Spring Has Sprung...

Spring is in the air... or at least, it seems so around town (despite the rubble from Katrina still apparent in some places, the flowers are peeking their pretty heads through anyway). Redbuds, wisteria, daffodils, irises, dogwoods, tulips, in bloom all over town. I love my hometown during the spring -- it really is beautiful. And finally, a rain-free weekend (as evidenced by the blue, Blue, BLUE sky in the picture above)!!!

My cousin was in town this weekend with her boys and, I swear, they just get cuter and cuter! Not that I'm biased or anything, of course... but just look at that face, and those teeth, and that smile, and that sweater, and... okay, I'll shutup. You know, if I just had the ENERGY of the 3-year old for a few hours -- nay, minutes! -- there is no telling what all I could get accomplished!!! Peace in the Middle East, perhaps?

We just got another set of assessments for damages to our condo in Orange Beach, AL, from Hurricane Ivan (yep, all the way back from September 2004) and it's just ugly. [since you cannot get "homeowner's insurance" on a condo, just contents coverage, the owners are responsible for splitting up the cost of damages, hence the "assessment" -- fun stuff] How can a sliding glass door possibly cost that much? They must think they are made of wind-resistant solid gold, I swear. The picture to the right is a view from our 8th floor balcony down to what used to be our pool and hot tub taken a week and a half after Ivan hit on September 16, 2004. Before all of that, it looked like the picture below (taken 8/15/2004). Nice, huh? And to think, we are just weeks away from the beginning of another hurricane season. Fuck.
On that note, back to work... But I'm sure I will have something else to rant and rave about before the day is out. Until then, later taters...