Ahhh, Spring! When the silent earth that has been slumbering in a cold, severe chill, pushes back the covers, whipes the sleep from it's eyes and dawns with fresh life! When the trees and flowers bud with new colors long missed over the winter months! Birds return in song, the sun begins to regain it's warmth and backyard BBQ's roar to life after spending a season dormant! Let us revel in the rebirth all around us! Hail, Spring!

Uh, Spring?

Oh.

Um, Brr?

Wow. Well, how about that BBQ?

Sheesh. This is awkward

Well, I guess spring is running a little late.....but hang in there with us! I'm sure it will be here before June.....I think.

Shame on me

*Sigh* I'm a failure in so many ways. I haven't been keeping up with this blog (oh, I had such high hopes of what a great blogger I would become), and I failed to come through with pictures documenting the cleaning of the flame-seared fridge. Which has been a wonderful addition to our home, by the way.

I guess the bottom line is my life just isn't that interesting. At least not in the day-to-day way. So I find myself struggling to find something blog-worthy. My standards for what is blog-worthy might also be too high. So many character flaws....but I'm working on them. Honest!

Recently, I've been on a big Dick Van Dyke Show kick. I found an old vhs tape with about 6 episodes on it that I vaguely remember using the remainder of a Christmas gift-card to purchase. After re-aquainting myself with the simple, laugh-out-loud and wholesome humor, I found dozens of other episodes on the site hulu.com.

I enjoy the adorable and humorous relationship between Dick Van Dyke, who plays comedy writer Robert Petry, and his tv wife, Laura Petry, played by Mary Tyler Moore. Van Dyke, always well known for his limber physical humor, has brialliant comedic timing and uses his elastic frame to create stunningly entertaining situations. Moore is the not-always-sterotypical 1960's dancer-turned-housewife, who balances out her husband's energy when necessary, but also creates her own hilarious situations. She matches Van Dyke in both comedic timing and talent.

The other strong characters are Rob's writing partners, Buddy Sorell, played by "Human joke machine" and vaudville original Morey Amsterdam, and Sally Rogers, played by Rose Marie, whose caree started at just 3 years old when her grown-up voice made her the famous "Baby Rose Marie." The show consistently allows each of the actor's other talents to be showcased in different episodes, the music, dancing and vaudville-esque mini-shows always add to the show's charm and never take away from the story.

Check out these episodes (I have to show both because they are a 2 parter of a larger story) to see what I mean:

Episode 1:




Episode 2:



I tell you, it makes me want to through an old-fashoned dinner party complete with 1960's party dress, heels, and home-grown entertainment.

When life gives you a smoke-charred, used refrigerator...

Prince Charming and I are getting a new fridge. Our current model was state of the art around the same time Moses chatted it up with foliage. It is small, ugly, grossly inefficent energy wise and the motor is so loud, our neighbors in the other half of the duplex can hear it kick on and off (seriously). I've had silly daydreams about a fridge that could hold all my food, and didn't put us at risk for getting a ticket for disturbing the peace. But, alas, a fridge is an expensive thing. And right now, shelling out a thousand dollars or more for a new appliance is not the best move for Prince Charming and me to make.

This is where the unluck of our friends becomes our luck. About a month ago, some friends of ours had a serious kitchen fire in their extra house. It was especially tragic since they were a mere 2 days from finishing a 3 week remodel they had been doing. The fire was so serious, they have had to start from scratch in pretty much the entire house. Demo-ing back to the frame and working to rebuild from there. Fortunately, no one was in the house at the time, and the insurance should cover all the repairs. Prince Charming and I were over for a group hang-out like every Sunday at the main house. He was staring thoughtfully out one of the side windows at the re-construction progress. Recently removed from the charred house was a smoke-covered fridge. He wondered aloud, "I wonder if they are going to clean that fridge or replace it."

To make a long story short, they are planning on replacing it. But it still works, is a very nice, high quality fridge that is much larger than ours and doesn't break sound level restrictions when it turns on and off. The outside is a little black and it needs some serious TLC, but after that, it will make a lovely new addition to our home. Prince Charming and I are going to spend this Saturday cleaning it up and getting it back to our place, and I can't wait! Because now I'm going to be spoiled. This fridge even has a bottom-load freezer drawer, with a nice big fridge part on top! It will also be a blessing that we will actually own it ourselves and can take it with us when we move.

Saturday can't come soon enough. I promise I'll post pictures of this adventure and kick off my introduction to tech-saviness!