university of colorado

z finally made a decision to attend the university of colorado at boulder this fall. although his first choices were in california, the numbers just didn't add up. the folks at colorado have been extremely helpful and generous and seem to really want him to go out there. not a bad place to live for a few years...

we almost moved to colorado about 10 years ago. my company was relocating their headquarters to boulder and wanted me to move out there. cindy and i checked it out and decided it would be nice. even had a house picked out - the backyard backed up to a golf course that backed up to the mountains. was ready to pull the trigger when my boss said "well, we just bought another company in chicago, so i think i want you to move up there." uh...nice city, but i fled the great white north a long time ago - nothing against it, i just like the warmer climate. and once you've added "ya'll" to your vocabulary, it's hard to move north of the mason-dixon line.

gardening part 2

spring in georgia is a wonderful thing. this year has been especially cool, slowing a lot of the plant growth, but prolonging some of our early spring flowering. here are a couple of my azaleas:

and here are some plants in my woodland shade garden in the backyard. clockwise from top - astilbe, jacobs ladder, bearded iris (barely get enough sun here to bloom), snapdragons (they were on clearance at lowes - got a bunch for about .60 - i'm a sucker for a good deal), gerber daisys (special at publix - got'em cheaper than at a nursery), in the center is an easter lily i threw in the ground after easter last year. and check out that gnome - one of 2 in my backyard. if you're really quiet and leave them a little food, they move in:

and here's the early growth in my front perennial garden. i'll have stuff about 8 feet tall in here by the end of the summer:

is my life exciting, or what???

spring break

managed to get out of town for a few days for an all-american vacation in florida. drove down to tampa and spent a day at busch gardens, then over to orlando to stay with our friends tami, per and jessie danielsson. here i am chillin' with the flamingos at busch gardens.

here are the 3 kids at mgm.

i guess a sign of age is when you go to places like these and find yourself more interested in the plants and landscaping than in the rides. oh well.