March Madness

It's way too beautiful to be stuck at a desk today.  Seriously.  Not that we haven't had a plethora of beautiful springlike days over the course of this non-winter that we have been having in North Texas, but now it's MARCH.  It felt kind of weird and wrong when it was 72 in February, but for March it feels just right.  Like, I can see Spring Break just around the corner - and St. Patrick's Day and Easter and Main Street Arts Festival and Mayfest and . . . .

Really, it's incredibly hard to concentrate.

Of course, THIS spring is not going to be without its challenges.  Spring Break, for example:  can't venture too far from the old homestead (and I am referring to the actual old homestead - we have to be around to crack the whip and make sure that things are progressing on the restoration).  Initially, I felt bad about taking any time off for Break, given that I will need to take time off when we move - but I have subsequently decided that I need time off with the kids in order to keep going.  So I'll take a couple of days off, and we'll have a North Texas Spring Break - visit the Arboretum for "Dallas Blooms," and take advantage of the Groupons that Spouse just picked up for admission to the UT Arlington Planetarium and for mini-golf and kart fees at Mountasia.  That's kart fees, with a K - when he initially mentioned it, I thought he was saying "cart fees," and I was trying to reconcile the concept of miniature golf with needing a golf cart.  I mean, really, how lazy have we gotten as a society?

The other challenge this year is to fight the urge to plant pots of pretty annuals for my yard.  You know, the yard that is now ten minutes down the road from me.  It's not like I can just step out the door and water and prune.  So, no pansies and petunias - just as there were no mums last fall.  I have decided that this is a good thing:  I have been slowly making a break from my "container pot annual" obsession and trying to move towards "lots of shrubs and perennials with only a few container pots mixed in."  I think that this is the year that I find my tipping point.   So I'm going to go over to the house, relocate some of the shrubs that we have, buy some others, plant some container roses in the actual ground, and give myself ONLY A FEW POTS, interspersed between the ground-planted stuff.  I think I have worked through in my head which pots are keepers and which are going bye-bye.  And it's entirely possible that, before all is said and done, I will have to have an all-container pot garage sale, because I seriously have that many.  Like I said, it was an obsession.

Lawd, it really is gorgeous out there.  And it's FRIDAY, for pete's sake.  What time is it?

4:18.  [Sigh.]