It's Spring! It's Really, Really Spring!

Pictures of the Day:
One of the best things I can say about my company under its current ownership is the location. We have a bright, modern office, far better than anything I would have imagined in my early days at Standard Publishing. It occupies one floor of an office park not far from I-71 and Fields-Ertel, a newer, well-maintained facility. And the nicest thing about it is its surroundings. Green. Leafy. A beautiful fountain. Fresh blooms rotated in and out with the seasons.
And daffodils. Every year I've gone around outside taking pictures of the daffodils that return year after year.
It was warm and sunny at lunchtime today, and I decided this is the time for my annual tradition. So here they are, harbingers of spring and of sunny, warm days ahead: daffodils in cream and yellow just beginning to pop open around our office building.

A Fine Friday

Quote of the Day:
Jesus: Come with me.
Peter: What are we gonna do?
Jesus: Change the world!
—Dialogue in Son of God, showing in theaters starting February 28.

Picture of the Day:
A bouquet of tulips from the Kroger garden seemed a fitting way to celebrate temps in the 50s and the
disappearance of all the snow (save for melting mountains in the corners of parking lots across town). We're going to have highs in the 20s next week, they say, but this brief respite reminds us that our hope is not out of line. Spring is coming!

Highlight of the Day:
Yesterday (Friday) there were two. First, reconnecting with John Turner at lunchtime. Second, enjoying dinner at our place with Paul and Sev Friskney. They had missed the Christmas dinner we planned with them and the Webers, and I don't remember when we had seen them before that.  (Paul's dad was in the hospital suddenly then, an episode not connected to the car crash and hospitalization in January, from which he did not survive.) Evelyn made a wonderful supper including some old favorites (the wonderful chicken and stuffing casserole first introduced to us by Virginia Beddow when Geoff was born!) and applesauce Jello. Dessert was angel food cake with fresh strawberries and raspberries and whipped cream. We retreated to the living room after awhile, turned on the fire (it was normally chilly outside after dark), and chatted till almost 10:00. A nice way to end the week.

The Blossoms in Our Backyard

The crabtree behind our house is blooming beautifully, but very few are seeing it. I decided to snap some pictures of it, as well as the lilac blossoms that are getting ready to pop.

Evelyn mowed the front yard to make it match the height of the backyard. I've already lost track of how many times we've mowed this year, and it's not May yet. We're enjoying the green, though. I'll be bemoaning the dry weather sometime in July or August, so it shows no wisdom to complain now. 

Weekend Update

"April prepares her green traffic light, and the world thinks Go." I heard that quote from Christopher Morley Sunday, and I knew it couldn't have been more perfect for the beautiful, sunny day we were having. This is the time of the year when every lawn is green, and the flowering trees surrounded by daffodils and forsythia make every turn, every suburban neighborhood, another garden show.
To recap the weekend:
Saturday we Skyped with Wendy, and I paid bills. We decided to mow the lawn (for the record: mowing number 3), and Evelyn and I finished it just in time to get our showers and meet Bill and Verna Weber

Sev had a greeting for us
as we arrived Saturday.

to drive over to Paul and Sev Friskney's for a late afternoon meal. I think we're getting together now that the Webers are out of town more than we ever did when they were here! But it's good for all of us, and Bill and Verna come regularly to see Verna's mother at Mason Christian Village. And Verna was teaching a parenting class at White Oak Christian Church Sunday, so it worked out well for them to be here.
Sunday I hosted at the 9:00 service and was blessed by the worship and the sermon. We spent a lot of time after church talking with friends in the hallway. John and Mary Jane Burgess were visiting, and so were Bill and Joni Baker. John and Heather Turner have decided to remake Christ's Church their church home, and we got to see them for a few minutes Sunday too.
We grabbed breakfast at Bob Evans and were home and at work by 12:30.
Evelyn graded papers; I read through/edited the 40 profiles for our July "40 Leaders Under 40" issue and took some stabs at improving an editorial/column draft that I had started Friday. All of it together took me more than 3 hours.
We took our walk, had a nice long phone visit with Jennifer, and ate leftover ham and bean soup while we watched TV. 
Today I was busy finishing up the copy for that "40 Under 40" section to hand off to a designer, dealing with some web issues/problems, approving/tweaking an e-mail that's going out to 344 churches tomorrow, writing an e-mail number 2 that's going to about 150 churches to invite them to a special web seminar this week, writing a letter to those I've recruited to join our group for our cruise/tour this summer, and a couple of other things.

I decided at lunchtime to try to snap a picture of the beautiful blooming trees in the courtyard formed by my office building and the one next to it.

Little Blessings for a Good Day

I diligently packed my lunch last night and then ran off without it this morning. But it was a good day to run out for lunch: sunny and warm. When I walked to my car, I noticed a food truck parked at a sidewalk path nearby. Bones' Burgers. I decided to investigate and discovered the guy was selling more than hamburgers. He offered a salmon burger and a choose-your-own-fillings gourmet grilled cheese option. I chose the special of the day: smoked bacon, munster cheese, and thin-sliced Granny Smith apples--all on fresh made, thick-sliced rosemary bread. Very tasty! I decided to try the sweet potato fries to go with it. I ate 'em all, but it was a big helping. Not only were they seasoned with sea salt but also with pepper or some other spice. They had a kick to 'em. But I ate 'em! It was wonderful standing in the sun waiting for the sandwich, and I ran back down after I ate to snap a picture of the food truck.

Soon afterwards, Scott Ryan came over to help us with design and art in our June issue. He was very pleased with the cover that had been designed by Plain Joe Studios (we are too!), and he gave us some tips for several ways we can make the issue work. He noticed my new camera on the desk and wanted to see it and learn all about it. I showed him the 180-degree flip-up LCD screen that lets you take your own picture, and we decided to give it a try.

This evening Evelyn and I mowed grass: she did half before supper and I finished afterwards. That's the 2nd mowing of the season so far. My car thermometer said 82 degrees on the way home. The grass is green and beautiful in response.

The Details are Devils

Details . . . details . . . details! Handling details is not my strongest suit. But unless you're wealthy enough to have a personal assistant following you around and picking up the pieces, you must deal with most of life's--and your job's--details yourself.
If we were fully staffed at Standard Publishing, I wouldn't have had as many details to deal with today as I had. But, alas, our marketing manager is swamped with tasks—many of them including details threatening to drown him, too. So I'm trying to pick up a little of his slack with one project we're tackling together. The combination of little decisions, random loose ends, and nitty needs to deal with left me feeling very tired by the end of the day.
It was a good day to come home and take a perspiration-producing walk after supper, which is what Evelyn and I did.
But the good thing is . . . it's spring all around. Forsythia are blooming along every street, and daffodils were blowing in the wind today. Temps are supposed to be in the high 70s this week; in fact, maybe to 80. So much better than chilling winds that were biting at my neck and legs not very long ago!

The daffodils outside our office building were blowing in the breezes when I took a walk at lunchtime.

The Promise of the Sunrise

The sun rising as I drove to work this morning made the most beautiful sky I've seen since sometime this autumn. I stopped in the church parking lot about 7:45 to snap these pictures, and as pretty as they are, they don't do the sky justice. Those huge cotton-ball clouds, reflecting the sun behind them--they were just beautiful.

Both pictures are of the sunrise, but the setting sun as I drove home before 6:00 was just as beautiful. And best of all, I realized, I can now drive TO work and home FROM work in the daylight. Winter hasn't given up its grip on us yet (I saw something about 27 degrees and snowflakes predicted for Saturday). But each passing day in February, and each warm sunrise and sunset, convinces us that spring is on the way!

Three Reports for a Friday

First the weather report: Chilly and breezy but with a warm sun. A beautiful almost-spring day, and the daffodils in front of my office building can't wait. These are some of the earliest daffodils every year. Actually some of them in a shadier part of the complex haven't opened yet. But it's an encouraging site to see them in full bloom, bobbing in the wind.

Now the work report: You know, some days you feel productive and some days you don't. Well, today was one of those productive days. Finalized several assignments for a June issue of Christian Standard that will examine immigration issues from a Christian perspective. We're still waiting to see if this will be our first monthly issue. If it is, we want it to be strong, and I think we're getting there.

Now the Friday-night report: A typical one for Evelyn and me. Dinner and then browsing at the mall. Dinner was at one of our favorites, Cactus Pear in Blue Ash. It's called a Southwest Bistro, but the menu is wider and more eclectic than that. A quiet little place with good food. We love it. Then we shopped and walked Kenwood Mall. Walked the whole length of it and back, in fact. Evelyn says she's counting it as this day's exercise for her Engagement Health record. (I'll post more about Engagement Health some other time.)