Wear a sweater March 20

I only wish I could learn to knit a sweater before then. Hooray for Mr. McFeely!

Happiness is...

having the whole park to yourself and a warm, sunny day in which to enjoy it. (This is from Monday. Today it's pushing a whopping 40 degrees.)

 

Geeks rule the world

And today we are on the verge of a national holiday. CBS is streaming original episodes of Star Trek and a trailer of sorts is out for X Files 2.

This can't top my sister-in-law's toenail story, but when I was a kid I couldn't wait to get home from school so I could watch Star Trek and Dark Shadows -- back to back starting at 4 p.m. weekdays. I loved Spock so. Don't even get me started on Barnabas Collins.

Watching the wildlife

We popped in for a quick visit at the zoo on Saturday. Like every other local, we wanted an outdoor activity to take advantage of what felt like the first real day of spring.

Waiting in line turned into a treasure hunt.

In addition to the really funny giraffes (see below), the other animals were enjoying the weather as much as the humans.

We are really particular about patronizing any facility or event that makes money from animals. I rely heavily on accreditation by the AZA. (If you know me, that goes without saying.) This zoo is one that is accredited and has made vast strides over the years. Animal welfare, breeding programs, conservation, etc., are paramount. End of my PSA for today.

God has a sense of humor

Exhibit A:

We'll Be Loyal Scouts

Nolan earned his Webelos badge and received it at his Cub Scout Blue and Gold banquet last week. (Sorry for the oddly cropped photo -- I don't post photos of children who are not my own.) The boys were thrilled with their advancement but just as excited about the magician who performed.

Will the balloon pop? Better safe than sorry...

Sometimes truth really is stranger than fiction

For once, South Carolina didn't start it: Georgia is annexing Tennessee. I could not even make this stuff up.

I think we could take Savannah. I'm pretty confident.

Carolina Werewolf

That really could be a picture of anything, couldn't it? You will have to trust me when I say it is the beginning of last night's lunar eclipse. (It was the best I could do standing out on the front steps in my pajamas.) It was beautiful. I am taking it as God's little gift of nature in advance of today's (insert descriptive word here) expected sleet. I find it very hard to be thankful for sleet. I guess I need to work on that.

Hangin' with my peeps, yo

Or something like that. This is from Winter Jam Friday night, which turned out to be a fun way to reach certain realizations about my rapidly advancing age. I found myself saying things like "When did concerts become so loud?"

My wonderful  husband was able to get box seats through his office, so this photo was taken from my hideout in the lounge area. A lovely sound-diffusing piece of glass separated us from the kids and gave us a few decibels edge on them.

Mercy Me was fantastic, as expected, and we heard a couple of songs from Connorsvine (never heard of them before). They were great and it turns out that half the duo is the punter for the Indianapolis Colts. I also learned that Guest Services stocks a ready supply of ear plugs.

Spring, etc.

Well, not quite spring...but we do have bluebirds shopping our backyard housing market. I'm ready to offer them a subprime deal just to spite that groundhog.

And a fun story today about the Smart Martha program, a household organization system based on the Biblical story of Mary and Martha. (I am such a Martha...)

Arigato

Ack. I forgot my camera today, so these crummy cell phone pictures will have to serve as evidence of our fantastic box seats at San Jose Taiko. The performance was great and I can still sense their ki after watching their kata this morning. (Yep, that's all the Japanese I know.)

We continued the theme with bento box lunches (except with cupcake liners and plastic storage containers). Arigato, Whole Foods Market.

Creating

Engineering Day at Roper Mountain Science Center was like Christmas in February -- more activities than we could possibly complete. The highlights for my boy(s) were water rockets, wind turbines and testing out Newton's laws with Hot Wheels cars.

An object in motion stays in motion (until it cracks on the floor -- no, not really):

Power to the people:

Wind turbines ahoy:

 

3, 2, 1...

Where did it land?

Recovery!

Because it's Tuesday

Time to catch up before more of the week disappears:

Spongebob lives!

We made butter, just like the folks in colonial America -- except we reverted to a little help from KitchenAid when we got tired of shaking the milk. A minor deviation...

Looking for spring --

and finding too much time spent inside.

Too intense

Random insanity of the day: One in four Britons believe Winston Churchill never (never, never, never, never) existed. Or maybe they were yanking the surveyor's chain.

Moving on...

Because Janet knew what I wanted even though I didn't, I now know that I need the same intensity of colors in this quilt. More fabric choices are below and when I finish work projects and school this week, I need to go see this fabric in person. I do believe that charm pack would make 9 four-patch squares that would do just perfectly.

The main fabric will be the orangey/coral one that reminds me of Mexican pottery.

Why we have health insurance...

The boy climbs things.