Exquisite Spring!

After a verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry long winter, Spring has outdone itself this year! The spring peepers began March 31 (a nice birthday present indeed!) and April has been glorious. It gets greener and more colorful by the minute with bursts of screaming yellow from the forsythia and daffodils and blasts of blue from the anemones and grape hyacinths and highlights of red from the tulips, which miraculously the deer haven't munched. The clematis is climbing and leafing out and the asparagus is leaping out of the ground! I'm also way ahead of where I usually am in tending to the garden and yard. It helped tremendously that I managed to clean up the beds last fall. All those bulbs I grumbled about having to plant last fall (several hundred!) are fulfilling their promise and paying me back for the earlier effort, as I kept telling myself while digging endless holes last fall. We've already had several cook outs over our fire pit. We have a huge supply of wood from all the branches we had to collect and saw up after the ice storm in early March. It is all neatly stacked.

I've been trying to ride my bike at least every other day about 5 - 6 miles. Of course, there is always at least one short walk with the dogs daily as well. They can't do a long one in the afternoon anymore since they are feeling their 11 and 13 years lately. Now that the furnace guys are FINALLY done installing our new gas furnace/humidifier/air filter/central air conditioner I can move everything back into the furnace room and we can reclaim our yoga / exercise machine space.

I am curiously still in my crocheting/knitting mode. This usually only lasts until gardening season begins, but I have many delightful patterns I'm working on! I discovered all these free patterns on line and have made about 20 dish cloths / baby washcloths which I have mostly given away to friends and family. They are cute with dog paws, cats, baby feet, initials, etc. on them and they are something you can finish in a few hours time and feel creative! I made a darling crocheted bib in yellow and white on the way to Amy and Mike's baby shower last weekend. I'm starting a crocheted tank top and I'm half done with a purse (which I'm inventing as I go). I'm wrapping Keely and Ian's Wedding Shower present in dishcloths with hearts or initials (B or K or I) on them and I have to make 2 more to cover the gift. I've also completed a couple of necklaces made out of stone beads I bought at Michael's (a very dangerous place for me to go in!).

We've / I've been listening to books on cd while I work or drive. We listened to an interesting one on the 8 hour trip to Amy and Mike's baby shower called Discovering Your Inner Economist. This may not sound like a promising title, but it was truly great and very far ranging! Currently we are listening to Golf for Enlightment , by Deepak Chopra. This may also sound like something to be rather wary of, but it is surprisingly good! If you've ever played golf you can really appreciate it; however, I think anyone would get something out of it since what he has to say can apply to any aspect of life. Deepak Chopra is a rather famous yoga / meditation specialist. Again, this one is rather far ranging in scope, despite the title. George begins his golfing season this Saturday morning, so maybe it'll help!

I went to school yesterday - and that will be it for this week if I can help it. ""Tis a silly place!" George had to be out 2 nights this week teaching and observing a fellow teacher to give feedback and evaluation.

Next week both George and I get to to do repeat visits with our respective dental professionals. I get my "real cap" on and George gets the cotton pulled out of his tooth which hopefully killed the massive infection he developed (over the last 5 years) from a root canal gone wrong. They will patch him up and hopefully save the tooth.

We'll have a couple of weeks off from traveling until May 8th when we will drive back to Philly to visit Mike and Amy before the baby comes and do some electrical work, visit Adam and Vanessa and gather up Anya from MICA (I hope she gets that storage space arranged!) and then visit George's sister, Chris and install a ceiling fan for her. The wedding shower for Keely and Ian is the next weekend as well as Josh's "graduation". Apparently the lad needs to take a religion class this summer to make up for the one he dropped because he was flunking! GREAT! He still gets to "walk" though. He also needs to get a job and an apartment - we are establishing ground rules - hopefully the job by August 1 and the apartment by 3 months after that. Keely and Ian get married May 31 - which is the same day Amy and Mike's baby is due! This is going to be one spoiled kid. For starters it has 3 grandmothers, 3 great-grandmothers and LOTS of AUNTS!!! So, we will be heading back to Philly sometime in early June. We have one more wedding June 21st. Adam will be home for Josh's graduation and Ian and Keely's wedding too, so we will have a house full.

Guess, I'd better go start a fire - its hamburgers tonight!