Spring is in the air!  The gardener who takes care of our complex has already put out Impatients and there are green buds on my Forsythia.  It has been in the high 40's low 50's and they say the last frost has come and gone.  I predict I'll be out cleaning my little garden within a month.  To get a little more out of winter we'll have to go to the mountains, which, in fact, we are doing tomorrow.

Last night Grace was at an overnight with her friends so GP and I met went out to dinner.  We were picked up by Riccardo who is newly single and so has been coming to town every weekend for company. ( He lives out in the wine country.)  We met Bepe and Allesandra at the seafood place at 8.  The fish was very good, the wine great and the made-at-our-table sorbet was incredible.  Sometime during the evening we all switched places so that R. could cry on A's. shoulder about his love life and the rest of us could avoid hearing about it for the nth time.  GP has been friends with all of them since his teens and I really enjoy them.  B. and A. are stereotypical.  They are both very stylish, always dressed beautifully.  She's a knockout.  They have no kids, just a spoiled dog who goes everywhere with them.  Shakira, the dog (she's from South America), spent last night under the table at the restaurant eating Bepe's handouts.  They also have huge blowout arguments over who knows what and then make up the next day.  The night before they got married (18 years ago), Allesandra threw Bepe out of the house after giving him a fist sized bruise on his arm and said she never wanted to see him again.  The next morning he showed up on time to go to church and she was waiting for him as though nothing had happened.  This morning we got a call from Riccardo saying that Bepe and Shakira had spent the night on his couch because A. had thrown B. out again but he'd had to get up early and leave because they were taking the dog to the vet.  Allesandra is the one whose mother is a bit nuts and always has wonderful stories.   Last night she told us that at Christmas her mom had made a traditional local dish but forgotten one of the main ingredients.  She had also over or under cooked it and Bepe spent the entire night in the bathroom being sick.  He's convinced that his mother-in-law is trying to poison him.

The kid up-stairs is a super hero today.  I may just have to poison him.  I wonder if he likes muffins?  xxoo me