leder legends

It's the last February 29th we will see for 4 years.  Here in GR the sun is shining, the snow is melting, bulbs need to be planted and bird feeders need filling.  All of next week the high temperatures will be hovering around the 50 degree mark.  I have to make some plans.   That poor bag of daffodil bulbs has been sitting in the garage all winter.  I wonder what would happen if I just dig a hole next week when the milder temperatures hit.  I'll dig a hole, dump them in and cover them with dirt and chicken wire.  Last year I forgot to put the chicken wire over my existing bulbs and the rabbits destroyed them.  Nasty rodents!! I have 2 books to read before I can do anything outside.  The first one is The Dearly Beloved (book club is on Wednesday the 6th) and the second is The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper (on the 16th). I do enjoy having an excuse to just sit and read!!

Last night I slept for 8 hours!  I was thrilled! I obviously needed to sleep...right?  My body was telling me something...I thought.   I even slept for 45 minutes or so in the afternoon.    I felt great! I went to bed at 11:30 or so and fell asleep quickly! WELL, it's now 4:00 AM.  I have been up since 2:00. Wasted two hours on the computer but I now feel sleepy. Here I go for round two. I wonder how my friend is doing. She is at a sleep disorders center for the night. I imagine she is hooked up to various monitors and is finding it difficult to sleep as well. We can compare notes tomorrow! lol

We decided to sell one of our rental houses. This has been a learning process. First: we cleaned and painted and revived the floors. Second: decide on a listing price. The realtor suggested a price before we cleaned etc and afterwards I set the price $30,000 more than his. The market is REALLY a sellers market.  There are, relatively speaking, very few houses on the market right now in our area. Third: put a key box on the door and list it. It started Tuesday and we got a fair amount of traffic.  Fourth: wait for an offer. Despite a decent amount of traffic...we got one offer on Thursday night and had to respond by Friday noon. Full price offer...that was very nice!! Fifth: Wait again. An inspection is being done on Tuesday. They might come back with some repair demands. Wait again for the underwriters to approve the mortgage and the price.  The appraisal might not meet our asking price.  I am encouraged because an acquaintance has had a house on the market f...

I SLEPT WELL LAST NIGHT! Major regret---no pictures were taken! AFTER DOING THIS: (notes in brackets!) DINNER with wine pairings FOR 8 PEOPLE Appetizer: crackers with cream cheese and jalapeno jelly, olives and bacon wrapped dates with champagne. Soup: coconut curry (forgot the rice noodles but it was still tasty) with cabbage and carrot toppings with a white wine, Salad: mixed greens, apples, dried cherries with a lemon vinaigrette and a balsamic drizzle topped with candied pecans (forgot the goat's cheese) with a rose wine. Palette cleaners; mango and raspberry sorbets. Main: grilled flank steak with mushroom sauce, pan-fried pork tenderloin medallions with mustard sauce (forgot the chopped parsley) , hasselback potatoes (almost burned them in the broiler), grilled root veggies, shredded Brussels sprouts with bacon. A Malbec wine. (thinking back...I realized we didn't put out serving spoons...oops) Cheese course: 4 cheeses- Vat 17 cheddar (from cheese lady) , trip...