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So, what with the in-laws coming later this month and all, the husband and I decided to get the house in order. Which means we had no choice but to take notice of all the stuff we had managed to acquire. Stuff that was just sitting around and collecting dust.

The last time we did serious purging, we used Craigslist to give items away for free. Which turned out to be kind of a pain. There were all kinds of people who said they’d take stuff, only to never show up. Or to change their minds after haggling for a week about a pick up time. There were a few items that just ended up in the trash because that was so much easier than finding someone to take our perfectly good stuff.

So this time around, we tried Freecycle. Since it is a somewhat closed community (you have to get approved for membership) that is heavily moderated (you break the rules, you get kicked out), we figured we might have better luck. Also, it is local - you can only join your local Freecycle group - so we wouldn’t run into the problem of people deciding they didn’t feel like making an hour-long drive for something. At the most, if you hit all the lights, it might take you 15 minutes. Best case scenario, you’ll be within walking distance.

So we spent Friday night and Saturday posting items on Freecycle. And then we started watching our stuff head out the door! PS3 controllers, a camera bag, old video cards, a computer desk, a tv, a three hole punch, leftover thank you cards from our wedding - nothing is too big or too small for freecycling.

The husband just wanted to trash everything, to get it out of the house ASAP. But I, having grown up in Washington state, couldn’t bear the thought of filling up our landfills with stuff that still worked fine. Also, I have pretty serious hoarder genes that run in my family. Thankfully, I have little desire to keep stuff I don’t use; I just hate to see things go to waste.

And so our perfectly good stuff has found new homes where it will be loved before it ends up in a landfill. Not to mention all the people we made happy! The winner of the box of DVDs is set for family movie night till the end of the year. The video cards get a second life in a new machine. And somewhere, in the next block over, someone is rocking out on their new rock band guitar.

This is what happens to a squash when it comes up against a turtle who hasn’t eaten in six months. Poor thing never stood a chance.

Even though there are snow showers in this weekend’s forecast, spring has finally made it to my house! After months of moping around and ignoring her expertly prepared romaine and squash (presented on a paper plate! on top of a sheet of newspaper!), Tortellini has finally decided that it’s time to wake up.

She generally has a winter-time lull, where her eating slows down or even stops for a few weeks, but this time she took her hibernation seriously. She’s been ignoring her food for months! I was starting to get a little worried, but the google assured me that Russian tortoises can, indeed, hibernate for half the year if they set their minds to it.

As reassuring as that was, though, there’s just something creepy about hibernation. All that not eating! It defies logic.

So this morning, I plopped Tortellini down directly under her heat lamp. I put out a fresh plate of spring salad and lima beans within easy turtle reach. And then I left for work.

Much to my dismay, when I got home, she hadn’t eaten. All she had done was rotate herself 90 degrees, so that she was no longer looking directly at her food. And her head was tucked oh-so-tightly into her shell.

A short while later, though, the husband noticed that her head was out, so I made my move. I unzipped the terrarium, and held a lima bean in front of her face. After an agonizing wait, she finally snapped at the bean and almost snagged it. (Having eyes on the side of your head makes it hard to eat lima beans out of someone’s hand. Just sayin’.)

After another agonizing wait, she tried again and finally got it. While she worked on that bean, I made a call to refill a prescription, and then I fed her another one. I followed that up with a piece of romaine, but she wasn’t much interested, so I let her be. Since all she has to do is turn 90 degrees and take a step forward to, you know, eat a whole plateful of turtle yumminess all on her own.

So yeah. Spring! It’s here! Snow showers and all.