Patty and I drove to Fulton and visited my Dad and my sister Megan on Saturday, and they seem to be doing well. Patty did some yard work up there. And of course, we were very sadddened and shocked to read in Saturday's paper about the apparently non-accidental death of Marlene Hill, Patty's first instructor in waitressing at Luigi's. We are going to the wake tonight.

Nice blogs from everybody. We've been back from Hawaii 2 weeks now. Spring is in the air. Jim and I've worked on the yard. Susan's busy with decorating. The pool is open. Starting temp was 50. We're not heating the entire pool yet, but we just fire up the attached hot tub when we want to and it's ready quickly.

For you birders we have a wood duck apparently nesting in a natural hole in one of our black locusts, about 50 feet off the ground, and only 10 feet behind our pool.

We've got 7 bluebird houses up. They've come and gone several times during and since winter but haven't settled in.

We have rediscovered the color green. Eastern green that is. The green that comes when you mix water and earth to produce luxurient vegetation.

Our last day in Ft. Davis was exciting with the first significant rain in months and a hail storm that dinged our car a bit. Chuck ran out and grabed three stones. Two measured 1.5 inches and one was 1.0.

After the storm we took a final walk. The bunch moss and grass was already greening up. The Sabinal River, which had been almost dry turned into a modest brook. The birds, reptiles, and amphibians became more active. The barking frogs did indeed bark on our last evening. We enjoyed last looks at the small but handsome golden cheek warbler.

For some time now I have been taking up the hobby of trying to breed my fish. This past summer I got my first betta (fighting fish) and decided to try my hand at raising babies. On my fist few tries I successfully got little fry swimming around but they didn’t make it to adulthood. Since then my luck has gone down hill. I have been trying different methods and techniques and finally yesterday my fish mated! Bettas can lay up to 300 eggs so it can get pretty hectic, but it seems that my fish only decided to have about 50 (It was their first try). The eggs are just starting to hatch now and my little guy is getting his first chance at being a good dad.

Couldn't resist. Had to post this article from the WSJ about blogging, inhibitions, repression and some new psychological terms about blogging disorders. Do I have a problem?

"Someday we will all sound like this"l

This op-ed piece reminds me of what Therese and Craig, Mark W and now Kara have been telling us for a long time.

By JANE E. BRODY
Published: April 18, 2006
Faith Sullivan of Minneapolis was having a really hard time getting a good night's sleep. For years, she had slept about seven hours a night. Then, in her late 50's, something changed. After going to bed at 10 or 11 p.m., she would wake up around 3 a.m., unable to fall back to sleep.

No, neither depression nor hot flashes were disrupting her night's rest. It was caffeine. She never drank caffeinated coffee in the evening, but she often had it as a midafternoon pick-me-up. Though she found it hard to believe that coffee at 4 p.m. could disturb her sleep at 3 a.m., at the suggestion of a friend she tried cutting it out. The result was striking. Within a day, she was back to sleeping seven hours a night.

In case you haven't seen it, there is an interesting story being circulated on the blog circuit about Republican efforts to jam Democratic phone lines in connection with the 2002 senate election.