Weather

Spring sprang a few weeks ago, it's been quite nice. Wildflowers are everywhere, blowsy little 4-petaled pink ones and white clover and of course Bluebonnets covering the mowed areas next to all the roads. The azaleas by the ponds here bloomed last week, huge bushes full of bright pink flowers. Last weekend the weather was perfect, sunny and 70 with a nice breeze. I spent most of Sunday afternoon sitting on the couch with the porch door open, letting the breeze ruffle my gauzy curtains, with the Kitten and a smoothie and a book. Perfect.

The smoothie was good too, vanilla frozen yogurt, frozen red raspberries, milk and just a bit of almond extract all blended together. I made a version with half a block of bittersweet chocolate chopped fine tossed in there too, which was also yummy.

I'd thought about going down to the pool here, but Boyfriend was busy, and pools are no fun by yourself. So the Kitten and I enjoyed the weather.

I planted seeds in the planters on my porch, thyme and forget-me-nots and catnip for the Kitten's garden. She likes to sit outside and stare intently at it, it's her hobby.

But unfortunately we only get weather this nice for a short time. The azaleas have already fallen. It rained most of this week, which washed the air clean and kept the temperature under 80, but it won't be much longer til I have to run the AC 24/7 like my neighbors. There is no break between having the heat on in the winter and the AC on in the summer here, you have to switch from one to other immediately.

Summer was always my favorite season growing up, but I think Spring has edged it out, in Texas at least. I really enjoy our 2 weeks of it.

I have the best boyfriend ever.

I tried to go to bed last night around 11:30, but couldn't sleep right away, as I not designed for this diurnal life I lead. I ended up reading until about 1 am, then decided I really should go to sleep, as I had a 8:30 am meeting this morning.

As is my habit, when I decided I was really truly going to bed now, I went to formally invite the Kitten to join me. She likes an engraved invitation, but will settle for me chasing her around the living room for a while. When I went out, I saw her sitting in the corner by the front door, looking intently at the wall. I asked her if she thought she was in time-out, and went and scooped her up. When I stood up, my eyes followed hers to what she had actually been staring at, and saw the

HUGE COCKROACH

lurking right above my door, obviously planning an ambush!

I gasped in shock, seriously, and it is always a strange feeling when my lungs do things on their own initiative. I considered my options, but I don't keep Raid around because it wouldn't be good for the Kitten, and I hate killing bugs big enough that you can feel them crunch, *gag* and I usually miss anyway and then they run around my apartment and have time to put their hideous plans in action. And they all have hideous plans, I can tell, this one was just sitting on my wall getting all its little details straightened out and waiting until I went to bed to put it in motion.

So I called Boyfriend. At 1 am. To come kill a bug for me. And he came! He came right over and disposed of it, then washed his hands to humor me because he was near the bug, even though he didn't actually touch it. Then he hugged me for about 5 minutes and went back home.

I knew he would be awake, he's sleep-shifting because he has to work 6 pm - 3 am next week, but still. It was awesome. He didn't even make fun of me for it!

Oh yeah, I have a blog-thingy

I had almost forgotten.

Highlights of the last month or so:

• We went to Austin for our 1.5 year anniversary! It was really nice, we ate at a very cute restaurant downtown on Friday night. Saturday we went to the flagship Whole Foods, which is so big it has a parking garage, got lunch stuff and had a picnic in Zilker Park on the banks of the Colorado River. It was a bit chilly, so we sat very close and he kept my feet warm. It was a beautiful day, lots of people walking dogs, and all the dogs were extremely interested in the idea of food in their park. I took a very bad picture of us on my cell phone.

• My dad came down to see me! He took a 30 hour bus ride after visiting my sister in NC to get here. It was a very nice visit. I took him to see some things we'd missed the last time he was here, and he entertained the Kitten while I was at work. He brought me rocks from NC! It was awesome, 3 of them are covered in rusty-red dirt, and 3 are nice quartz ones. Not only did he know I would love them, he literally rode a bus for 30 hours with a suitcase full of rocks for me! Best dad ever, seriously.

• We met our friends' new baby girl! She is very tiny and cute. My mom had made her some very soft and fuzzy receiving blankets, and I had made some casseroles for the new parents, so we brought them and dinner over. Before she was born, someone lied through their teeth to the new father and told him that newborns sleep for 18-20 hours a day! I was very amused. She enjoyed watching us play Rock Band, though, so it was a fun night.

• I've used my crockpot more the last two weeks than the past 6 months! I made chili verde last week, for which I tossed a chopped onion, chopped lean pork, a can of white beans, and 2 cans of green (tomatillo) salsa into the crockpot and cooked it all day. It was very good, we ate it in burritos with cheese and sour cream. I'm making kielbasa and saurkraut as we speak, because I had a craving for it the other day. Tonight I'm going to make irish soda bread and irish potatoes, and tomorrow make corned beef and cabbage!

It's very odd, you'd never know tomorrow was St. Patrick's Day down here. Apparently irish potates are a Philly thing, Boyfriend had never even heard of them. He's not a big coconut fan though, so I'll probably send all the ones I don't eat into work with him along with the other half of the soda bread, because my recipe makes such a big loaf. But mmm, irish soda bread for breakfast tomorrow!