First Day of Spring, and I'm Feelin' It!

Mmmm . . . Backyard campfire, complete with s'mores!

Man, it's being hard to keep my mind on business! We've had an entire week when the temp hasn't gotten below freezing, and even slept with the window open a couple of nights. My tulips, daffodils, lilies, iris, etc. are all peeking up and waving at me; the pussywillow is doing its fuzzy-wuzzy thing, and the lilacs have buds. I just hope we don't get screwed by a late hard frost like we had last year, which meant that none of the spring flowers actually bloomed. I even filled the bird baths.

The down side of nice weather is that our hillbilly next-door neighbors are spending most daylight hours in their front yard jumping on their trampoline. It's really weird that they have it in their front yard when they have a big back yard. We have a privacy fence between our yard and theirs, but when they jump on the stupid thing, they pop up above the fence and look right onto our front porch. It's creepy.

If the good weather continues into the weekend, I plan on washing windows. Sounds strange, but I love clean windows. We're also going to put all the pieces of our wood cookstove together so I can take pictures of it and put it on Craigslist and/or e-bay. If it doesn't sell in a reasonable amount of time, the plan is to move it into the back yard, build some kind of construct around it, and incorporate it into my long-desired outdoor kitchen. Since it's cast iron, we have to build something to protect it from the weather. We used it when we lived in the Ozarks (it was our only stove), but it's just been a piece of furniture ever since we moved back to Lincoln. I think we've always harbored a secret desire to hook it up, but our kitchen's too small, we have no flue for it, and it would take a considerable amount to bring it up to code for the city.

I'll post more later in the weekend.

Heya Herb!

Last week I posted a little video of Hannah and Beca being totally silly with Günter's washboard contraption, so I thought maybe you'd like to see it being used in a more "serious" fashion. Günter and his friend Ember played a gig at the Jones Coffee House Saturday night, so I tried my hand at recording some of it. Lacking a tripod, it's a little herky jerky, and my zooming skills aren't really there, but you can get the general idea from this (but I don't know the name of the song, but I'm told that it's Ember's "naptime song" for her daughter).

And now, for your listening pleasure, is a little tune called "Cruel Woman Blues." Ember writes the songs.

I'm still trying to find a better way to upload videos — this takes forever.

When I'm done posting these, I'm going to try to join Facebook. I don't know why I'm so apprehensive about it, but I am. If I'm successful, I'll try to put up a few more songs there. I won't be looking at it every day — they have it blocked where I work (understandably), and by the time I spend all day on a computer, I don't usually even turn mine on at home. I'll probably be pretty active on it on weekends, though.

An update — Günter actually bought a Kindle, and was supposed to receive it today. I'll be anxious to see it and how it works. My niece told me she bought the app for doing the same thing (books) for her iTouch, and says it's pretty cool. I just think that tiny little thing would strain my old eyes.

Oh, and Herb? It was really fun hanging out with you this weekend. Don't be such a stranger!

Delightful afternoon

Well, with March coming in like a lion, what better way to spend a snowy Sunday afternoon than with a yummy brunch? All the kidlets came over, and we had potato pie (like a quiche, but with shredded potatoes for a crust), bacon, fruit, and homemade bread. I hadn't made the potato pie for a long time and had forgotten how much I like it!

Günter had constructed a funny washboard instrument that needed a little Dr. Tom help, so below is their version of "Wipeout." Tony must wonder what sort of asylum Günter and Hannah grew up in.