All right already. I'll post.

It's been a rocky few weeks.

Oh so delighted to receive the 2007 Direct Marketer of the Year award from the KCDMAssociation, but it meant time-consuming shopping for fancy digs, which I enjoyed putting together nicely. Missy helped me find the slacks that would look good with the dusty black silk mandarin-collar top (with bugle-beads in a firefly pattern along all bottom edges.) Unfortunately, no good photo from the night because the winner is a "secret," so carrying a camera on my arm would have been a give-away. Jill took a camera-phone photo and someone else took a photo that he said he'd get to her. Bradfo looked sweet and polished, and my well-practiced speech went off really nicely. Missy and Jill were in tears by the time I finished. Really. Wild.

Here's me and Jill.


Note to self: shop for tiara.

And I then I promptly got a cold, though not like the dastardly New Year's one. This one was more reasonable and usual -- the 5 short day variety. Was it the zinc spray I used this time? Who would know.

The weather turned usually warm this week, though it's back to a more predictable 45 today. But yesterday was 80! So this Monday I did the yard spring clean-up gig, raking leaves out of the flower beds and other nooks, plus raking up the millions of rather annoying little pointy balls that hover and fall off my huge sweetgum tree. I drove down a street yesterday and noticed that some fool had planted those trees along a length of the street so an entire block or two was covered with the messy-looking little numbers. They not only kill the grass because when you step on one, they bore into the ground, but they also are amazingly effective ankle twisters. I filled 4 large yard bags with them. And they're totally heavy to drag to the curb. But it was very cool to be out in the yard again. The tulips, crocus and iris I planted for Kath in fall of 2004 are peeking out, so that's kinda exciting to wait for.

Makes me think of Molly, Kath's college and long-time friend. She always focuses on gardening about this time of year. I'll ping her and see what's coming up in her yard.