Hello Blackbird, Hello Starling, Winter's Over, Be My Darling*

Yesterday, walking back from the courthouse, I noticed that some buds were pushing up through the flower beds along the courthouse lawn.

Could it be that we are finally done with the snow? PLEASE?

Winter has to be over because Sunday night we had a full-on tornado warning. And, in fact, a tornado did touch down in one of adjacent counties.

My family and I hid out in our basement when the sirens started going off. Some time later we emerged to find the rain had stopped and the sun was shining. Weird.

The over-the-top weather guy for our area decided to pre-empt my children's favorite television show with "extended weather coverage" - so not only were my children TOTALLY FREAKED OUT by having had the tornado sirens drive them to the basement, they were subsequently TOTALLY FREAKED OUT by the fact that their Sunday night ritual of watching America's Funniest Home Videos was NOT HAPPENING.

At which point Gabriel burst into tears and he did not stop crying until FINALLY the weather man shut up and allowed the last 15 minutes of AFV to air.

Seriously, without that 15 minutes of hilarity, I'm not sure Gabriel would have gotten himself under control. He is totally terrified of tornados, and he is a CREATURE OF HABIT, that one. So a combination of a tornado warning coupled with an upset to his expected evening routine was just more than he could take.

I have been feeling really exhausted this past week - like, tired to my bones and blah and unmotivated. I think part of it has been the epic battle that Husband and I have been waging with Spr!nt since February 13. And the less epic but only slightly less frustrating battle we have been fighting with D!ck's Sp*rting G**ds, regarding the alleged extended warranty that we paid a lot of money for to ensure that if our treadmill broke, they would fix it. And yet, the treadmill is broken, has been since January 6th, and it's STILL BROKEN. It's been a monumental disaster in craptacular customer service. Why can't companies just DO the things they SAY they will DO?

And I think it's been the weather - just months of gray and wet and snow and cold and I'm just a mess. I spent half an hour on Saturday sitting beneath my sister's magic light**, and I think I really need one of these lights. For one thing, my office doesn't have a window, so if I have no reason to go the courthouse, I can spend an entire day with no natural light. I haven't thought about it before, but it cannot be good for me.

At this point, I am hopeful that spring is finally sprung. (Although, it is rainy and gloomy here today. Again. Argh.) But the good news is that I have an actual DATE with my HUSBAND this weekend, that involves an overnight babysitter, teppanyaki dinner reservations, and a movie. We haven't had a DATE in months and I am really looking forward to it.

TTFN,
LM

*Josh Ritter, Snow is Gone
** a light that is supposed to simulate natural light