Today was Patrick's birthday. We walked around Green Lake in memory of him, and we ate his last two peeps. We didn't bring Trudy, because that's as he would have wished it. Patrick wouldn't want to be remembered by Trudy being given a walk. He would want to be remembered by Trudy not being given a walk. (Besides, she's not really up to a walk that long and challenging yet.)

We've reached the time of year again, apparently, when Elaine eats all my food. Last year, she absorbed anything I ate directly, leaving me always hungry. Now she chirps and cries for bites of my food like a little bird, and she can eat a shocking amount of whatever I happen to be eating. Yesterday, to protect my hamburger from her, I had to fix a half bun with cheese and slices of tomato just for her. She had to be fed it in pieces, but she most definitely preferred having her own faux-burger to being fed something mushy from a spoon.

Tonight, I'm going to plant my flower-pot garden again. I haven't had one in about two years, and I've missed it. We bought a geranium, three marigolds, an impatiens, something fancy looking, and something fierce looking. They don't really go together. The colors look all haphazard. But, I'm not really decorating with them. Flower-pot flowers are more like little pets to me than decorations, and it'll be nice to have my flower-pots filled with funny, leafy, colorful creatures again.