Taking the stairs instead of elevator to your appointment on the 13th floor might be a good idea exercise-wise, but it is not a good idea if you want to walk with any sort of normalcy for the rest of the day.

I just found out my FAVORITE singer/songwriter is coming to town in July.  Woo-hoo!

Mary Chapin Carpenter doesn’t tour much anymore, but she’s got a new album coming out the end of April (Woo-hoo #2).  She sings beautifully and plays the guitar beautifully as well, but it’s her songwriting that really sets her apart.  She’s a national treasure.

This is one of my favorite songs.  She paints such a clear picture with the lyrics.

I’m a town in Carolina, I’m a detour on a ride
For a phone call and a soda, I’m a blur from the driver’s side
I’m the last gas for an hour if you’re going twenty-five
I am Texaco and tobacco, I am dust you leave behind

I am peaches in September, and corn from a roadside stall
I’m the language of the natives, I’m a cadence and a drawl
I’m the pines behind the graveyard, and the cool beneath their shade, where the boys have left their beer cans
I am weeds between the graves.

My porches sag and lean with old black men and children
Their sleep is filled with dreams, I never can fulfill them
I am a town.

I am a church beside the highway where the ditches never drain
I’m a Baptist like my daddy, and Jesus knows my name
I am memory and stillness, I am lonely in old age; I am not your destination
I am clinging to my ways
I am a town.

I’m a town in Carolina, I am billboards in the fields
I’m an old truck up on cinder blocks, missing all my wheels
I am Pabst Blue Ribbon, American, and “Southern Serves the South”
I am tucked behind the Jaycees sign, on the rural route
I am a town
I am a town
I am a town
Southbound.

Sock bunny and I wish you a happy Easter and a happy spring!

If you live in the St. Louis area, please enjoy the blooming trees on my behalf.

The Missouri Botanical Garden‘s cherry trees are blooming, as you can see in the below video. Don’t forget that residents of St. Louis City and County (with proof of residency) receive free general admission on Wednesdays and Saturdays before noon.

I’m making an effort to loose the pounds I’ve put on since hitting 30.

However, I still want to partake in family fun such as quarterly sugar cookie baking and decorating.

This is some of Sunday’s yield:

I solved my temptation dilemma by promptly mailing my portion to Missouri. Hope you’re enjoying them, LREC!

Well, we’ve done it! We’ve gotten through the whole month of March without any snow. Yee-haw!

This is a rare feat. The last time the Twin Cities had a snowless March was 1878.

Most of the month has been unseasonably warm. Gayle and I took our walk to the “Cinco de Mayo” tree a good month earlier this year.  Granted, there are no leaves or even buds yet, but still, we weren’t wearing parkas.

March 21, 2010

And we’ve ended the month in style with a 70+ degree day.

Now we just have to hope for a snowless April, too!

my grandfather Fred was born.

Here he is (left) with sister Josephine (right) before they were orphaned and he and his 4 sisters split up:

1909

And here he is with my grandmother Margaret, my sister Michelle, and me in about 1975 (I’m the chubby one in the high chair):

1975

He passed away in 2003 and is missed.

Ribbon work lilies of the valley.

Directions for these and other 3-dimensional textile flowers can be found in the book Into the Garden by Cindy Zlotnik Oravecz, published by Quilters Fancy, © 1995.

I’ve been working on my online geneaology and scanning in old family photos.

Here are my Grandmother and Grandfather in 1931. Don’t they look happy?!

Note: this entry has been edited to read 1931 rather than 1937. (Sometimes I can’t read my grandmother’s writing.) My dad says this was taken before they were married, which was in 1932.