Life after Ferko

The first order of business after having Ferko put to sleep was cleaning my office. I was a little afraid that she might have harbored some fleas, although I saw no signs on the occasions I was able to groom her, and although I had used Frontline on her last fall and last month.

As some of you know, my office is jammed with stuff, and cleaning it is a bit like working one of those toys that has fifteen numbered tiles on slots and sixteen spaces. So it has taken two days to move a bit of furniture, vacuum thoroughly, lay down a dose of pyrethins/methoprene on the carpet, and wipe down various surfaces.

As I was working on this, I came to realize the extent to which my life had become circumscribed by the need to accommodate my feline room-mates over the course of a decade. The remains of Fort Kitty have been removed; the pathways to allow Ferko to come and go no longer need to be kept clear; other horizontal surfaces that were subject to Ferko shedding and/or pushing things overboard are once again available for my professional use.

We have a Purple Dyson Animal vacuum cleaner, arguably the strongest, most pet-hair-competent suck-em-up made. My office, which is about 11' x 11', yielded two full canisters of Ferko hair. There's still some hair embedded in the carpet and some residual hair on surfaces, but I literally can breathe easier now.

Meanwhile, back at the seedpods

090408hippeastrum
Originally uploaded by lb_philly.

The hippeastrum seedpods have gotten as bloated as they're going to get (which was pretty bloated) and are now starting to shrink back. The big one is almost 1-1/2" across. I expect them to pop open around Shakespeare's birthday. I'll start them May 1. I have a source for the builder's sand, I think, and will sterilize it and the soil to cut down on the algae this time.

Earlier this week while we still had a rental car, I felt the need to express some pent-up demand to buy things other than food and cleaning supplies. In a burst of exuberance, I went to the Wal*Mart and bought

• A new shower curtain and liner (gasp!) so that I can take down the dirty ones and not have to throw them in the laundry the same day
  
• A five-foot rubber backed carpet runner to put down on the kitchen floor so Mr. Darcy will have some traction and not wind up splayed out on the kitchen floor, unable to get his footing
  
• And an artificial spring flower wreath for the front door
  

Oh, the mad extravagance of it all. Next I may splurge on some pantyhose!