Pawprints on our hearts

It's amazing how attached you can become.

Mini Cooper Swimming Pools

This long, hard, cold winter has taken a toll on the roads and sidewalks in New England. I've never seen potholes this bad - not only Mini Cooper swimming pool sized, but some big enough to swallow a VW Bus. We've learned to dodge the usual suspects on the way to work, but still get surprised by new ones developing here and there.

Still, some of our neighbors clearly have a sense of humor - when life gives you frost heaves in the brick sidewalks, build a troll bridge!

gMom times two

Just a few months ago I posted an ultrasound photo of my firstborn - and now, the ultrasound photo of her soon-to-be firstborn. I am happy to be a gMom times 2....

St. Patrick's Day Countdown Clock

Seen at the Thirsty Scholar last weekend! Check out the official Countdown to St. Patrick's Day clock on the upper right in the movie below.

I've also gotten solicitations from Guinness(tm) to make St. Patty's an official holiday. Last year, I answered the call and was invited to send pictures of myself/friends enjoying Guinness. My photo of red ruffed lemurs in the Dublin Zoo (real!) with little pints of Guinness (photoshopped) were rejected!!! [The timing of the request for photos was around the infamous Dilbert strips regarding bosses as drunken lemurs - well worth a Google!]

So sad. I did, however, truly enjoy Dublin, the Dublin Zoo, and the Guinness plant tour in 2007. . . .

Hope?

You wouldn't know it by the snow currently on the ground, but signs of spring were evident in the Northeast last weekend. The trees have a kind of sunlit fuzziness about them, signalling a change from stark branches. Buds are showing on the bushes, the view of lamps are obscured by leaves, and I even saw a few crocus fronds pushing their way up through the winter detritus.

And yes, beach volleyball is on!

Recycling Irony

Cambridge is fairly advanced in the science of recycling. Our DPW is "linked in", and I get regular recycling updates by email. We have arranged for a recycle paper toter for our little dead-end street that all residents share - great for taking care of the piles of newspaper and junk mail that build up. We have little blue bins in which to put our containers. We have little green compost pails to save our compost, which we can deliver to the Whole Paycheck or DPW Yard. The DPW Yard has places to recycle plastic bags, books, scrap metal, and almost everything you can think of - with a couple of "hazardous" waste days a year.

I myself have a strange attraction to those reusable grocery bags. We probably have about 20 now, waiting in the back of the car for a trip to Shaws or Whole Paycheck or Trader Joe's. I had to control myself and declare a moratorium. Then CVS sent me a FREE one in the mail. The hardware store has them in the checkout aisle. Temptation is everywhere!

I ended up succumbing recently to an offer by the Boston Globe for team-themed reusable bags. Not being a basketball or football fan, I chose some Sox and Bruins bags. The irony? They arrived carefully packaged in PLASTIC BAGS!

Where my Peeps At?

Alex, on a recent trip to Europe, brought me back some high-class Peeps from Harrod's. No lurid marshmallow shapes for me this year! Well, maybe not as many!

Before:

and After:

Seriously, there is a whole body of quasi-scientific research regarding Marshmallow Peeps. I even have a HARDCOVER book about them. Gotta love 'em! Especially if you let them harden a little so that they are slightly chewy, a special kind of mouth feel....

http://www.marshmallowpeeps.com/

Enough Already!

The view of the courtyard at work this morning!