Not much new to report.

I'm assembling my things for the trek back to Colorado for the summer. We let this house get really hot in the summer - probably 90 degrees - so whatever food I can't store in the refrigerator I take with me. I make lists of what I want to bring when I come back next winter - sewing projects or a cast iron skillet, that kind of thing.

Yesterday I planted my garden seeds in cut-off milk cartons - zucchini and nasturtiums. They will sprout fast in this warm desert sun.

Any day now we should start hearing the mockingbirds singing. I think our winter Costas hummingbird has moved on. We saw him almost every day for months, but now the sightings are sporadic and we have to change the juice in the feeder often so it doesn't mold.



Buddy the Cat is having one of his days when we can't figure out what he wants to eat. He's obviously hungry, but nothing appeals.



I finally got him to eat some Salmon Dinner. We have to put down newspapers because he lost a tooth and flings food all over the place.

The furnace stopped working the other day, so Mr. Troutbend undertook to fix it. The problem was the ignitor, which is a fragile ceramic component that glows hot and stands in for an open pilot light on a newer style gas furnace. I read on the Internet that the oil from your skin if you touch it will cause it to fail. He installed the $50 replacement part: it glowed orange, and then broke into four pieces. The supplier said that they wouldn't replace it unless it showed sign of a big flash. Mr. TBend took it down there, and they gave him a lecture about how they don't usually do this, but they did replace it no charge. I think they did it because he's such a sweet guy, didn't go in there all irate. So far, it's working.

One of the casino chains here in Las Vegas gave $100,000 to the Girl Scouts in exchange for lots and lots of cookies, and they are giving out them to their slot club customers.

Easter's coming.