Spring welcomes

With all apologies to those of you anxiously waiting for the latest update, it has, once again, been longer than I thought since my last post. The last few weeks have seen the long awaited onset of spring, which I think began in full earnest this week. Prior to this week, it had continued to be intermittently cool and it is only this week that things have begun to leap into full bloom. It's one of my favorite times of year, when our little neighborhood in particular seems to shine, with azaleas, wisteria, daisies, and our apple tree sprouting blossoms almost overnight. To boot, it's nice enough today that I'm firing up the grill for its initial run for the year.

In other news, we spent last weekend painting Maggie's room devastatingly pink. She loves it, of course, but it is really pink. It almost glows. The house turns 39 this year, and is in need of some other upgrades, but to be honest, it looks better than it has since we bought the place. Hope springs eternal that one day we'll actually get it reasonably close to what we want it to be, but that still seems a long way off, if closer than before.

Michelle looked at our garden earlier and told me all we were growing was weeds. I'm inclined to agree. Looking in there now, there are definitely some green things, but nothing that looks like it might be tomatoes, peppers, or carrots. We do have lots of clover, and it is also clear that our efforts have attracted some animals, as something has been digging in there.

I've taken up my efforts to learn a little Spanish again, this time spending the dough to buy Rosetta Stone. We'll have to wait and see how it goes, but I like the RS approach, which is to never say a single word in your language, which means that you learn the language more intuitively, and eliminate the mental translation process.

We also took the kids to get their passports renewed this week, which was an experience in and of itself. Obviously, I'll post lots of stuff when the time comes, but until then you'll have to content yourself with gardening updates.