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We're still waiting. Irenie's so big that her belly's gotten taut. She's not lactating, so she's not quite ready to pop yet, but I don't think it's going to be much longer. She usually enjoys me rubbing her belly; today, it irritates her. I had her out on my lap, and on the bookcase behind the cat tree where she likes to lie, for a little while earlier today, but then she wanted back in the bathroom. First time she's wanted in instead of out. And when I popped in there half an hour later she was curled up in the box, instead of on top of the carrier where she usually hangs out. 24 hours? 48 hours? With my luck, she'll have them when I'm gone to class tomorrow afternoon/evening.

Nellie has learned to leave the cats alone. Mostly. She still needs a verbal reminder to "leave it!" once in a while, and only when Dudley or Ten get her fired up by chasing Flint. Nellie doesn't understand that Duds, Flint, and Ten play like that, and it isn't a hunt. Other than that, she's a very good girl. She can entertain herself, which is an unusual trait in Border Collies or mixes. When she has "Nellie only" house time (Penny and the little dogs are loose in the house all the time, the others rotate, usually in pairs but one at a time, sometimes) she goes and finds herself a hoof or bone to chew on, then settles down and works on it for an hour. She's very social, but is less demanding of personal attention than most other youngsters her age I've fostered. Ten and Dudley love her, she's a great playmate.



I sleep with a bedful of little dogs, now. Lacey Jane likes to be under the covers. She's taken over the spot on my left side that Dudley used to occupy, so now he sleeps on my right side down by my knees, or even down by my feet. Penny sleeps on the bottom half of the bed, Toby either sleeps just above her, next to her, or up by my shoulder. I also have the bedcats with me. (Or on me.) Getting up in the middle of the night is tough; getting back into bed is tougher. Mornings are fun. Dudley wants cuddles, Lacey wants cuddles, Toby wants cuddles, Ellie and Doobie want cuddles. I could use a couple extra pair of arms/hands.

The bulbs I planted last fall have been a mixed success. Some of the crocuses came up but not all, but then the ones that were already here didn't all come up either. The miniature irises came up and were pretty, but they got buried beneath the snow we had and didn't recover well when it melted. The narcissus bulbs my sis planted did very well, three different color varieties that bloom sequentially rather than concurrently. And I have some rose-with-white-edges tulips in the south side flower bed, so my sis must have sneaked those in there when she was planting narcissus. All the hyacinth bulbs I planted came up. There were 10 of them, 6 were purple. One is white, one is pale pink, and the other two haven't blossomed yet (I didn't check on them today, though) but it looks like they're going to be deep pink. They smell heavenly. Here's the pale pink one:

I'm waiting for my hummingbirds to return. The feeder's been out for a week and I haven't seen one yet. But I remember last year I didn't see any until a couple of weeks after they were first spotted in my area (according to the migration map: http://www.hummingbirds.net/map.html ) so it shouldn't be long before I see some action.

I had to stop at the dollar store last week, and while I was there I browsed some of their windcatchers/windchimes. The twirly purple one I had last year didn't make it through the winter, so I was looking for something to replace it. I found a nylon wind spiral with a pink flamingo at the top and the swirl in hot pink, purple, green, and yellow. It was so lightweight that it didn't spin right, but I used a paperclip to attach a penny to the bottom of it and now it spins beautifully. I'll have to get a pic of it. This winter I was in the lighting section at Meijer looking for either a clamp-on light reflector or a clamp-on swing-arm reading lamp and, after I got that, I checked out the clearance shelf. They had strings of little paper lampshade globes that fit over the (provided) white christmas-type lights on clearance. Well, I had to have 'em. The shades are white, hot pink, and burgundy and they're beautiful. I bought one set and hung it up in here, and bought two sets for the patio. I also bought a larger paper globe shade in the same hot pink; it fits over a regular lightbulb (40W max), so I think I'm going to put that out on the patio, too, over the seating area. If I put a compact fluorescent bulb in there it'll only cost pennies to have on in the evenings over the summer. I'll take pics when I get it all set up.

I've switched almost all the bulbs in my house to compact fluorescents. They're great, even brighter than incandescents and they're so much more energy efficient! The added bonus is that they're guaranteed for anywhere between 7 and 10 years (depending on the brand/type) so I don't have to worry about changing light bulbs for years to come. I've still got a couple of places that have round, decorative incandescent bulbs (over the bathroom and kitchen sinks), but I'll be replacing those with round, decorative fluorescents as the budget allows.