed something at the party for my returning poets or else have eaten a houseplant or nibbled on flowers one of the guests brought. Supermarket flowers are full of pesticides, absolutely laden with them. According to government rules, flowers cannot be brought into the U.S. unless they are drenched in pesticides.Duni (Dr. Daniella Schutznagel), our vet, saved Schwartzie’s life and by the time she called to say we could take him home overnight, his fever was reduced, he was much livelier and was eating again.He is still on antibiotics, but doesn’t seem to mind them as they’re in liquid form and apparently don’t taste bad to him. He is back to his presickness form. Mingus was very upset when Schwartzie disappeared. I think he remembered how his lifelong pal Sugar Ray suddenly was no longer there. When we brought Schwartzie back from the vet just before supper, he was overjoyed. They play and snooze together, curled up in the bay window usually.I finished my update of the Binghamton power point based on Sex Wars. I should go through it once more and edit it down a bit, as I added much new information. But I was a bit panicked about getting it done after I finished the returning poets workshop, and now I am relieved to just need some cutting. That’s a lot easier than adding new material. I have started reading Adrienne Rich’s collected poems and realizing it’s going to take a lot longer than I had imagined before I can even begin critical analysis for my piece for Tikkun.The last seven eggplants came in with a bunch of peppers. As I don’t have room to freeze any more bell peppers, I stuffed them Thursday. Yesterday we had old friends over we had not seen in many years, being somewhat estranged, with still another current friend. As Janet is a vegetarian and the other friends are not, there was a whole day’s cooking involved. I made baba genoush for appetizers with pita bread. I roasted a leg of lamb Berber style, made a chickpea feta salad, Woody picked a green salad before he left, and I made a wild rice dish with mushrooms and baked a strawberry rhubarb pie from fruit I’d frozen in June.However, that morning Woody’s phone died. He had been acting up but it was not the best time to go kaput. He had to drive to Hyannis. Getting a phone always seems to take longer than you expect and he didn’t get back until after 5 pm. So I was left to cook all day alone as well as straightening for company. By evening, I was exhausted but managed to function on adrenalin and it was a delightful evening. All of us have lived here for forty to fifty years so know many of the same people now gone. Also we’re truly year rounders – not snowbirds like so many of those who’ve moved here more recently. We share a lot of history and memories.Janet was elected to the Board of Selectmen some time after she became a widow and we talked a lot about town affairs. Two of our women friends, Janet and Helen, are both selectpeople, as Woody was for 12 years. Of course we also talked some about the election, both the national and the local. A good evening.