Busy Monday

All our knowledge merely helps us to die a more painful death than animals that know nothing. ~Maurice Maeterlinck

So, yesterday was Monday (yay!) and things sort of got back to normal. Since DD doesn't have school, and it's SO hot outside, I need to find things (besides watching TV) to keep her busy. Yesterday she did some scrapbooking, so that was good. Today, I'm encouraging her to make more items for DistinctivelyDD (I posted some new stuff last week, but we really need to build up the numbers again).

In Pillar Place: Monarch, Rho, Pi and Omicron are now pupae. Monarch chrysalis' have to be the most beautiful things, with the shiny gold accents and smooth green exterior. Amazing, don't you think?


Sadly, we had our first casualty of the year. Every morning I open all the containers, do a poop dump and see if they are alive and if they need food. Yesterday, I found Upsilon, brown and hard, on his leaf. So...RIP Upsilon. Monarch pillars have an odd tendency to die for no apparent reason, so this doesn't surprise me, but it did make me sad. I was really hoping for 100% survival this year.

But then, I also almost did one in myself! DD had taken it upon herself to moisten the floral foam, but she did it TOO much and there were puddles on the bottoms of the containers, which is very bad for a couple reasons. One, these pillars are sill nearly microscopic (maybe 1/8" long and thin as a straight pin) and would drown in a drop of water. Two, because it's so warm, when the containers are closed they would act as a greenhouse and have condensation all over -- which could rot the little pillars.

So, we were pulling out the leaves, one by one, and using a paper towel to dry out the containers. I'd have DD hold the leaf while I dried and on one, Gaston's, when she handed it back to me, I accidentally brushed where the pillar was!! I looked at the side of my hand, now covered in tiny pillar poop (it looked like someone had peppered my hand) -- no pillar. Looked at the leaf -- no pillar!! Looked at the table -- no pillar. But I was holding it up near the edge, so DD started looking on the floor. For a tiny, opaque pillar with a little black head.

Shockingly, she found him. Now, we had to figure out how to pick him up because he's too small to use fingers, to fragile to use anything hard (like tweezers). I finally settled on using a small, soft cosmetics brush to "sweep" him back onto his leaf. It seemed to work, and he was crawling around last I looked (last night), but this morning when I check, we'll see if he was hurt more than he appeared.

There's endless adventure in Pillar Place!

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It rained yesterday! Okay, only for about ten minutes, but it dumped the whole time. Still, when I went out about an hour later to check the mail, I looked at the garden around my mailbox, and it was dust dry with all the flowers wilted! I filled up a small jug and carefully poured water on the most delicate of the flowers there. Mostly there is seedum and portulaca, which is pretty drought resistant, but I also have clematis and petunias, which are not.

We're expecting more significant rain on Wednesday. I really, really hope they're right.

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I was utterly swamped over in LASR/WC/Aurora yesterday, and didn't get to visit blogs. I'm missing everyone!! I'm scheduling blog-hopping time today, dang it, and will swing by soon. No writing yesterday either. It was all work, all the time.

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You are a Rubik's Cube

You are engaging and popular. People are drawn to your colorful personality. As much as they try, people can't stay away from you. And while you seem easy to understand, people can't figure out what direction you're coming from.

What Kind of Puzzle Are You?

Oh yeah, that's me -- Miss Popularity.

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