The Patron Saint of Lost Objects ...

is St. Anthony of Padua. I learned this because the Lost-Things had reached more than critical mass late last week. I couldn't find my mortgage bill to pay it. I had no idea where my state refund check had gone. Some of my favorite books were (and are) still missing.

And to top it off, I _found_ a jury duty notice. How I missed observing that when it came in, I don't know. It must have been during my true crunch. I recognized it from the outside immediately, but happily my report date had not passed.

I found the pile of papers on Saturday, after I posted a cry for help on the Ship. The answer propelled me over to the Mexican markets, where I found "velas" for both S. Anthony and S. Martha (housekeeping - for good measure). Things also started looking up on Sunday when my sunglass clips made themselves obvious in the car.

I found several magazine bills in the pile. My net.bullies have apparently paid for an address search on me and signed me up for a bunch of mags. I have been having a lot of interesting conversations with customer service people recently. Monday I cracked up laughing because there was one whose bill I missed in the mail - "Muscle Mania". Wonder what new surprises are going to appear. A lot of this seems to be wish fulfillment on the part of the doers.