While gathering my week's supply of fruit and veggies in the produce section of the grocery store the other day, a bustling produce worker approached me and asked what I was looking for in an apple (almost as if he were asking what I looked for in a man).

I laughed, "Well, I guess I like crisp, sweet apples."

He proceeded to share his wealth of apple knowledge describing to me the characteristics of each Fuji, Gala, Cameo, Granny Smith, Red & Golden Delicious, Braeburn, and all others that were out on display.

"I've always been a fan of the Fuji," I said.

"Well, if you like the Fuji, come back in a month or two and we'll have one that's so big, and so sweet, you'll have to hold it with two hands and eat it with your husband in front of the TV with a block of cheese."

I laughed again, "Oh! Sounds so romantic!" I was serious...sharing a nice apple with my sweet hubby & cutting up nice little slices and enjoying the evening together sounds romantic to me! The produce manager gave me a look that suggested I was nuts for thinking an apple could ilicit any romance at all. Perhaps our ideas of romance differ as much as our idea of a good apple may differ...maybe he likes sour, mushy apples. Sigh. I'll have to go back in a month or two and try it out, I guess. Maybe report back to him...

In the mean time, I'll just continue to watch how every apple my babeh holds seems to be as big for him as I anticipate the early summer apples to be for me...

Just like Mother Nature so sickly outside

The three of us woke with a nose at high tide

Our throats are a ticklin', we're sneezing a storm

We can't seem to get our poor bodies to warm

We're coughing and sniffling and rubbing our eyes

And sucking on sweet cures all colors and size

The trash cans are stacked full of crumpled up tissue

And we've warn out the saying, "Oh, honey! God Bless You!"

We're keeping the couch feeling loved all day long
As we snuggle with blankets watching movies with song

I guess its a good thing the weather is poor

'Cuz today, sad but true, we won't leave our front door!

We've been doing a lot of looking out the window over the past few days. It's amazing how we made it through several long, hard inside months and with just two weeks of warmness teasing us, we can't seem to digest the pit in our stomachs as we watch the flag stick straight out from the wind (as if it were standing at attention to Mother Nature) and every last flurry of tiny snowflakes dancing outside our window screaming NANNY-HA-HA! SPRING HASN'T SPRUNG YET!

Spring HAS sprung. I know it has. I can feel it in my bones. So can the rest of my family. We've even turned off our heater. Good thing we have plenty of inviting warm blankets...

Hard boiled eggs are surely the most indicitive sign that Easter is drawing near. I happened to have 18 EXTRA eggs just chillin' (pun intended) in my fridge this week, so we decided that instead of overwhelming ourselves with eggs for every meal, we'd boil them all hard and treat ourselves to eggs when we felt the need for a snack.

The best part of the whole harded (is that a word) egg is the process of smashing it against the counter and rolling the crispness out of the shell until peeling it off the whites is easy. Its almost a liberating motion in and of itself. And then sprinkling salt, pepper, and maybe paprika over each half of the split snack just tops off one of the best non-sweet sweetnesses of spring. I can't wait to dye another batch of 18 eggs with my babeh and hubub in a week or two.

I love hard boiled eggs. Heavens, I love spring. So so much.