Pining For Those Lost Days Of Winter

Taller Than Granny (on tiptoes!)

Spring snuck up on me this year.  Sitting here in Dallas, I should have known it, but still, it's a shock to realize that when we will return to Chautauqua, it will be Springtime.   We are probably the only two people in Chautauqua County who mourn the passing of winter.  According to the Weather Channel, however, it's snowing at the moment in parts of Western New York so Spring may have to wait.

It's 7:15 and both Evie and I are up, waiting for Marisa and Beth to come downstairs. Marisa leaves for school at 7:45 so we won't have much time with her.  We watched Morning Joe interview Presidential candidate, Pete Buttigieg.  He's impressive, both a vet and mayor, experienced, knowledgeable, intelligent, and articulate, so he probably has no chance of luring voters away from Trump.  Enough of politics for this early in the morning.

Mitch Flies To Colorado This Afternoon To Ski

Tuesday was definitely spring-like here in Dallas as the temperatures were in the 70's much of the day, warm enough for me to work up a sweat when I was out for a walk.  Evie and I were home alone much of the day because Marisa was in school and Beth had her art class in the morning.  We decided, then, to get out of the house and drove 15 minutes to North Haven Nursery, not quite as nice as my sister Ellen's favorite nursery, Merrifield, in Herndon, VA, but close.  We browsed for an hour, tempted to buy but didn't pull the trigger for any plants, just a cool welcome mat, and some sweet pea seeds.  It was tempting though but a 19-hour drive back to the lake discouraged us. After the nursery, we drove to Central Market and since Evie had not been there yet, we ended up spending quite a bit of time browsing all the aisles, picking up some veggies for an Asian stir fry.  It's a great store, full of temptation, and hard to get out of there for under fifty bucks and we didn't.

"Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here," Dante's INFERNO

We were home by 1:00, time for a lunch of the last of the leftover vodka pasta.  After our morning, we just hung out the rest of the afternoon,  Beth is working on preparing for some courses she will be taking next week, in preparation for her Master's Degree work which will start this summer.  She is excited about getting back to school even if it means she will be very busy, as she is hoping to keep up with her volunteer work teaching ESL students.  I read and napped, took Cody for a walk, then around 4:00, I worked up a sweat walking uptown to the Highland Park Shopping.  As I browsed, I have yet to see a customer in any of the upscale shops, just bored salespeople.

Marisa was home around 4:30 and Evie had cooked up three artichoke hearts for her snack which both she and Mitch love.  So we sat around eating the leaves, then the hearts until Marisa went upstairs to do work because she had a chemistry tutoring session from 6:30 to 7:30, another busy girl.  Evie and I put together our dinner around 6:00,  a stir fry with the leftover teriyaki steak, rice, asparagus, bamboo shoots, bok choy, and various sauces. When Beth returned from taking Marisa to her tutoring class, the four of us sat down to dinner.  It was good, not great, and could have used more seasoning, more heat.  When Marisa returned, she relaxed with us and watched some TV before going up to finish her homework.  We watched some TV with Beth until 10:30 when we started dozing and called it a night.