Spring Fever

She did it again, Mother Nature tantalized us with 3 or 4 days of glorious spring weather before dashing our hopes of a reprieve from winter. Reggie just informed me that the Weather Channel has issued a "Winter Storm Warning" for tonight.

We have responded by holing up at the Ranch for the day. Thank goodness for college basketball and hot cocoa. Rylee resorted to a soak in a hot tub trying to beat the chill. It is a day like this that reminds me of a poem by Janean Buhler,

The Wish

I watch whirling wheels of white

slip

past my window

and wonder

what it's like

where people pick

lemons.

Reggie spent all morning on the bobcat trying to find the water main so that we could start working on the sprinkling system. I can't wait until I can get my hands dirty in our yard. I've seen little green shoots coming up all around town and can't help but get a little jealous.

This fabulous brooch reminded me of all things spring. I saw it on www.curiosityshoppeonline.com. It has all my favorite colors. Hope it brightens your day.

Honest and Reliable

In a moment of quiet desperation, I grabbed for my Yellow Pages and turned to the "P" section. I was searching for a painter to finish the kitchen cabinets that had sat naked in my kitchen for over a year. The ill-fated cabinet project had not always been the dark cloud looming over this house. It had originated as the glorious brainchild of a style savvy girl seeking something fresh and different than the same old Utah knotty alder. What I soon found out was that cabinet company's around here were not interested in doing anything new and different so I settled on a hutch in the kitchen and the laundry room and asked that they be left unstained so that I could hire a painter to create the lustrous white of my dreams.

Boyd, a 72-year old painter with 31 years experience, confidently told me he could complete the project within a week. Three weeks later he had to retire due to the major back surgery he now required to fix the injury sustained while prepping my cabinets. I knew it was the curse of the white cabinets.

Three months later they sat unfinished looking worse than before.

So, I opened up my Yellow Pages and scoured the list of painters hoping that divine intervention would lead me to the man that could make my dreams come true. The words, "Honest and Reliable" jumped off the page. Could this be the one? I called Gordon and he assured me that cabinets were his specialty and that he could begin right away. I only got slightly nervous when he didn't show the first day and the bank confirmed that the check had been cashed a mere 5 seconds after leaving my house the day before. He ended up showing 4 days later. Turns out that his wife was in the hospital, his foreman wasn't returning his calls and the paint store mixed the wrong paint two times. I think that his ad should have read something like this "I'll tell ya what you want to hear and then show up when I feel like it!" However, In the end the project turned out beautiful. (I'm still waiting for the 2 drawers that were supposed to be done last Monday).

Well, what do you think?