Spring Splendor

Absolutely beautiful spring day today, some might even say bordering on summer! Temperatures in the 20's, birds singing, flowers blooming.

Spent some of it painting the master bedroom before we move back upstairs. Spent the rest of it reading on the back deck and just enjoying.

Hocus Crocus in Focus, Spring 2011 edition

April showers bring....April flowers?

Warmer outside than inside!

Goodbye powder blue....hello beige and copper!

The Hand That Rocks the Paint Brush

Long overdue makeover

Springing....Springing....

Sprung?

Looks like Spring has finally come. Double digit temperatures earlier in the week, and even close to 20 C yesterday. Noticeable increase in the local bird population and variety. Hoping to move back upstairs, take the plastic off the windows, and stop burning oil for the next nine months!

Spring Splendor

Mercury rising....

The garden beckons....

Opening Day of BBQ Season

Viva Las Vegas, The Finale

Great week in Sin City, 70-80 F and beautiful the entire time. Walked The Strip, toured some casinos, gambled a bit, went downtown to enjoy the Fremont Street experience, and had a drink at Vince Neil's new bar. All in all a nice and much-needed getaway.

Sketchy return to Detroit on the late night red eye - no sleep, lost three hours in time zones, and then they had to wave off the first landing attempt at dawn VERY last minute, leaving us circling above while they plowed our runway. Not what a bunch of over-tired people want to hear. The eventual landing was rough as the plane slid along an icy runway.

Came home to winter, not spring.......though it got mild right AFTER I shovelled the driveway out enough to get the car in, and went down for a nap.

New York, New York casino

Paris Las Vegas casino

Fountain show at Bellagio

Dancing water set to music....and free!

Newest casinos Aria and Cosmopolitan

Fountains at Aria

Duty Free goodness

Viva Las Vegas, Part II

The Strip, aka Las Vegas Boulevard

Fremont Street Experience

Light canopy over Fremont Street

The "Old Strip" at Fremont

Viva Las Vegas

Just back from a week in Vegas, here are a few pics from our getaway!

The view from our first room at the Imperial Palace

Later that same day....

The view from our second room at the Las Vegas Hilton

Mike's burger at the Chop House

A Glimpse of Spring

Some rather fabulous spring weather this week has eradicated the majority of our snow, leaving only a few white spots in places where significant drifts formerly....drifted. I'm sure we're not out of the winter woods quite yet, but still uplifting to see green at this point.

Our yet unnamed barn cat, currently living in the Man-Garage

PseudoSnowmageddonPacalypse II

While we didn't get hammered as bad as they were predicting, we did get some snow, and some really nasty east winds that re-distributed all of the snow we already had. As a result, you can see grass in places......and there are chest-high drifts in other places!

Parked at the road to make sure we can leave

Winter Mullet

Short grass in the front, big drift in the rear!

This drift is deceiving, could not get a good angle but it's 20' long by 10' wide by 4' high.

Right where we NORMALLY park the cars