end of a Camry era

We bought a car this past weekend after an annoyingly long hunt for a reasonable deal.  It's a Pontiac Vibe; a well-built, reliable car according to Consumer Reports (knock on wood).  We've driven Camrys (Camries?) for almost 14 years, so this is a departure - kinda.  The Vibe is a sister model (whatever that means exactly) of the Toyota Matrix, so we're not entirely ditching our Toyota past.

We found a way to make our teenager actually want to spend time with us, because Michael was really into the whole car buying process.  He wanted to drive through every car lot in the twin cities metro and go on every test drive.  He scoured every print-out of vehicle descriptions we had laying around, and occasionally had some helpful info inside that car-obsessed head of his.

Adrienne the artist

In Language class, Adrienne has a weekly assignment to define certain words and idioms.  They have to make a sketch of a sentence they come up with, and I've found some of her drawings kind of funny and cute.  Yeah, I know, she's my kid, so of course I believe she's special and all.  But I think she could be a cartoonist or somethin' with the way she draws facial expressions.  Maybe it's because I never really moved beyond stick people drawings myself, but her subjects even have fashion sense...

Meanwhile, in weather related news...we're hitting the 70's this weekend.  Yeah, baby!  We haven't hit 60 since November. 

April thundersnow brings May flowers?

You are now entering the weather twilight zone...the "I thought I put away the snowpants for good already, dang it!" zone.  The average is 60 now, so they say, and we're nowhere near that tropical temp.  We were woken up overnight the last two nights by loud sleet pellets smacking the house.  The snow had finally melted, and now this icky heavy white slop is all over.  Phooey.

But, anyway, Michael had a jazz concert the other night:

At home afterwards, we realized Michael is taller than Grandma Elaine.  If height correlated directly to how much you eat, though...yeah, he'd be 10 feet tall.

the many moods of a 14 year old

It was Michael's birthday yesterday.  He had a very specific wish list of things he didn't get at Christmas and hoped to score for his b-day.  At times last night, he was happy enough to produce a real smile.  Trying to get in his head here...

Sweet!  Let's do this.

This 2.5 second delay for an additional picture is unacceptable.

Yes!  Finally.

Why did my weird mom ask me to put my head by the cake?  I'm gonna look goofy then.

I'm so over this lame singing...ergh...

Happy 14th Michael!  Love you!

Waiting for real spring

Brr.  Sayonara to a crazy cold March, and here's hoping we can at least hit average temps in April.  A weird robin came to our deck a few days last week to flutter at the window and peek inside.  Drove Felix bonkers...

"Lemme in, I must have come back too $#@* early!"

I wonder if it's the bird who nested under the deck last year and didn't appreciate our photographing her babies.  I bet she wants some Hitchcock style revenge!  Thank goodness we don't have a real chimney.

Anyhoo...Happy Easter y'all!