Did you know....?

That Calico cats aren't a breed? It's a color variation that can occur in any breed so you could have a Calico colored Siamese etc.

Calico cats are almost always female. The orange color variation is carried on one X chromosome and the black carried on another X, so to have the two colors, you need two X's which mean female. Occasionally, 1 out of 3,000 can be male, but they are almost always sterile, and technically there is a genetic defect by having 3 sex chromosomes , instead of the standard two.

In some cultures Calico's were considered good luck(we could use some!)

One search turned up an article that John Ashcroft thought calico cats were the sign of the devil. It seemed weird to me so further investigation on Snopes proved that one untrue.

Calico Cats are the State Cat of Maryland because they share similar coloring of the Baltimore Orioles, and the Checkerspot Butterfly, the State insect.

Most of the above info I got here: http://absolutelycats.tripod.com/22Calico.html, Wikipedia, and Snopes. It was cool!!!

In my browsing I also ran across a lot of articles about kitten care. It had been so long since I had one this tiny(and honestly I think all of our cats were a bit older when we brough them home). It reminded me that yes, kittens play, but much like babies they need long periods of sleep. They also let me know that she is eating just fine, little bits all through out the day, and just about every site recommended the food dish be left out all day, and that dry food is the best. She still doesn't seem to like it all that much, though she is eating it, she seemed really, really, interested in Dh's hot dog last night, and nearly nabbed it out of his hands. We need to work on her table manners.

She is also much more lively with each passing moment. She is not a nut, and all over the place, so she will definitely be more chill, but she was interested in a lot this morning. She made the rounds again last night in her sleeping but it was cute that she started and finished her night with us. She is also a little chatty, not overly, but has a cute little voice.

I hope she does Ok tomorrow because she will be on her own while we spend the day swimming. Her and the dog are doing great. She keeps walking over Anna on her way to/from the bed and Anna barely registers it.

Both of the boys bikes are back on the road. Both got flats and DH spent a good hour last night fixing them so the boys are already out and about riding up a storm. Good thing too because the last two days without their bikes have been a bit tough. They needed an outlet for the extra energy. I'm looking forward to spending the day on the porch watching them, and I'm going to try to stitch. I have the urge but I just seemed to have fallen out of the habit of actually doing it.

And no, Steph is not a teacher, she is going back to school to finish up her degree. Intially she was going to move in here for a couple of months and then move to Chicago, live with her sister, and go to college there. Then she discovered because of her income last year(she worked 2 jobs for awhile to make ends meet) she wasn't elgiable for any grants and the tution was way more than she could manage. Instead she is going to a local college, that is like 1/3 the cost, taking a part time job, taking a full course load, and will stay with us a bit longer. I'm fine with that, it's nice having her here, and the extra money will continue to be handy as we head towards birthday's, Halloween, and the Holidays. She only has 4 semesters to do before she finishes up her marketing degree, and I think it's smart to buckle down, and get it done now. The up side of her part time job is she can throw work Dh's way since it's still in printing and she thinks she might be able to get me some work as well since they always need someone to do little stuff around the shop.

My only concern is she will be here a lot more during the day. When she scheduled her classes she wasn't sure what kind of part time job she might have, and was thinking she might have to waitress or something so none of her classes are before 11am so at least 3 days a week she won't be leaving the house until 10am or so. That will be weird to have the boys off to school but have her here. Then on the days she doesn't have school but work, she's not sure if it will be a whole day or not, some of the stuff she is going to try to do from home, so that will be an adjustment too. Still, I think it was an Ok choice to have her here and it's worked out really well.