I have been remiss in posting!  I won't apologize...  Life has been good for the most part.  There are some... eh-hem... things I'd rather not dwell upon.  Mark... he's just weirder and weirder than ever!  But it's ok - I deal with it.  I'm just glad he isn't clingy, wanting to spend a lot of time together!  He's happy as a clam to go about his business, whatever the f*ck that is, and let me spend my time alone.  I think HE thinks that I'm mad that he doesn't hang out at home.  NOT!  The less time we spend together, the less time I'm... well, annoyed. So when he says, "I'm going to the bar to watch..." whatever... hockey (now), football, basketball, baseball, girls... who cares? LOL!  I just say, "Have fun, honey!"  And thank my lucky stars I don't have to listen to his weirdness. My family wonders why I don't just "ditch" him, but I'm all he has.  Parents... gone.  No siblings.  Lots of friends, but who wants "that weird guy" living with them.  And I'm committed to taking care of him until he fries his brain to the point of... well, whatever, out of respect for the guy he once was.  It has its drawbacks, but for the most part, I deal with it pretty well.  

Ok, I'm going to say that was just a LITTLE bit of "dwelling on" the negative.  It's ok... Now I'm ready to move on to the good stuff!

Work is good.  I so very much look forward to my workdays.  This is how it works...  I call in sometime after 5:30 each day to find out if I'm working tomorrow.  Now, tell me this... how many people do you know who find out they are NOT working tomorrow and are sad?  That's ME!!  I only work 3 days a week, mind you, but I really love it.  So I called in last night and... nope, not working Monday.  Bummer!  Who feels that way about a minimum wage job??  It's just awesome.  I have a core group of people I mostly work with - we're called the 10 o'clockers.  There are people who prefer 10:00, and the majority prefer 8:00.  Some 8 o'clockers do get called in at 10:00, so there is the variable of those, and I enjoy that variable.  But the "core" 10 o'clockers are a fun group.  So it's typically several hours of joviality and fun!  Who can beat getting paid for that!

And I'm so happy to know that I had a hand in getting my friend, Marco in Florida, turned onto this job.  He's having as much fun as I am!  It's great to have someone to exchange "work" stories with!!  His is a little different as he works with the same people every time he works, but it sounds like they are a tight knit group.  Awesome!!

And home... all is good (other than the weird man thing...)  Plants have been slow to get started this year, because we've had SO many rainy, gloomy, coldish days.  Shit, I had the heat on this last weekend!!  Freakin' mid/late May and I had the heat on!  A week ago, it was the A/C.  Waz up with that, Mother Nature, you bitch!  Settle down and fly right so my plants will grow!

Mom... she sold her house and has closed on it and has moved to Merry's.  She lived 2 blocks from me for the last dozen years.  I'm going to miss having her so close...  But I think the universe might have put me into this job (driving) to make me realize that it's no big deal to hop in the car and drive 30 minutes to see my Mommy.  After all... I drive 8 hours a day 3 days a week, right?  So I will make it a point to go down to Merry's often.  And of course, I can talk to her as often as I want... though I have always hated talking on the phone.  There's something about it that just makes me feel soooo uncomfortable.  What IS that???  Some people can talk and talk and talk on the phone.  I HATE it!

Ok, so now on to some plant observations...  Today, I took down my H. el-nidicus, which I got from Dee in 2011.  It really came into it's own in the last year or so.  Today, it's got FIVE new growth points!  OMG, it's going to be awesome this year!!  Maybe it will finally bloom for me!!

I whacked up my pubicalyx 'Red Buttons' about a month or so ago.  It was looking lethargic, and I "baggied up" cuttings, hoping they would re-hydrate, and I put mama plant out on the back deck.  Yesterday, I put all the cuttings together in a large pot - they had rehydrated and looked outstanding, and I think it will take off.  If "mama" recovers, I'll probably sell her...

There are a few peduncles, so maybe it will bloom this year.  We'll see...

Marco sent me the beautiful H. rotundiflora to replace the one that took a crap on me last fall.  It had some dieback of new growth, but one new vine seems to be holding it's own so far.  I put it in the sunroom in the east window, which seems to be the perfect exposure for Hoyas here.  But it's a Florida baby, so who knows if it will be happy here?  I soooo hope it will!  For now, it's in the mix he sent it in and we'll see how it fares.  I may end up putting it in my mix if it doesn't seem happy, but for now, it's GOOD!!

I really prefer the old name "Square Leaf" as it is much more descriptive of the blunt leaves, but no one asked my opinion when changing the name.  Oh, and BTW, that kind of "wrinkled" look of the leaves... that's part of the characteristic of the plant.  Love it!!

I put together some rooted cuttings of H. callistrophylla with my main plant.  And it looks OUTstanding!  It's hanging in the bathroom, getting that bright, indirect light reflecting off the neighbor's house in the a.m., then just a bit of afternoon sun (very,very bit!) and it seems happy as of now...

 I can't wait for it to be happy enough to bloom again.  The leaves are its star power, but the flowers are quite pretty as well.  

Hoya wayetti in the north window (NORTH, mind you!) above my sink in the kitchen, is happy as a clam as well.  It's budding up, not JUST budding up, but buds BEHIND buds! That's a happy plant...

Wayetti has been a long-time favorite.  I love all the long-leaved hoyas, but this was the first one I ever grew, and it's like an old friend.  I have this one, growing in hydroton over the sink.  I have another in soil in the west window... also in the kitchen.  And I have a tiny one growing in a tiny pot in the south window in my sunroom.  I root it and I can't bring myself to part with it because it's like an old friend... Who would sell or give away an old friend, right?

...Now it's Tuesday and I'm getting ready to go to work.  I meant to get back to this yesterday, but got side-tracked.  I don't have time to add anything to this, and I have to finish up the cactus club newsletter before Friday, so I may not get back to it until the weekend.  But I'll take notes as I find progress with my plants.  Here's to a great day at work!