A weekly note

Is it possible this is the week I finish this note?

Tune in to find out!

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An entire March has happened since February. It is still effectively winter on the Palouse. We crossed 50 a few times, and had at least one string of days considered pleasant, but today—April 1, not March—is very windy and calls for snow and we’ve already seen frozen precipitation accumulate and then melt.

I’m ready for a sprung spring.

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This is great. I started typing “crocus” to talk about how the crocuses are blooming, but then I paused and thought: crocuses or croci?

And look we’ve been here before, on April 1 a year ago. It’s croci.

And they’re blooming and the snow drops are starting to look a little weak. I’m slightly jealous of last year’s Jeremy who has already taken several walks in a t-shirt.

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Hopefully a different t-shirt each time, but he’s also a parent now, so you never know.

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I have taken a few walks in a light jacket, the first of which was way back on February 12 with some friends at the WSU arboretum. So it knows how to get warm, it’s just not.

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The juncos seem to have slowed down a bit, though they’re still around. The chickadees are definitely here, though I’m not sure they ever left.

I learned recently that chickadees add more “dees” to their alarm call when there is more danger. If you hear a “chick-a-dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee”, something exciting is about to go down.

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Simple leafs have one leaf. Compound leafs have leaflets.

The book of numbers A insists on reading many times in a row does not clarify this, but we’re on top of it.

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Some music moments with A:

For the last several months or so? If I start singing “Do be do be do do do“, A will immediately smile and complete it with “ah ah”.

He is a big Lana fan and he and Michelle have listened to Born To Die quite a bit together. A week or two ago I sang “got that summertime, summertime sadness” while walking up the stairs back to work and he said “more?” and was content when Michelle played her new album for him.

A started saying “more?” with a specific rhythm during dinner and it reminded me of Rebel Yell—more, more, more. I queued it up and he smiled big and said “music!”.

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We purchased a new stainless steel pan a couple months ago as a replacement for a rapidly degrading nonstick pan and it’s been very nice to establish a process for no-stick scrambled eggs every morning. I am no longer afraid!

I am also now up to speed on the very cool Leidenfrost effect. I used water to test the heat of the pan for a few weeks before finally being comfortable that it would be ready after about 3 minutes.

I love that a guy with “frost” in his surname is the person whose name is attached to an effect that is almost the opposite.

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Better get this out before it’s gone! 🥃