THIS IS NOT A GOOD DAY!

AND THERE ARE A NUMBER OF REASONS FOR THAT, OR CAUSES AND EFFECTS I SUPPOSE.
1) The builders are here. They're sealing the block paving that they put down a while ago. We knew they were coming, so that is fine, but the puppies are extremely resentful that their poop area is out of bounds to them today.
We're not short of space outside by any means, but the girls have got used to using one small area as their poop space, and they have not taken kindly to having to go elsewhere this morning. (A bit like us having to use public toilets I suppose. The worst sort being the ones that you find in towns and that never seem to have been cleaned since they were installed, probably in Victorian times. Somewhat debatable also are pub loos - I sometimes wonder if the ladies loo is bad, what on earth is the gents like? Generally the best loos are either in swanky hotels or in some of the bigger department stores - and it's almost a treat to have to go in these. I especially like the ones where you can have a spray of perfume when you've tidied yourself up, but on the other hand I don't like those very same ones because there is always a ferocious attendant on duty checking you out to make sure you don't forget to flush, or leave a tap running. Also, I hate it when you try to flush the loo and it isn't ready, especially when you know there's a queue of women waiting desperately for you to emerge. What do you do? Do you keep them waiting and continue in your attempts to flush? Or do you abandon the attempt and leave the cubicle, shrugging your shoulders nonchalantly as you tell the next unfortunate person, 'Sorry it won't flush'?
AND ANOTHER THING  - Have you ever left the ladies loo WITH YOUR SKIRT TUCKED IN YOUR KNICKERS????? I'm not saying I have, but I do have a real fear about it.)
2) I'm trying very hard to balance keeping the grumpy puppies happy at the same time as getting ready for our weekend visitors. I have set myself a number of targets for today including baking apple pie, Hummingbird Cake, little buns and preparing the vegetables for the beef in red wine, oh and making cheese, leek and bacon ramekins which go brilliantly with the melba toast that I always manage to burn! So far I have managed to prepare the apples for the pie - and I've been on with that since 9 o'clock. Please don't imagine that we are having the biggest apple pie in the world and that I am peeling mountains of bramleys. No, it's simply that I keep getting interrupted by puppies, workmen and the rather disconcerting realisation that the electricity had gone off. It does this sometimes, and quite often it is just the trip that's gone, but I checked that and it hadn't, so I popped round to the next door neighbours and hers was off as well, so then I had to wait for an hour before it sprang back into life, everything beeped, the TV switched on AND THE PUPPIES WOKE UP!
WHAT ABOUT A TAKEAWAY TOMORROW CHARLES? WOULD YOUR MUM PREFER INDIAN OR CHINESE?