I love this picture! It was taken by my niece, Gabe's mom, a professional photographer. I thought it was the most precious picture I'd ever seen! So I immediately asked his parents for permission to post it here, and share it with you.
:-D

As you can see by all my pix, I am enjoying the flowers and the warm weather. We had a high of 46 degrees and a little sleet Monday; 84 degrees today.
And we've taken in yet another orphaned animal: a dog this time. My husband picked him up by the side of the road a couple of weeks ago - starving, filthy, matted. He bathed him, and took him to the vet to see if he had a microchip; no luck.
There were reports on the news about people abandoning pets by the truckload around here -- part of the housing debacle. I guess this little dog is a victim. Well, he's got a home now -- my husband adores him.
I'll post a picture of him when I get a good one.

This is one of my favorite pictures I've ever taken. This was the summer of 2005 (obviously! the date is on the picture!), year of the record number of hurricanes in our vicinity: 26; including the most powerful storm ever recorded -- no, not Katrina, but Wilma. (If you doubt the veracity of that statement, check with NOAA on the subject.)
Atlanta is close enough to the Gulf of Mexico that we get the leftovers of hurricanes -- they occasionally maintain tropical strength long enough to make it here. This particular shower might have been the leftovers of Hurricane Emily -- anyway, it was another month before Hurricane Katrina formed. That summer, we were inundated with rain. It felt like we were going to float away!
At any rate, I thought it made for a nice picture. It was a very pleasant picture to look at during our drought last year! Fortunately, we have been getting a pretty normal amount of rain for the last two months.
Yes, weather is one of my favorite topics -- check my "interests"!
This is the view from my living room -- the garden pond built by my husband. Alas, it has since fallen into disrepair - scheduled for a complete overhaul this summer. I look forward to his new creation, and to posting a picture of it!

Some cruel person tossed a 2 month old kitten out in our church parking lot; probably on Sunday. He apparently spent about three days desperately searching for food and shelter, scared and lonely. My hubby found him huddled under our car on Wednesday night, mewing piteously. He picked him up, and the little waif began purring continuously. He brought him home and watched him inhale an entire can of cat food. And noticed he was limping on his left hind leg. Presumably hurt when tossed out of a moving car.
We fixed him a suite in our "kitten cage" (built 5 years ago when we adopted a litter of three wild kittens); with food and water, litter box, and a clean, soft warm bed. He soon fell into an exhausted slumber.
The next day, he began to charm us all. We gave him a "bath" with a pet-cleaning cloth; he seemed very grateful to get some of the grime off. He lolled about in our arms, purring always; chasing our 5-year-old cats when they ran from him in disgust; swatting at our overly aggressive part chow dog. He was not intimidated.
I placed a "free kitten" ad in the Atlanta paper; but we had begun discussing how nice it would be to just keep the lil' cutie. Our old cats were VERY upset, so we decided we'd have to steel ourselves, and pass him on.
Then a very nice lady called, with a very excited 5-year-old daughter, and said, "I'm on my way to get him!" So, we passed him on. My first reaction was immense relief; I had begun to think of all the problems involved in keeping him. That evening, we began to miss him, and feel sad. We had him for two and a half days, and he already made us love him.
After he'd been gone two days, I called the lady that took him, and asked how he was doing, and whether they were happy with him. She said, "Oh, he's doing GREAT! He fit right in with this family! He's sitting in my lap right now."
So, a happy ending to the saga.
And we got about 15 more phone calls, mostly from very nice-sounding people, wanting to adopt him! It is SO easy to find good homes for kittens these days. Not like it was when I was a child -- then, no one neutered their pets, and kittens were everywhere, and very hard to find homes for; many of them were drowned. I like it better now, that pet owners feel it is their duty to neuter their pets, thereby saving litters from cruel fates.
Why did that cruel person throw out this precious little kitty? It is SO easy to find homes for unwanted pets. I'll never know the answer. But I do rest assured that this particular unwanted kitty found a very happy home -- and we enjoyed nursing him back to health. He was so precious. I'll upload a picture of him tomorrow.

... well, almost a year, anyway. close enuf. It's been real.