Arrrgh!!!

I know that I've told you about the raccoons who had taken up residence in our attic. We evicted them one night last year. Dear Husband waited until they were all outside, feeding, and then put a patch over the opening in the soffit where they were coming and going. We'd had to wait until the babies were old enough to leave their nest to feed, but we wanted to be sure it was closed up before any of the females decided to have another flock.

So....the last two or three weeks I've been hearing odd noises in the house at night.

YES!!! I GOT MY PERM!

"All things change; nothing perishes." Ovid

All together now. Let's hear it: I DON'T LIKE CHANGE!

Yeah....I've said it so many times that you probably think it's my mantra. I'm willing to let the world have all the excitement while here in my nest, things remain on an even keel.

At least, that's what I would prefer. But no matter how I try, I can't prevent things from changing around me. Just the fact that I've had the good fortune to wake up each morning means that I've changed. My family has changed, my job has changed. I've even changed husbands, and my pets have changed.

Now, my home is going to change.

Save early and often.

You can't hear those words often enough!

I had an entry all set to go, and hit the wrong button, and lost the entire thing.

Drat!

Why do things like that happen when you're tired and need to go to bed??

Never mind. Asked and answered.

There is something so completely satisfying about finishing a project. I generally keep a running list in the back of my mind about all that needs to be done around the house, the gardens, in the office and for my mother. When the list gets too long, I start putting it on paper.

I've been making paper lists of things in the office lately, so I knew that it was time to get to some of the things that have been bothering me.

The red-winged blackbirds have returned. My mother is now watching for the robins. As we run errands, we're checking the ponds for the egrets. It's MUCH too soon for them to be back, but we're eager to see them.

I noticed that three of the ponds to the east of us are abnormally high. This is the first year we've had muskrats in those ponds, and today I realized that the water is creeping up the sides of their reed lodges. Since we haven't had an unusual amount of rain in the past month, I wonder if the outflow pipe for the ponds is blocked.

I'm feeling very virtuous tonight!

I am a terrible procrastinator, as you'll see if you read further down. I'm pleased to announce that I have just about pulled together the information for my 2004 taxes!

I used to hand the material over to my CPA about ten days before the taxes were due, and she NEVER chewed me out. Because she is so kind to me, each year I have tried to gather the information earlier than the previous year.

This year, she and I have agreed to do a swap. I'll go pick up the corporate taxes before the fifteenth of March, and I'll hand her our personal taxes. Wow! One WHOLE MONTH before the deadline!

I wonder if WichiDude would say "Virtuosity happens"? Dear Husband would!

We've been down this road recently. I told you that Ed, our obstreperous black cat, duked it out about two weeks ago, and came home battered. The Doc gave him the once over and sent us to the pharmacy for antibiotics. Unfortunately, the dingbat of a pharmacist used a FRUIT flavored liquid antibiotic overlaid with the WORST tuna flavor, to make the most wretched concoction I've ever smelled. Ed must have thought so, too, because we got less than half the meds down his throat.

A friend from exercise suggested today that we should start a book club. I've never joined a book club, and I resisted the radio and TV groups when they popped up.

Usually this time of year I am running around trying to put my house into order, so that we can host my family for Easter Dinner. I try to get to my Spring cleaning early, and we work out how many tables to set up and decorate.

To save you from having to bounce between links and this entry, I'm posting the books from the two book clubs I mentioned in "Books" yesterday.

These are the six books that Oprah has featured (I think she's been doing a travelog):

One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Carson McCullers
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
Cry the Beloved Country
Anna Karenina
The Good Earth, Pearl S. Buck

I've read "East of Eden," and "The Good Earth."

Kathy and Judy who do the 9 to noon show on WGN Radio (WGNradio.com) have featured 16 books and listeners are getting to vote for the books they loved the most. These are the titles:

Like Normal People
The Rich Part of Life
All Over But the Shootin'
The Secret Life of Bees
The Lost Legends of New Jersey
Driving Mr. Albert
The Kite Runner
When the Emperor Was Divine
Wild Nights: Nature Returns to the City
Bel Canto
The Passion of Artemesia
Year of Wonder: A Novel of the Plague
1984
The Devil in the White City
The Giant's House: A Romance
The Binding Chair: Or, A Visit From the Foot Emancipation Society

The four which are underlined are the four most popular of the 16 books. I've read "Bel Canto," and "1984."

And these suggestions are from one of my nieces:

The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Nifenegger

The Birth of Venus - Sarah Dunant

A Home at the End of the World -Michael Cunningham

The Other Boleyn Girl - Phillipa Gregory

Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons - Lorna Landvik

A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry

Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

Life of Pi - Yann Martel

Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress - Dai Sijie

Of Love and Shadows - Isabelle Allende

Like Water for Chocolate - Laura Esquivel

Of the last group, I've read "Farenheit 451," and I'm familiar with "A Handmaid's Tale," which I picked up after I saw the movie.

Any other suggestions??

I got to play outside today, for the first time since last Fall. I raked an area where some bulbs will be coming up shortly, and then went to clean the flower gardens along the sidewalk. I cut back ornamental grass and spent plants, and hacked back part of the vinca that's trying to take over the garden. I have crocus in bloom, and lilies, tulips and daffodils are pushing their way up through the soil. The iris are greening up, and I've moved the plants I wintered over to rest at the edge of the sidewalk.

I rested for a moment as I finished loading up the wheelbarrow, and a noise caught my attention. A flock of birds were passing over the house. I watched until they were out of sight and then went looking for the bird books because I don't have the faintest idea what they were!

The grass has riz.....I wonder where...... Hmmm that's a blast from the past....and true to form, I can't remember the last line. I wonder if it was a Burma Shave sign?

I have FINALLY gotten to play in the dirt. I can't tell you how theraputic that is to a gardener who has been cooped up all winter. I needed to cut back the spent plants and look for the newcomers. I want to take an entire roll of pictures of the garden as it is now, because I want to do a lot of moving this summer. I have several areas that need rejuvenation, and I'm eager to get to work.

Here in the Chicago area, we seem to be lagging behind in temperatures for this time of year. I'm surprised that so many plants are showing their heads, given the chill, and I may need to go spread mulch to make up for the plant matter I just removed. The bricks hold heat and release it at night, but we've been short on heat, so I don't think that's much help. The walkway is shielded from southwest, west, northwest, north and northeast winds, so that shelter might be part of the reason I'm seeing plants come up.

I've also tried Winter Sowing this year, for the first time, and I have ROMAINE seedlings up! YEAH!!!! I'm going to try to start a few cherry and miniature pear tomato plants this year. Wish me luck!

I'm really glad that Spring has come.

If you've missed Bogie's blog, you should go read it. With all the HooHaw in Congress about this case in Florida, she has chosen to make her feeling known about not wanting to be maintained by machines.

Bogie, I totally agree with you. It's unbearable to think that someone would choose to keep my body alive when I was unable to speak for myself. DO NOT RESUSCITATE! Do NOT let machines do the work for my body. I know it's hard to pull the plug, so don't let them hook me up.

I want it on record that I think Congress has overstepped it's bounds in this case. There was no call for them to step in, and I feel that it's cruel to maintain her this way.

I've always thought of myself as a self sufficient person. I belong to the group of humans who try to find a way to resolve problems with the materials at hand.....or I did.

As I was driving on an errand this afternoon, I got to thinking about something I'd read this week. The writer commented that the nearest town was 90 miles away, so they had to do things for themselves. Ten years ago, I could have moved to a house in the wilderness, but now, I believe I'm spoiled.

We have squirrels who visit the ground below our bird feeders. Over the years we have been able to count on six or eight gray squirrels and four to six fox squirrels as our companions. We know the players have changed over the years; their life spans are usually short, but they must be prolific enough to maintain the colony.

The gray squirrels are sleek and slightly smaller than the fox squirrels, and definitely meaner. The fox squirrels are larger overall, have beautiful fur that goes from a cream to a copper color, with touches of black on the tips of the tail fur, and they seem just a bit pudgy in comparison to the grays. They also play nicer with others. Unfortunately, they are also prone to mange.

We all have signs we watch for to herald the return of Spring. My mother watches for the first robins, and she comments on the weeping willows turning gold.I watch for the magnolia buds to swell, and for the forsythia to burst into bloom. Everyone watches for the crocus, and then daffodils and tulips to burst through the ground.

Unfortunately, we have another sign of spring, now. I just saw the first of the road workers for the proposed widening of our road. It's going to be a tough summer.

I blogged earlier this month about the fact that we were going to have an unusual Easter this year. Normally we have between 25 and 35 family members here for dinner during the afternoon. This year, for a number of reasons, my family has scattered to the four corners and as of today there will be just three of us here: Dear Husband, Elegant Mother and myself.

We had an absolutely lovely Easter weekend. I hope that you all did too!

I blogged about the fact that we were expecting some unusual changes to our celebration of Easter. Rather than have my extended family come to dinner, Elegant Mother, Dear Husband and I celebrated alone. It was a little odd, but lovely. It was still sunny outside when I set the table for dinner at five. I put out the china and crystal and candles just for the three of us.

When dinner was over, Dear Husband helped me to clean up, and then we all found relaxing things to do for the evening. Normally, clean up would occupy me through Monday morning. I'm sad that my family couldn't clear the decks to join us, but I really enjoyed the laid back weekend. We had a great time driving up to the new quilt shop, and a wonderful lunch on the way home. If you should come across a new fast food chain called "Asiago" in your travels, I highly recommend that you stop for lunch.

We've all recharged our batteries, and are ready for Spring. It's supposed to be 67 tomorrow. I'll be the one out in the gardens!

For those of you who have been following the saga of Ed, my cat, I have news. The vet feels it's good news, because she has determined what's wrong, and feels that it is treatable.

Ed has toxoplasmosis. It's a parasite that he's picked up from the animals he hunts outside. We are going to give him a course of antibiotics for the next four weeks. At least, we HOPE we are going to give him a course of antibiotics. He is to get one milliliter twice a day, on his food. It's a liquid antibiotic that has been doctored with three-fish flavor! Wish us luck because this is a tough cat to con when it comes to medicine.

I've had the chance to be out in my garden once this year, but tomorrow.....ah, tomorrow.....I'm going to have the entire morning out there.

I still have some clean up to do from last fall. I cleaned out about half of the garden at the sidewalk last week. I want to finish that work, so that the daffodils and tulips will be able to look their best this spring.

I was checking out the herb garden this afternoon. I need to cut back chives, feverfew, oregano and yarrow. There are two chrysanthemums in that garden that need to be pruned, along with the winter savory, the sage, and a clematis that climbs an arbor at the end of the garden.

I think that I have just about come to the point in my blogging where I need to seriously consider getting a digital camera. With the quilts I want to share, and the gardens, you'd have a clearer idea of what I was talking about if I included a picture in the entry.

To that end, do you have any suggestions for cameras that the technology impaired can use successfully? If you were just starting out with a digital camera, which one would you buy?

I have a nephew, and a step-son who will probably have answers for me, but neither of them blog, and they are both very adept electronically. I'd appreciate any suggestions you care to share.

When we last left you, Ed, the cat, had been diagnosed with toxoplasmosis. Our incredible vet prescribed a four week course of antibiotics for the cat, one mililiter in the morning on his food, and again at dinner time. She sent us to a local pharmacy who compounded the antibiotic with a "three-fish" flavor.

I thought we were good to go!