More About Spring, Kentucky Style

This is what springtime looks like in Kentucky... two of my favorite trees, the dogwood and the redbud, all mixed together. So delicate, and almost magical looking, among the spring-green trees. Aren't they beautiful?

Here is an individual dogwood tree. I like how the blooms seem to float in layers.


Then, the redbud, all pink and delicately spiky.


If you are driving down a road in Kentucky in the springtime, this is the view you might see... redbud trees along the way:

My Latest Project

Here is a new pillow I made old of old quilt pieces:

The First Taste of Spring

I feel better now. All it took was one beautiful day. I got outside and forgot all about the computer for a while. On Saturday we went to my sister's house for the first cookout of the season. It was sunny and warm and the kids were wearing shorts and sandals for the first time in a long time. Unfortunately it doesn't look like spring yet, nothing like the photo above which I took from Google. It actually looks more like the one below. But it felt like spring, and that's the most we can hope for this early in March.


But look what we have to look forward to:




My favorite place to be on a nice spring day:


It's a hopeful time of year, isn't it? Let's just hope we don't have a snow storm next week!

Help!

I had another meltdown last night. First I was crying; then I was laughing. It was pretty hysterical. My poor husband didn't know what was going on.

It was the computer again. I've been trying for weeks to figure out how to add a You Tube video to my blog. I read the directions under Blogger Help and I read the directions in my "Blogging for Dummies" book and my "You Tube for Dummies" book. I followed them step by step... nothing worked.

I decided to set up an appointment at my favorite Apple Store to get some help. But I couldn't remember how to contact the reservation page to set up an appointment. I finally found the page, but it asked for my "Apple I.D." and my password.

Now, I have an aol password and a gmail password, a blogger password, a google password, an iTune password. But for the life of me, I couldn't remember my Apple password OR my Apple I.D. I think it was based on my old aol account, but my aol account froze up weeks ago and I haven't been able to access it. Anyway, I tried every I.D. and password I could think of. None of them worked. That's when the meltdown began. You can't call the Apple Store for an appointment; you have to make an appointment over the internet. But I can't get to their internet site without my I.D. and password. I will have to drive an hour up to Cincinnati with my laptop and beg someone at the Genius Bar to see me without an appointment. It's like flying standby at the airport; you never know how long it might take and you might not get there at all.

After my last meltdown I got smart and wrote down all of my I.D.s and passwords in a little notebook for easy reference. However, I must have done that after I already set up and Apple I.D. and an Apple password because they are not listed.

So, last night I was wailing and gnashing my teeth and declaring that I am too old to be doing this. My husband suggested I: (a) have a drink; (b) take a Xanax; and/or (c) lock up my computer for a while. What did I do? I had a fit of hysterical laughter at the absurdity of it all. Then I made some tea and sat down and had a cup. An old-fashioned remedy to a new-fangled problem.

Don't Get Me Started!

Just heard on the news that the stock market is down below 7000. Things are looking BAD! We don't quite know what to do. We are among those who are not that far away from retirement (at least that's what we thought six months ago!). I worked all those years and followed all the advice about putting as much as I could into my IRA. "You can't just SAVE your money," they said. "No, you have to GROW your money."

Well, now I know I would have been better off just putting it all into a savings account (or even under the mattress! At least it would still be there!). My grandmother was right... a good, old-fashioned savings account! I can't even stand to look at my IRA statement now... the last I knew it was down by 40 percent. Should I take out what's left, before it goes down to zero? If I do that, I will be accepting the loss, they all say. But what if I lose it all? I don't have years and years to wait for it to go back up.

And... AIG... don't get me started! What on earth did they do with all that money? I used to work for AIG and I saw how they treated their policyholders and their employees. And I saw how those in the highest positions lived. I saw their ethics. They claim they are "too big to fail". I say let them fail. I am willing to take that chance.

As if you couldn't tell, I am frustrated today. There are some in this country who have cheated and manipulated the system to their own advantage. They have millions in secret accounts, they have riches the rest of us can't even begin to imagine. And so many families are suffering. Something is very, very wrong.

I Went To A Tinkerbell Party!

This weekend, Tinkerbell came to Sunnyvale... so, of course we had to be there! The occasion was our granddaughter's fourth birthday. The party was a huge success!

On Saturday we flew from Kentucky to San Francisco. Then on to Sunnyvale in a rented car. We partied all weekend, and flew back to Kentucky today. Whew! I'm a bit tired. Lots of bedtime stories and castle building and gymnastics classes... four year olds live quite a busy life these days! It's not easy keeping up with them. But it is lots of fun!

It's Raining in Sunnyvale!

Hello from Caifornia. We went to our four-year old granddaughter's birthday party today. It was a Tinkerbell party!

I am making a quick post from our hotel room. Here are a couple of photos from the party.