Ahh...spring.

Nothing says spring like ice crystals. Isn't this a cool pattern? I couldn't resist taking a picture. Can you guess what it is?

Can you?

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Have I mentioned that it's mid-April. And SPRING. It may look pretty, but I refuse to use my ice scraper past the end of March. That's just wrong.

Will Spring Ever Arrive?

Tomorrow is the first day of spring and this is what I saw out my window yesterday. Disgusting. I'm sorry it gets shaky at one point. It must have been my uncontrollable sobbing.

Random Thoughts

It's been a virtual blog ghost town lately. No one seems to be updating their blogs this week (Amanda... Flannery... Melissa...). I'm even feeling uninspired. I couldn't muster up the creative juices to write anything yesterday and today I'm feeling the same. Blah.

My last post was my 200th. It took me a year to reach 100 and two months to reach 200. Have I been chatty lately?

Have I mentioned how much I love my car? I love my car.

Luke's Jeep has decided to hold a sit-in in our driveway. It's refusing to not only let him open the doors, but also to start. I blame this on Luke's talk of buying a new truck lately. I was still in my bathrobe, making coffee this morning when Luke tried to leave and couldn't. I had to throw some clothes on, dunk my head in the tub, toss some makeup in my purse and hop in the car to take Luke to work. I left in such a hurry that I had to take mental inventory of my outfit before I got out of the car at work, just in case: shirt? check, pants? check, two matching shoes? check.

Molly goes for a haircut tonight. She gets her hair cut more often than I do and her haircuts cost more than my salon visits do. What does this say about me?

I've been crafting lately but I can't share the details with you because they are top-secret crafts for a certain someone who might be reading this blog. Stay tuned and maybe I'll eventually be able to reveal what I've been up to.

It's going to snow tonight, I'm so sad.

Photo Friday

Since all I am thinking about these days is getting a new car and trying not to get sick, I thought I'd spare you the lame stories and instead share some pictures. Above is a shot of my back yard view this morning. And below are some beautiful trees in my front yard. Ahh, so pretty you almost forget it's nasty cold and your shoes are filled with slush.
And this is my mighty dog playing in the snow last week as some sweet sledding was taking place in the back yard. Molly does like to sled, but she's suffering from a little cabin fever and needed to burn some puppy energy by chasing the sled, and sticks, and squirrels, and her tail...And finally, our fearless guard dog watching over us as the sun goes down on another cold winter day.

Denial

One of the things I like most about myself is my ability to completely ignore the things that I can't stand. Like sleet and snow, for example. Some might call it denial, I prefer to think of it as selective observance.

Yesterday, while at home because the campus where I work closed due to the weather, I sat by the warm wood stove and looked through gardening magazines, happily imagining that spring had arrived. In honor of the springtime in my mind, I started painting some pretty, warm weather pictures.

The birdie on the left is the finished product that I showed in progress here, and the iris-to-be on the right was started yesterday. These are both painted in acrylic on small squares of clayboard, something new I'm playing with. It's been fun and it gives me something else to shop for at the art supply store.

Inevitable

I knew it had to happen sometime. I just really wished it wouldn't. Welcome to our back yard.

So Sad

I knew it wasn't going to last. 60-degree weather in January in Connecticut is unnatural, I know. But I liked it. I could go out of the house without a coat and I haven't had to shovel snow, heck, I haven't had to look at snow since last winter. Sigh...

Tomorrow night we're getting snow. We might even get 5 inches of the nasty whiteness. I know that I whined about wanting snow in December, but that's because Christmas is so much more festive with a sparkly white coating. Now that Christmas is over, I'm ready for spring!

Let's just hope that the weathermen are wrong again and maybe we won't get any snow at all. Maybe it'll rain flower petals. Who knows. A girl can hope.

Brrrrr!

OK, I take it all back. That stuff a I said about "come on snow" - strike that. The 60-degree weather in December? It can come back.

Yesterday I didn't post because I didn't regain the feeling in my fingers until late in the evening. I spent four hours of the morning out in the freezing cold and intermittent snow just where you'd want to be: hugging a massive steel gate. I was volunteered to help another employee apply reflective vinyl to the new, massive gates that were installed on campus. It was 30 degrees and windy but it had to be done. We couldn't wear gloves because the vinyl stuck to them, and at times when it was snowing and our frozen skin became wet from the melting flakes, I worried we might get stuck to the cold metal like Flick in The Christmas Story. My knuckles were bleeding and didn't realize it, my fingers swelled so badly when I came back inside that it hurt where my wedding ring was cutting off the circulation to my finger. It was great.

I found out that I had been volunteered to help in this project when I was on my way from my car to my office that morning. It had been the kind of morning where it took me over an hour to get to work, it was snowing so hard at home that I couldn't see the road, my car, which badly needs tires, skidded all over the road, and there was so much traffic for no good reason that I nearly ran out of gas on the highway. I finally made it to the parking lot at work, pried myself out of the car and was walking stiffly to my office when a co-worker stopped to tell me the good news. I had a conversation with him, then walked away and thought - did I remember to do my hair this morning?

Ya, it was that kind of a day.

Happy December

In case you live in Connecticut, I thought I should remind you, it's December. I know it feels like April and the extremely confused forsythia bush in my front yard is starting to flower, but really, it's December. This morning Molly and I went for a walk at 6:30, it was 62 degrees. In my car on the way to work, I sang along with "Let it Snow" on the radio. A little wishful singing. December is the only month where I feel it is acceptible to have snow on the ground. It needs to be pretty and picturesque in December, not balmy and warm. Come on snow!