>Trying to catch up here. I just checked the weather and it says we are under a winter storm watch. What??!! Our poor crocuses and daffodils. We’re supposed to get 7″ of snow. I wish I could say April fools! But at least as I lying in bed at 6:45 am I noticed a glimmer of sun, so the sunrise is really gaining some time! The sun doesnt officially rise till 7:12 but you could see a crack of light and we are still gaining 3 minutes of sunlight a day!

Poor Koompa has been having a rough go of it lately. The gal turns 16 in June, but she has been having these little mini seizures everyday it seems. Scott’s going to CA this week – not fair as I know he loves snow! – so Im kind of worried for Koomps while he is gone. Well, lets see if the weather snows him in.

Frankie loves to live on the wild side. She wanted to get a book from the top shelf of the book case. So she dragged the kitchen chair over to the book shelf (still couldnt reach it) and so she picked up her chair and put that on the big chair and climbed on top of that and reached her book. Good thing I didnt see her doing that until scott called my attention to the fact that Frankie was sitting on her chair on the chair reading her book.

And, now, Go Green!

>Bee just told me that she wants to make a three dimensional shape museum. What a fun idea!

>


We fed the Ducks on campus yesterday after school. It was a bit cold, but still sunny! Frankie actually chased the ducks, while Bee tried to get the ducks to eat from her hands. I took pictures! Frankie saved half of her roll to eat herself as we walked back to my building.

>
Happy Birthday Bee!! We can’t believe you are 6 years old – that is one third of the way to 18. Yikes! We love you!!!

>
The sun may not wake up till 8am… but spring is (almost) here!! Our first crocus bloomed yesterday!!

>the sun rises at 8.02am tomorrow — that is just about as late as it was Jan 1, in the dead of winter. Kids should not have to walk to school in the dark, which is what this month earlier time change amounts to here in mid michigan. Besides this puts us out of sync with the rest of our global society (for whom DST ends April 5 and March 29 this year ).

OK, Im done with my rant.

>Well, Koomps and I just came back inside after looking in the early morning sky for Lulin. Its 10.8 but the windchill is 11 so it felt oddly warm, or rather not so cold. This morning is supposed to be a good time to find the green, backwards comet. We found the big dipper, and then we looked west and south and found saturn and the butt or head of Leo (Im never really sure which side of that constellation is up), but we didnt see the green little icepack. The sky was clear but a tad hazy so whole you could see all of the major stars they were not super intense. We’re going to try again tonight (which is supposed to the best time), and Tues morning/night and then I think our window is gone. Tell me if you see it!

>Marky went over the rainbow today. She lived a good long life. She was 15 and a half, and as the vet said to us today, it is very rare for her to see a dog her size live so long. For the record, Marky’s full name was: Marky, Jimanez, Rooster, Joy, Watering can, Love Black Hole, Neurosis, Smelly Butt, Calabrese Barton. She earned a new middle name like a soldier earns his stripes. Scrappy. Determined.

Our most memorable times with Marky were the times: She rescued Smelly Cat, when she saved me (angie) from the pit bull, and just her way of sticking her butt in your face when she wanted some love. When we told Bee and Frankie, Frankie’s immediate response was to say that her heart was broken and Bee just cried.

We love you Marky!

>I havent been posting on dinner because I havent been cooking anything exciting. But last night we got our biweekly CSA share and it had a range of different hearty greens: kale, bok choy, spinach, and some other kind of thick skinned dark green thing. So I took all of it -must have been 10 cups or so – and did a quick light sautee with olive oil and some salt. It was so good! We had some flounder on the side, trader joe style.

We also are having a snow storm this weekend, with winter weather warnings posted, and the 15 day outlook doesnt have us getting much above freezing. I sure hope that saying about march – in like a lion out like a lamb (or vice versa) is true this year bec. Grampa Calabrese used to always say that!

OK, I just figured out the other green. It’s Komatsuma and it is very tasty! I read about it in our CSA newsletter this morning.

>Yesterday was one of those days when it was sunny (not so warm though) and you looked at the sky and thought, hey that sun is really up higher in the sky! I think the sun’s angle must have crossed some critical level that my body notices. So I looked it up (see below), solar noon is at 35.9 degrees. On Dec 21 it was at 23.9, so not sure if 35.9 degrees means anything, but i will take it. And in case you are wondering, we are now gaining close to 3 minutes a day, and we are almost at a solid 11 hours of daytime here!

Feb 18, 2009 7:31 AM 6:14 PM 10h 43m 31s + 2m 44s 12:52 PM 35.9° 147.872
Feb 19, 2009 7:29 AM 6:16 PM 10h 46m 17s + 2m 45s 12:52 PM 36.3° 147.904
Feb 20, 2009 7:28 AM 6:17 PM 10h 49m 03s + 2m 46s 12:52 PM 36.6° 147.937
Feb 21, 2009 7:26 AM 6:18 PM 10h 51m 50s + 2m 47s 12:52 PM 37.0° 147.971
Feb 22, 2009 7:25 AM 6:19 PM 10h 54m 38s + 2m 47s 12:52 PM 37.3° 148.005
Feb 23, 2009 7:23 AM 6:21 PM 10h 57m 26s + 2m 48s 12:52 PM 37.7° 148.039
Feb 24, 2009 7:22 AM 6:22 PM 11h 00m 15s + 2m 49s 12:51 PM 38.1° 148.073