I had a cat that I named Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff (author of Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts) that got married to my other cat, Katharina, whom I called Tina for short, and I called the other cat "Eich" (pronounced "Ike") for short, but usually Eichendorff. Thus they were Ike and Tina. Tina was part Persian and Ike was mostly Burmese. I had a friend in college who had written to The Universal Life Church for information as a curiosity, and the church ordained him via return mail as a minister, and so he performed the ceremony in Latin. My friend who was the organist said he would play only if I did not invite the press, and so there was no news coverage. About a half a year later I learned that Tina was a male, and so I never got kittens from that marriage. I think I still have the marriage certificate.

This year the Monarchs were all over my asclepias (butterfly weed), rather than the wild milkweed. I brought two of the caterpillars in and put them in a vase with a twig on which to build their chrysalis. It was so fascinating to see them emerge as this beautiful Monarch, strengthen their wings and fly off into the sunshine.

I was driving into the Coachella Valley yesterday from Phoenix and the views were gorgeous. Unfortunately, I couldn't capture them and drive at the same time. I was able to get a glimpse of the same view when I was stopped at a traffic signal. (@Lars, it took me over 3 hours to get home last night from Palm Desert. The traffic was horrendous. Hope you have better luck.)

(lurker here) The name of one of our favourite trail runs is Stick and Stones. I'll be running it tomorrow morning.