Another Try...

Quick borrowing time on Laura's computer showed that pictures were missing yesterday.

Above: the Patio cushy chair has become an overstuff chair.

The bunny is buried!

The paska is perfect.

And Rudy the Reindeer is knee deep in snow again.

San Diego is gorgous!

Blue skies overhead and flowers blooming everywhere.

Is it not just amazing how differently the season is expressed in different places?

All is well here.

The grandkittens are hilarious.

I got in some great shopping, and a seminar/party.

More later!

Iceland....Snowland...Sunland

My Iceland poppy plant is hanging out on our kitchen counter right now, close by for frequent admiration and examination.

I'd love to re-create it in ribbonry. I've got the perfect stamen, and I could make that center pod pretty easily.

A fine silk could be finger crinkled...and the center white ring bleached out....

Yup...it is totally do-able.

Pop it on a light straw when it is finished, or perhaps even use it as a single fascinator blossom: Yes, it is getting my creative impulses going.

Of course an "Iceland" poppy probably should be hanging out in the snow that we had all day yesterday.

After a full day of wind and dust blowing in on Tuesday, we were warned a big storm was on its way on Wednesday.

As soon as we looked out the window in the morning, Bernie broke out his ski gear.

Tiggie struck a pose next to the ski camel back. He (Tiggie) is quite content to let skiers do what they do while he naps and stays warm.

(Seriously...NOT FUNNY! said the bunny when I came home from work at 4.)

The patio furniture padding had increased greatly since I left hours ago.

I got an odd call at work: the ski lift operator at Solitude was calling from Bernie phone.

"Is this Bernie's wife?" a voice asked.

Er...yes.....(now what???? I fretted)

Turns out that his cell phone had escaped from his pocket, and a kindly fellow skier had turned it in. That hint about putting a word describing a relationship after a name paid off. The ski life operator had opened Bernie's phone, and saw "Jill-wife" listed right away in the address book.

I headed home early, and B. had just come back from the slopes.

"You find your phone?" I asked as I swung in the door.

He was SO relieved to learn that his business phone had been turned in!

We jumped back into the car that had AWD (it was STILL snowing...) and headed up the mountain.

The picture above is Solitude ski center.

The picture below is of the ski lift where Bernie's cell phone was turned it.

Skiing was "epic" according to Bernie.

Spring time powder is the best.

We've listened to people who have skied the top European slopes; they assure us that the best day of Swiss skiing is like the worst day of SLC skiing.

Today....well, it snowed all day yesterday and then all night too.

The "cushy" patio chair now is an "overstuffed" chair.

("mmmpmppmhummmmph" says the bunny now. I suspect he is plotting an Easter egg delivery boycott this year.)

'

I made Paska before I went to bed. The fragrance of paska cooling is a wonderful way to head to dreamland.

Outside...Rudy was knee deep again...

Inside...I spread icing thickly on a paska slice....

Outside...Mr. B. shovelled snow....

"Paska's ready"

"I'll be right in!"

(Tiggie was snoopervising the shoveling. Apparently B. had not completely cleared all of one step; Tigs sat above it and stared at it until B. went over and finished the job.)

Iceland...Snowland...and now (hopefully) for Sunland.

I fly to San Diego in a few minutes.

It is raining there I hear.

We'll see if we can find a touch of Sunland while we are there.

Have a Blessed Easter if I don't get a chance to post before then.

Older = Happier.

Brain magazine had uplifting news: Older brains are happy oriented. When presented with a photograph of something sad or something happy, older brains spend more time processing the happy picture, and pays less attention to sad pictures.

Perhaps this is because the older brain has already processed what it needs to learn about sad things, and realizes that focusing on happy things creates mental pathways to find other happy things, as opposed to finding pathways to help avoid unhappy things.

I'm wondering how old my brain would have to be to not pay attention to this picture:

(FYI: Tax Freedom Day is the day each year upon which one's tax burden is finally met. For us here in Utah, we fork over every dollar we earn between Jan 1 and April 11th to pay our taxes.)

Is it just me, or does it seem like the more we work the more we have to work?

I was looking at THIS or THIS website; it showed many kinds of charts to assist with the visualization of how much we are now working to just keep this country running...and actually going deeper into debt anyway.

(Canadians are welcome to check out their own charts HERE.)

You know what really bothers me the most?

The fact that almost all women work now and pay taxes.

How was it way back before the Feminist Revolution that for the most part families and our country survived on just one income-the husbands?

Sure, lots of women worked before the Feminist step up to the plate, and even back in Biblical times women were "praised" for being good business women (read the Virtuous Wife passage in Psalms; she apparently was into real estate and marketing fashion sashes.)

I'm not suggesting that women should never work outside the home. However, I'm about ready to suggest that until the government can figure out how not to go amok spending our dough, we women re-think a bit how our work enables overspending.

Women used to provide a lot of what is now called "Social Services". We nursed the sick, tutored the learning challenged, sheltered friends and family when they were down and out. I have a feeling we women did it with a lot more accountability too...figuring out how to do these services inexpensively. I like to also think that women provided a degree of dignity to those that they cared for, inspiring, with love, the recipients to be responsible for whatever they could provide.

The Christian who gives to the poor, tends the sick, and cares for the needy is a different person than the person who is forced to do the same under penalty of law.

In my world, a demand that you MUST hand over your time or money or suffer consequences is something I called "Stealing".

I seem to remember a commandment against that.

And I remember a greater commandment too: to love your neighbor as yourself.

What is more loving: to funnel money through many governmental hands to fund governmental programs, or to provide one-on-one to the needy?

Well, darn. I guess I am still too young brained. Apparently my brain still wants to pay attention to these unhappy sort of unresolveable things.

Anyone know a fast way to age one's brain?

Are the anti-aging creams and lotions that I slather on my face seeping down through my face and onto my brain?

(More facinating articles about the brain can be found HERE )

Signs that Easter is Near....

Daffodils and Violets in bloom.... a sure sign that Easter is near.

Our pharmacist in his Easter finest: Another good Easter-tide indication.

(He agreed to a picture when I explained I needed proof that I was not imagining that a giant rabbit was dispensing potions and pills that morning!)

Probably the most important non-religious sign of the season: Peeps!

So cute to see pink chickies!

And lavender bunnies all in a row.

Everyone smile!

(hee hee hee...)

Oh Oh OH!!!!

The bunnies!

The bunnies are getting BIG!!!!

The little pink chickie...

Is growing....

And growing!

Wow!

That Baby Bird is almost as big as Big Bird now!

Awww....road kill peeps.

Or maybe we should call them "Performance Art" Peeps.

Yes...I think they suffered for their art.

Their sacrifice for our enjoyment was great.

Technical notes: Peeps blow up best in low power microwaves. The lower the power the bigger the blow-up. I've seen the chicks blow up to the size of foot balls without breaking through their sugar coatings.

The sugar coating keeps the peeps from sticking to the plates or rupturing to the point of explosion.

This fact is the one drawback when blowing up peeps, at least in one young lad's opinion.

(The "lad" is out of town right now with his wife and in-laws, otherwise he would have been right there with me again blowing up spring time marshmallow critters!)

Once a mother of a son, always the mother of a son...explosion appreciation comes with the territory.

The fresher the peep, the bigger and better the blow-up. Mine were on clearance at the store today and they were already showing signs of shriveling up.

I had to put them out of their misery and shame.

No Peeps were injured during the filming of this post.

Serious...those weird little buggers really seemed to like doing this!

For those who were wondering what the "perfect" card that Gail sent to her younger sister said (roughly from memory):

" You may be another year older..."

Then inside:

"But I'm still your Big Sister"

(Oh how fun it must be to be a big sister, and to taunt your little sister forever!)

You Know Your Friend Knows You When....

BGF Gail scores again!

Gail is a Master card sender.

She has a knack of finding just the right card

to send to

just the right person

at just the time.

(Like she did to me with the Easter Hat card pictured above.)

Let me tell you just how good she is at this:
One day she found a birthday card that was just perfect to send to her younger sister.

So she immediately bought eight of them.

Then, a few days before her sister's birthday, she dug out one of the cards, sign it, and dropped it in the mail.

A year later, she mailed off the next one.

The year after that...another one was sent.

And so it went, year after year the same perfect card was lovingly sent.

Year #7 Gail's sister finally figured out that Gail had been sending her the same birthday card every year.

Gail was called; the joke was out.

They laughed together, and all was well.

The next year Gail sent her the same card all over again.

That happened years ago...and I am still laughing about it right now.

(And now maybe you are too!)