Finding a Voice

LADYBUG

Last night there was no freeze, so today the air felt quite warm and fresh from the start. The sun has been shining and the snow has been vanishing all day, flooding some corners of our little town in every way. The loveliest sign of spring was a ladybug on the piano keys in church this morning.

She like the bass clef best and I tried to play around her, knocking her off only once. She flailed upside-down on the little ledge in front of the keys until I rescued her on my fingertip.

Ladybug! Ladybug! Fly away home.

Your house is on fire. And your children all gone.

BIRTHDAY

As of March 12th I am now officially "39 and holding."

I was amazed at how many people remembered on the day and emailed or phoned. Of course Lamb, who shares the day, called and we sang "Happy Birtday to us."

I worked at the homecare office and worked on my thesis most of that evening (the deadline was looming), but stopped for a simple, tasty supper, with the most unique "cake" ever. I've almost entirely eliminated sugar and wheat from my diet, so Mom called forth her endless creativity to design a visual feast in this original meat pie. She used some wheat-free crepes as "crust" with a quinoa-and-meat filling in the middle, and decorated it with sour cream, salsa, shredded cheddar, red bell peppers, Spanish onions, and a plastic cake topper. Brilliant. And very tasty, especially with extra Spanish onions!

birthday meat pie, detail

THESIS

Carol: yes, the thesis IS done, which makes the spring weather seem all the brighter! Dwayne Uglem likes it so far and has made some suggestions for "substantive changes," so it's a good thing we postponed the defense. In addition to rewriting, maybe I'll even get my taxes done before leaving for 'Port!

The thesis was too big to email to my thesis readers, so I posted it on a webpage for them. I'm not quite ready to give out the URL--one day soon after the April 9th defense. Looking forward to unveiling it!

Enjoy the springtime!

Labels: family, friends, life, writing