One lovely week - Lovely Easter weekend and happy early Spring!

First of all, I hope everyone had a happy and blessed Easter Holiday. 

I was supposed to get my granddaughter Laura to stay with me from Tuesday morning on until Easter Monday but it was raining sheets on Tuesday so her mother brought her over on Wednesday morning and for 6 days and 5 nights I had my sweetie with me.

One of those cutsie sayings out there is that "our grandchildren are our reward for not killing our children." Now, y'all will agree that there are fleeting moments (especially when they are in their teens) that we have entertained the thought of strangling our offspring.  In any event, my granddaughter and I (who is all of 11 already! (birthday March 18)) get along splendidly.  She enjoys shopping with me especially when we go look at the handbags.  We had to buy her some summer tees and jeans and God bless Old Navy.  At least here in the Big Manzana, we would all walk around naked without it.  The prices are rock bottom and the clothes are trendy but useful.  The trick is in accessorzing. A cool scarf and attitude will make a $25 outfit go a long way.  We watched Vogue's The September Issue 2007" (we both like to pretend we are sitting there wearing all those cool shoes, clothes and handbags and we can critique better than anyone on "Project Runway" and what woman DOESN'T wish she was Anna Wintour!), and also watched the sweetest 3-hanky dog story on DVD titled "Hachi" with Richard Gere.  TIME magazine recommended it and if you like dogs and sweet movies, don't miss this.  We had our first Baskin and Robins ice cream for spring - twice and raided Barnes and Noble (she, because she had 5 gift cards to use up, and me so I can jot down books I want to get on my Kindle).  Ah, another thing my Laura likes to do is read, but I can't get sole credit for that - my daughter and I, her grandfather (my ex), and my parents, are and were all avid readers so she comes by that almost genetically.

On Saturday, Frances came to stay with us as she was doing Easter Sunday Mass with us, and my son in law went to stay with Cliff (Frances's dad) and later on Saturday evening we had a lovely pre-Easter dinner (we couldn't get a reservation in for Sunday - it was fully booked) at "Buttermilk Channel" - a lovely restaurant in the French boit style three short blocks from my apartment.  The dinner was excellent and the gentlemen treated the ladies, natch.  Coincidentally, Saturday was April 3 and it was 45 years ago that I had walked down the aisle with Cliff in Manila.  My, my.  The roads I have travelled since then, yet 45 years later, albeit divorced so long we can't (or he can't) remember what it was like to be married, we sat with our only child and granddaughter for Easter dinner.  Life is not so bad.

So here you have me giving you a glimpse of my Easter holiday, on Monday afternoon, April 5th, feeling blue because my little apartment feels so empty without my girl(s).  Tomorrow back to the office to earn my daily bread.  But for the moment, there's a little breeze blowing thru the new curtains in the windows at the back of my apartment - making my cat Marco happy as the windows are up and the screens down and he can have some fresh from the garden smells of birds and squirrels after being denied all this, this long, cold, wet, winter. And though I grumble about having to work, I am glad I have a job as it keeps my mind active and worse things could happen to me, I guess.  Spring is here (though I don't think we're through with the cold yet, April is a tricky month), and Life is not so bad.