Spring

For many of our friends we thought some encouraging pictures of spring might cheer you up as you struggle with Winter, floods, and the "life". We need a little of God's nature this weekend as I my grandmother passed away on Friday. This morning I planted several more flowers. Our vegetable garden is going very well; I saw signs of our green beans coming up through the soil. Our rose bush, which was planted in my father's memory, is in full bloom.

First Day of Spring

Spring has officially arrived. This week we have experienced temps in the low 90s; this weekend we should only be in the 80s. Then we have a few days of windy conditions in the 70s. Yes, Spring is in the air!


We went and got some flowers and vegetables for our garden. Our goal is to get them planted on Saturday. Saturday evening we are going over to our friends home for dinner. Perhaps we'll go to the 4th Avenue Street Fair. There are so many crafts there, that it is amazing.


Tim is on his "final phase" of the tax season. Have you done your taxes yet? Remember April 15th is just around the corner.

Weekend Activities

Both of us are recovering from colds. Even with 70 degree weather we got colds. Our friends in the Midwest who are experiencing a winter that just won't end, seem to be jealous of our "warm" winters.

Friday evening we went to the Tucson Symphony Orchestra concert -- a Tribute to Arthur Fiedler. The TSO's concert was arranged in a Fiedler style with 2 intermissions. The first third had classical music, the middle was for new/emerging artist, and the last third was the "pops." the emerging artist portion featured winners of the TSO Young Artist Competition. Taiko Ezaki, a 9-year boy, played the violin beautifully. Then Nicolas Mariscal, a high school junior, played his cello. Nicolas was no only the winner of the Young Artist Competition but he also won the Youn Composer's Project. So his "Espejos del Sur" composition was debuted by the TSO. It was very Latin in flavor and very enjoyable. After the seccond intermission we enjoyed the singing of Tamra Hayden, a soprano, who belted out songs from famous musicals -- Cabaret, My Fair Lady, Les Miserables, and more.

Saturday morning I enjoyed getting together with a friend I hadn't seen in many years. It was great to get "re-acquainted" after so long. Then I headed down to the Festival of Books. This is the first year that the Tucson has hosted this event. It was fun to wonder around the mall and see so many book vendors, authors, and anything related to books. I was fortunate to attend a talk by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman, the creators of one of my favorite comic strips, Zits. I also attended the presentation by Stedman Graham. We are hoping to make it to the Festival on Sunday as well. The University of Arizona and all their partners put on a fantastic event for all ages today.

Weekend Activities

Another weekend has come and gone and we were (again) busy. It seems that the first few months of the year we are running here and there. Saturday evening we tried out a new restaurant, Sur Real. This Latin American restaurant served food from Brazil (of course, that's what Tim had to try!), Argentina, Peru, and all other South American countries. They also had food from Central America. The atmosphere was great, view fantastic (overlooked Tucson), and the food was outstanding.

In the 20 so years we have lived in Arizona, we have never attended the annual North Dakota picnic held in Mesa (a suburb of Phoenix). So this year we did. There were hundreds of folks from all over ND who reside part-time and full-time in Arizona. We were able to catch up with a couple of friends. It was a beautiful day (in the mid-80s) to spend outside at Pioneer Park.