Piffles and Pillars

Life is not merely to be alive, but to be well. ~Marcus Valerius Martial

Thankfully, I seemed to have turned the corner with my cold and feel almost human this morning. Yesterday I felt *okay* cold-wise, but was completely exhausted to the point I ended up taking a nap (something I almost never do). I'm truly grateful that, for the most part, I'm quite healthy and when I do get sick it cycles through quickly (I felt the first hints of this cold on Saturday, and I'm already pretty much done). Still, I wish I didn't get sick at all. It's really a pain.

The worst part about being sick THIS week is that it's been pretty nice out. It's still quite warm, but the humidity has gone down so I would have been able to get outside. I was hoping to go play tennis with my DD, do some weeding (dear heavens... the weeds are taking over), maybe some nice long walks. None of that has happened.

Maybe today.

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In Pillar Place: Monarch, we should be seeing two more butterflies today. Pi and Rho are both getting dark. Last night they were gray, and I'm sure this morning they'll be black. So, YAY.

As of last night, we had TWELVE pillars on the roofs of their containers, apparently ready to make their pupae, and two more that were acting like it was about time. In ten days or so, we should have a mass monarch hatching!

We've also found three more eggs (I swear, we aren't even looking ... they things are practically jumping out at us) and we've also accidentally picked leaves with *other* eggs on them. Since I felt rotten about doing that, we're hatching the eggs inside and the putting whatever comes out of them back outside.

So far, one set of eggs hatched. They were some weird looking bug that gave me the shivers. I swear they looked a little like miniature scorpions, only they had six legs, not eight. :::shudders:::

Those babies went outside ASAP. Blech.

The next set of eggs are these lovely orange ones all massed together. I'm fairly sure they're milkweed tussock moth eggs, but I could be wrong. We have TONS of those critters outside our house, to the point I almost can't harvest from my own milkweed for the monarchs and have taken to stealing from other patches that aren't covered in critters.

I'm quite glad that the larger pillars are making their pupae, because for the last day or two they've each eaten 3 - 4 large milkweed leaves a day. 4 x 14 pillars = a whole lot of work for me.

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You Are Rock-Paper-Scissors

You are very smart and mentally inclined person. You like games that test your brainpower. You are good at noticing patterns and making predictions. You can size other people up well. It may not seem like there's a lot to what you do, but you have a strategy for everything. You tend to think through every decision you make carefully, but you're also sure not to over think anything.

What Childhood Game Are You?

That's about 95% correct. Weird.

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