Hi Everyone! I hope you all have weather as nice as mine. It was absolutely wonderful out this morning. I have been gathering commuter clothes and my latest purchase was a Squall stadium jacket from Land's End. It has windbreaker properties, but has a hood and a soft thinsulate lining. Perfect for what feels like a spring morning. I highly recommend it for anyone who has to stand on a windy train station platform. Or for tromping around outside. I am looking forward to March, and it is right around the corner. I think that my roses I ordered from Pickering will be arriving at the end of March. I got a Vilchenblau for my mom which I plan to give her for mother's day, a Sweet Bess, and one other one I can't remember. I will have to check my order. I am so excited to see my garden this year, because I moved a lot of plants to new areas and am looking forward to seeing if they like their new home better than the old one. I just wish I had planted some crocus or snowdrops. Martie, my thoughts are with you today. Hope all goes as well as you wish. Sue, I hope Zoe is doing better. And that the surgery issue works out. Somehow I can't find your posting with details of what happened with the insurance company, but hope it gets straightened out. V, did you bring Olive home? A couple of weeks ago my daughter and SIL were at a restaurant and there was a cat hanging around their car, meowing. They went inside, came out, it was still there. SIL asked the workers about it, and they said it had been there all day. My daughter got in the car and it jumped in her lap... They took it home. The vet said it is perfectly healthy, and 8 mos old. My SIL thought it was an old abandoned cat that he was going to offer shelter for the last couple of years of its life. It also explains why he was leaping on their other two cats, and playing so much. It is a very cuddly cat. They were going to name it OH Boy... because that is the name of the restaurant, but settled on Ziggy. Deanne, I just loved your fluffy birdy card. He was adorable. I have noticed little bugs on my Elephant ears that are determined to sprout in the basement. Must be that time. T- hope your car is fixed quickly and inexpensively. I am looking at getting new shocks and struts on my car. I have been driving Skip's van to work, and I don't like to drive a big car like that. Michelle, nice to see you! Good for you on getting projects completed before the warm weather. I thought I might get my kitchen finished before spring. We will see. Roof is leaking in three places, so that will probably be next project. Skip spent a month working on it last fall, but it must not have taken. I think He is going to have a major job on his hands. He took the whole roof off of one area right to the rafters, but it still leaks. I wouldn't have a clue how to fix that. Kathy, your front garden is really shaping up. And that camellia is huge! Is that a normal size? I don't think I have ever seen one in real life before, just the flowers. I am out of time, hi to those I missed! D.

Ronda, maybe your crocus will bloom yet, don't give up on them. It seems like one day you see green leaves, then a slight swelling, then a bud creeps out overnight! I should have taken another photo of those crocuses- they looks so frosty and cold (even though Dusty would be out weeding in her "it's 30º, it's a heatwave" T shirt! LOL) later on the sun came out and those babies popped right open, a lovely little sea of purple/lavender. Dusty, I spent 23 years in the confines of Minnesota. I know cold. The coldest temp I ever saw, not windchill, was -38º maybe lower and I'm just blocking it out-- and the windchill then was -75º. I went skiing once at -22, really tough to keep your nose and eyeballs thawed out. You have to be tough (aka stupid) to do that! My teenage car was about a 16 ton Pontiac Bonneville. One morning I went out to "warm it up" in really true bone- chilling cold well below zero. No cloth seats then: we had bubble plastic seat covers, colder than heck on the back side! I didn't realize quite how cold it was until I drove off some minutes later: the car tires had frozen flat where the weight of the car flattened out the tires parked overnight. So when I drove, it was thumpety thump, thumpety thump down the ice cold streets until the friction warmed them into round tires again! Ilsonshine- I have never kept a garden journal but one thing I tried "tried-" (meaning I remembered to do it for about a week) last year was log in bloom times of various perennials in various beds, ostensibly to plan better placement and remind myself of what I can count on to bloom, when. If I had a dime for every notebook or stray piece of paper with garden notes on it around this house I'd be retired and organized if I ever got them all in one place. I'm thinking my Circle Pal's file box might come in real handy to get garden notes organized too. Yippee: I picked up file dividers and note cards to fit that box the other day! Five weeks to Spring! Five weeks to Spring! Spread the word. Better get some of my 'winter' stuff done soon. (or it will wait til next winter) Poochella

Good morning! It's overcast and 64 here this morning. Today's the day I treat the granite, so the kitchen windows will be open while I go grocery-shopping. The stuff stinks to high heavens! Raeanne, my oldest Dson and DDIL are coming in very late tonight. They'll be driving down from Dallas, and she can't get off early. I'll probably take a nap this evening while waiting up for them! Youngest Dson and his family are coming over tomorrow to spend the long weekend with all of us. His new job now gives him weekends and holidays off! Two full days with my kids: I'm so excited! QOD: I'll be hanging out with my sons and their families, doing whatever we find to do. It only matters that we're together, for me. I know that we'll eat out some, a challenge I'll be prepared for with my WW "dining-out" book, and my kids love my kitchen and are all such good cooks, so they want to get in there and cook some, too. I'll get lots of time with the granddaughters, too. Dee, I hope the biopsy goes well. It's awful having things hang over you like that. Jen, holidays make some of the seasons, so I don't blame you for posting your favorites! Patti, I was so tired from my unsuccessful shopping yesterday that I didn't mind not going out to dinner last night. We don't have but 4 little restaurants around here, and they'd all have been crowded. I'm going to clean house today and have H take me out for dinner tonight instead. Suzanne, stay warm! I'd gladly split the difference in our temperatures with you right now! Got to get busy with my counter treatment then shopping. I hope everyone has a good day! I'll probably peek in this weekend to get my SS-board fix. LOL

Good morning goils-- Yes, I am among the living, and have missed you all like crazy!!! I have finally gotten a computer for me at home (I can't log on at work, and trying to get to the library is close to impossible!)So, I get to check my emails, and play on here to my heart's content-- Life is good, but so swamped. The company that I work for is a division of a larger corp, and the women that started it are wanting to separate from the main company and run it themselves. Since I am the financial guru, I've been putting in 80 hours weeks since January, and there is no end in sight. I am in the interviewing process for software vendors/tech support, and I am in over my head on this, as I am so not good with computers. However, since the accounting/HR software will make or break my working life, I want to be in on the discussions. One of the CPAs is giving me a fit, but apparently she was like this to my predecessor (which was a big factor in her leaving), but I just won't take it and roll over. We spent an hour on the phone yesterday day about something she screwed up with our AP, which resulted in us almost getting a utility cut-off in one of our group homes. My boss told me to put the bills on the company credit card because we didn't have much choice, and I did (I paid the bill through our weekly AP; corp screwed up the payment; we don't know where the check actually went to; and the utility was due to be shut off on this past Monday. I never heard a peep from corp until yesterday morning (Thursday) when she called b!tching that she has spent all of this time (?? wtf?)working on this issue, and then found out that I had put it on a CC. Alrighy, the the games begin....) I'll be glad to get rid of that insufferable cow. I'm still auctioning; we have one tomorrow. It's huge, but I'm tired, and not looking forward to it. Well, kinda--I just know it's going to be a loooong day. Well, I've lost 15 pounds since the beginning of February, and I am down about 25 pounds from my highest known weight. I bought a pair of jeans last fall that fit a bit loose, but now I can pull them down over my hips without unzipping 'em. My BIL is getting married on Memorial Day weekend (well, the last I heard), and I want to be down about 15 more pounds. (I'm trying to be realistic here). Let's see--I am trying to buy a car. Good Grief. What happened to car prices? I haven't bought one since '96 (Rog got the truck in '01), but geeze louise--10 years car loans? Why?! I'm looking at a used Camry because I want to pay cash (I hate car payments wit ha passion), but I just laugh at some of the prices. (No, I don't want to buy the real estate that the lot is on, I just want to buy a car.) I may have found one, but it's white (which is the one color I specifically did not want), and with this work schedule, I can't get up to the dealer to see it. Rog's cousin owns a dealership (yep--more $$$ than above, and a nice guy to boot), but for some inane, really stupid reason, hubster doesn't want to go to him. (It was OK to see cousin when *he* wanted the truck, but ohhhhnooooo, we can't go when *I* want a car. Go figure.) Hope this finds everyone well--happy birthday Patti! (Dee--lovely job; I couldn't have sang better myself! LOL) Love and hugs, Maddie