<em>BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!........</em><br/><br/>Molly Roth groaned and pulled her pillow down over her head as the alarm clock continued it's incessant noise making.  Being much more of an night owl, morning was often quite an unpleasant experience for the 33 year old brunette.  As was usual for her, she'd been up past midnight the previous evening.  As was also usual for her, she'd been up working.  Splitting time between her real job as an architect and her side job as the town's Mayor meant that she had to work whenever she could.  Last night had been a combination of town budgets....and conceptual workups for the Daniels' new home up river a bit.  It was fair to say that the conceptual workups had been the more fun of the two items.<br/><br/>Grumbling to herself, she smacked the switch on her alarm clock and then lay there for a moment.  Her eyes focused on the ceiling fan above the bed as it went around.  In the now quiet house, she head the soft padding of small feet and looked over just as her black and white cat, Jack, jumped up onto the bed with the effortless grace that all cats are born with.  As was usual for him, his motor was purring along as he walked across the bed and took a seat, looking down at her with that indignant "Why aren't you getting my breakfast?" look that all cats are also born with.  Reaching out she scratched the cat's head and smiled as he lay down next to her, seemingly forgiving her transgression for the moment.<br/><br/>"Good morning, Buddy," she whispered.<br/><br/>After a few more minutes she managed to pry herself free of the grip of her bed.  She pulled on a tank top and shorts, then headed downstairs for the kitchen.....Jack darting ahead.  By the time she got there, he was sitting next to his bowl....the same indignant look back on his face.  "Yeah, Yeah....I'm coming."<br/><br/>It took but a moment to get his food sorted...and next came coffee for herself.  She pulled one of the little cups out of the box, filled the water tank, inserted her cup and finally stuck the cup into the Keurig machine on the counter.  It began brewing a moment later.  Not that anyone would ever ask her...but she was pretty sure that this little machine was one of the best things ever invented.  Once she had her coffee in hand, she padded into her office and flipped on the large screen on the wall.  The logo for her company, Northwestern Architecture, spun around in the middle. A quick touch sent the screen saver away and revealed her desktop.  A tap later and her schedule for the day appeared.  The morning was pretty open....which meant she'd have time to work on company projects....but the afternoon would be dominated by budget meetings.  Not for the first time she wondered what had ever possessed her to run for Mayor.  She hated meetings.  Meetings were part of the reason she'd left her firm in Seattle and moved here.<br/><br/>Molly took a seat at her desk and set her cup down on the glass top.  Turning to the 24" monitor that sat on the corner of her desk, she brought up the concepts she'd been working on the previous night....then consulted the notes she'd taken from the initial design meeting with the Daniels'.  Glancing back at the screen, she nodded....then began making a few tweaks.  Nearly there....and it certainly would be there before lunch.  That would give her time to get cleaned up and grab something to eat Downtown before the budget meetings this afternoon.