Paradise

... is Southern Oregon in the springtime.  Not warm, balmy, tropical paradise, but beautiful light, windswept clouds and lush, opening green paradise.  I wish I had some good pictures to share with you, but I never manage to really capture the light correctly, and with the way it's been slipping through the snow/rain clouds (no, that isn't a typo) and hitting the Table Rocks it would be a crime to get a bad picture of it.

We have an addition to the Tower household!  Last weekend was the Master Gardener's Fair and in lieu of outside plants (more news on that later), I purchased a small cactus and a succulent, which I may have to name, The Succubus.  I mean, Ophelia, succubus.... now I just need a pet bat.  Anyway, so, the landowners gussied up the landscaping this weekend as well and it looks really (really, really) nice, and the landlord told me that he is going to build a little planter-type thingy under the shade tree on the way to my abode, and that I get to plant things there!  I'm thinking some impatiens, maybe some lobelia or hostas.... I will get to re-explore the world of shade plants.

Speaking of additions, Florin and Jill have welcomed their daughter, Olivia Rose, into the world!  She was born Thursday the 24th and was 14" long, 8lb 1oz.  Congratulations, Flo and Jill!!

Testing. Testing. One, two, three.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present.... RSS feeds!  I'm testing out the Windows Live Writer feature (which so far I totally dig) and in order for me to be able to post remotely I needed to change the format so I had the RSS feeds.  So now, if anyone wants to remotely monitor my posting, you may.  *gracious hand-wave* 

Oh, I have re-registered to vote!  Somehow my registration got all messed up when I registered to vote abroad during the last presidential election and I never, um, got around to fixing it.  Yes, I am a bad citizen, but at least I'm registered now. 

Anyway, I need to get back to work, but I just wanted to update you guys really quick about the state of The Blog.

Blood! Fire! Narcotics! Rubber Chicken Violence!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it was quite the exciting trip to Mexico for our intrepid heroine! Our first day there I cut my finger with a handsaw, ending a three year safety record and potentially getting a new scar (yay!). That evening, on their way to pick up the last two members of our group from the San Diego airport, two of our peeps had to wait for 25 minutes at the border without moving.... resulting in a vehicle fire that reduced our vehicle number to five. Oh yeah, they got stuck for 25 minutes because of a drug bust at the border, which the narcotics officer who was our leader totally got to scope out. We had a bit of rubber chicken violence involving... well, really incited by a rubber chicken. I had an absolutely wonderful time, it was a great group of people and I am sooo ready to go again! The family we built for had about nine people in it, including children. We built a four room, stucco-walled building, concrete slab for the floor. It was actually in a (by Mexico-border standards) decent neighborhood. I have to admit that I was a little concerned about this trip, since I'd been hearing quite a bit about drug-related violence in Tijuana (haven't heard that much about it since... love American "news services") but we were fine. Oh, the umbrella group we went under was Amor Ministries, so you can check them out if you like. Maybe next year.... who wants to come with me?!?! Coming home to 23 degree temperatures is a bit jarring after upper-70s, but I promise you'll acclimate!

Note: Sorry this is so late in comparison to my return. I've been burning with all sorts of other posts and having this one hanging over my head.... well, y'all know how it goes!!