Is It Spring Yet?

Here we are more than half way through April and the tulips are just beginning to bloom, the magnolia tree had almost no blossoms on it, and the trees are just starting to show a little green.  Weather has been nice for a few days, but now it's back to rain which is expected to last into Tuesday.  Any time now!

The unspringy weather hasn't slowed us down at all though.  WonderMom and I took advantage of the nice weather to clean up the flower beds in the front yard.  Still have a lot of work to do in the back, but that'll have to wait for the next dry spell.

Need to get the tomato and pepper seedlings from Cricket to get them ready for putting out next month.  I was looking at them when we were at her place for Easter.  Had a great time with them, BTW, and guess what, the new puppy like me!

Speaking of Cricket, she and Paco have sprung for a new (to them) van, a newer ('06 I believe) Sienna, a burgundy red, LE model.  She showed up with it last Thursday when she visited before taking her brood to see the dentist (good reports all around BTW).  Lucky for us we had our new (to us) '08 Prius parked in the driveway so she could be surprised, too!  And Shimmy complimented us on getting a car the same color as our house - sea foam green or something!  See photo!  That's WonderMom reprising her role as a car show model!

Also picked up a few new items from the Apple store, and they all shipped on different days - free shipping all around.  The FedEx folks stopped by four different days last week! 

And finally, WonderMom picked out a new glider to replace my overstuffed (and over used) lounge chair.  It takes up less space and is actually more comfy. 

I think (hope) were done with the buying spree for a bit. 

We went out to dinner with our friends from up north, whom we haven't seen since last November.  It was good to see them again.  We got all caught up on family happenings and summer plans.  We always enjoy our infrequent get togethers with them. 

More when it happens!

It's Good To Be Home

It's been a good winter for us, especially given the rough one the folks back home here had.  We had to turn on the heat for a few days in January and February, and got to use the AC twice in March, but most of the time was it was pleasant.  That's what we go for!

WonderMom had a great winter with her quilting as I documented in our Westward Ho blog.  She felt accepted and became a part of the quilting group in our RV park and even joined the local chapter of the AZ Quilters Guild as a member at large.

I spent most of my time doing computer stuff - boring, I know - but it's what I do!  I was able to video the annual talent show AND a small play this year and create DVD for sale.  I enjoy doing that kind of work, but it is time consuming.

Our several outings with OfficeCat aka Cruise Director, and NASCARguy were chronicled in the various posts in the Westward Ho blog, here and here.

We also enjoyed our visits with Shimmy and her family in CA.  The boys, Thing one and Thing two, are growing and maturing a lot in our absences.  Wish we could see them more.  Looking forward to their visit this summer.  I'm hoping Socket and his family can make it this year.  It'll be good to have them all together again.

Our trip home was mostly uneventful.  We ran into some dust/sand storms in NW AZ, but there were no places where you couldn't see the cars ahead of you.  Had to keep the outside air vents closed to keep the dust out of the car.  The bird seems pretty airtight.  We also ran into some patchy fog Friday morning east of Tulsa on I-44.  Gas prices were down dramatically from last year!  The highest we paid was $2.13 in Grants, NM.  Everyplace else was under $2.00. 

Our neighbor, Dale, who watches our house while we're away, had already gotten the water turned on, the water heater turned up, and the waterbed plugged in.  It was all ready for us to move right back in. He does a great job for us!

Cricket and her family arrived here shortly after we got home and got the house opened up.  Along with hugs and kisses, they brought food for the weekend, so WonderMom didn't have to do any cooking or shopping right away.  We'll be going to her house this weekend for Easter. 

That's about it for now.  We're getting things organized (we brought a lot of stuff back home) and stowed.  Got the computer network up and running, with some problem.  We have a little old iBook that just runs the upstairs printer.  I made the mistake of installing a bunch of updates that were waiting and it wouldn't boot up afterwords.  Had to wipe the drive and reinstall the OS, normally a simple procedure.  However!  The OS that was on it is only available on a DVD, and this iBook doesn't do DVDs!  The external DVD drive I used to install the OS last time, decided it didn't want to work anymore either!  So I had to settle for an older OS version  that I had on CDs.

Meantime, WonderMom is already working on her first quilt of the summer!

I'll be back as things happen, if they happen, just in case someone actually reads this blog.