Bless you, boys.

I've been a little distracted lately so I didn't do my traditional post. And I can't help but think this miserable start is all my fault. We all knew the pitching was iffy but these big bats they paid a mint for during the off season were supposed to neutralize that. When Brandon Inge is your best hitter, you know times are hard.

This needs to end right now and it's time for me to do my part.





GO GET 'EM, TIGERS!!!!


UPDATE: The day after I put this post up, they win their first game. That' s enough to convince me. It's staying at the top all season.

I wanted two cats; I got a mini-series

In the continuing saga....

Ivy never returned. I put out tuna on both porches and fed the raccoons. I put out a humane trap and snagged the neighbor's cat. It was pretty apparent that she was gone and not coming back.

So, I talked to Marilyn and we made arrangements for me to get another cat from that litter. And she informed me she may have given me the wrong cat last time. It's kind of hard to tell with four brown tabbies, but two of them were more socialized than the others, and she's afraid she may have given me Cat 3, when she meant to give me Cat 2.

This afternoon we met at the vet and she brought me a replacement cat. She looks just like Ivy with a little patch of white under her chin and she has about half a pound on Fern. And she also has some Dental Issues, but not as bad as Fern. With a good cleaning she may be in better shape. But Fern is already on Science Diet Dental Care (and she lets me brush her teeth! Whatta cat!) and gets Greenies as treats and I'm looking into this Oxyfresh Pet Oral Hygiene solution so both of them will have the best teeth possible.

I had no idea how Fern would react to a new (well, not so new but a stranger for a month) cat. She has really enjoyed all my attention and is definitely alpha female around here. Right now, Fern is sleeping between my legs and the new cat is sleeping in the open carrier right next to me. Fern has made a few growling noises at first but I think we may have achieved detente for a while, at least for as long as naptime lasts. I've marked both of them with my perfume so everybody smells the same. Nobody seems too nervous for now.

Oh, and the name of our new cat?












Clover.

April, come she will

Maybe it was the early Easter, or maybe the lousy weather the past few days, but April kind of snuck up on me. I had to scramble to get my Gameday audio subscription so I could listen to the Tigers yesterday. (They won't be selling beer in Comerica Park this year. They lost the opener.)

(Sorry -- an old joke that I love to tell every year)

But it is April indeed, and April is National Poetry Month. Whether it's Chaucer's "Aprille" percing to the roote the droghte of Marche or Eliot's cruelest month, it seems a month made for poems. In honor of April, in honor of our rather soggy weather, I give you Langston Hughes:


April Rain Song

Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night
And I love the rain.