Fang is a Rex begonia I rescued from the plant booth 6 or 7 years ago. At the time, it was a limp, 6 leaved sickly looking thing. I nursed it into stunning good health and have had any number of fanglets which I either root from leaves or split off from the main plant. Fang, meanwhile, has been getting bigger and bigger, and threatening to take the back room as its own entirely. Last week I finally got tired of the huge tangle of 7 or more different plants in the pot, and determined to split it. I was going to split it into two, but it went naturally into one large plant (made up of at least 3 smaller ones) and 4 smaller ones. I put one tiny one back into the big pot, put two others together, and one of the smaller ones on its own.

And they all went totally limp. I felt like a terrible mommy, as I watched the leaves pinch off and die back. Finally, a week later, the plants are beginning to recover, but it's going to take some time for them to regain their robust good looks.

I've been a bad mommy in other ways, as well. The dog gets fed at 6, and by 6:00:01 he's right there resting his head on my lap, looking soulfully into my eyes, pacing to the kitchen and back, telling me he's wasting away. (This would not be a bad idea. He's just over 50 pounds, I believe, and that's the division point between kennelling at $11 a night and $12.50. TIME for a diet! Of course, he doesn't eat while we're gone, not much, so he could get down to the cheaper rate while there!) Well, Standard Time returned on Sunday, so he thought 5 was dinnertime. I planned to put him off 20 minutes Sunday, which I did, 20 more on Monday, which I did, and then feed him at 6 last night. At 5:10, he was nagging me, and I said NO! Then he was remarkably quiet, till at 7:40 (!) he came out and started harassing me again. Oops.

He's begun to be really really good when he's hoping to go out, but getting no positive feedback. All of a sudden, he's sitting, behaving. He looks positively winsome. Of course, if you put on the magic walking shoes or go for the leash, it's all over, but he seems to have a glimmer of an idea of how he SHOULD behave.

Yesterday he was chasing a squirrel up our palm tree, and jumped after it, and broke my tyrannosaurus lawn ornament (other people have flamingos, I understand) on the way down. Sniff.

Rich took him walking on Monday and brought home 11 softballs and 3 golf balls. Today they went again and got 3 softballs and 7 golf balls. Rich is thinking of giving the softballs to the Loretto team in the spring.

Well, I just got a call that my aunt from Wyoming (foster-mother's sister, no real relation, wedding picture on the August 10 page), died, so I don't much feel like rambling on today, sorry. I don't really see how I can afford to go back now. (Especially as I'm working the election.) She was only 15 years older than I, so even though she was definitely a Grown-Up, she was a lot of fun. She took me to the University library sometimes when she was studying, and let me read her OZ books. I also got to play with her fancy doll, Scarlett O'Doyle, sometimes. I'll miss her, even though I hadn't seen her for 7 years.