Still cold - this SUCKS!!  It's 30 degrees and the wind chill makes it in the teens and they're actually predicting snow flurries.  It's almost May, for God's sake!  What's up with this?  Last year at this time, we'd been using our A/C off and on for a month!

Well, my back deck is all cleared off and ready for my plants, if it ever gets warm enough to put them out.  But oh, what a mud hole the back yard is!  It's been raining for the last several days and it literally looks like three little ponds out there.  I've sent Erik (our landscape guy) an e-mail about putting in those large pavers that have been sitting in the driveway for a few years and then sodding the rest of the yard.  We HAVE to do SOMEthing out there.  The whole yard is just erroding away...

Yesterday was Mom's birthday.  Aunt Judy is in town, which is probably a great b-day gift!  I got her this cool wine glass I found on Amazon...

They're called Lolita wine glasses and they have about a bazillion designs.  Each are hand-painted and they're just as cute as can be.  I'm thinking I might order me a few for myself!  I've found a few I like - one with a cactus on it, some with flowers, one with hearts.  They have a lot of really adorable ones for just about any mood or personality.  What fun!!

Mark's been "working on" my bedroom closet.  He's put in what they call cedar "car siding" (why they call it that, I have no idea!)  He did the spare bedroom closet a few years ago and it turned out beautiful.  With this one, I first took out the shelf that sit above the hanging bar.  I painted the woodwork and above the wood border that the shelf sit on - a nice, bright yellow.  Then I sponge painted over the yellow a terra cotta color to compliment the color of the cedar.  Here's the painting...

He still hast to put the trim on the ceiling.  (He had to fir out and put cedar on the ceiling, too, because there was some old water damage...)  Here's where he's put the cedar below that trim board...

Isn't it pretty?!!  Next he'll be putting in the shelves - we're changing it from a clothes/hanging closet to more of a linen closet with shelves.  It should be a big leap in getting me organized!

I'm just hoping he can get it completely done before they start the bathroom - then I'll have somewhere to put all the stuff from the bathroom and won't have to be tripping over boxes of stuff until it's finished. 

... I started this one on Tuesday and it's now Friday and what a difference a few days make!  Yesterday, I put out a butt-load of my plants.  Yes, it may be a bit risky, but I'm sick of waiting!  If they predict something close to freezing, I'll throw some plastic over them.  But I only put out my tough succulents - no Hoyas or jungle cacti yet. 

Aunt Judy's going home today, so I'm eeting her and Mom for lunch.  I may try to go down to work early - I'll see how I get around here.  But before I forgot...

My Hoya latifolia is growing!!!  I've had this puppy for 7 years.  It was one of the very first plants I got from Carol Noel.  It's been one of the slowest growing plants I've ever had.  I'm not sure it's even put on ANY new growth in the last two years - maybe a leaf, maybe two... I don't know.  But it has FOUR new growth points!!  FOUR!  Wow!  That's unprecidented!  I put it up on the top shelf, back kind of out of sight, either last year or the year before.  It's one I used to look at often and feel frustration that it did so little.  So I thought maybe if I put it where I won't see it often, it will not be affected by my frustration with it.  (If you think I'm being silly, please read The Secret Life of Plants...)  Well, I could tell it was happier because when I get up there to water (I have to use a step stool to get up there), I've noticed it looked fat and happy and super-duper succulent.  But this takes the cake!  I'm extremely excited!  And now it has that whole top shelf to itself (now that I've taken the other stuff outside) so it can be "plant-gone-wild."  YAY!