The last time I posted I was scraping ice off the windshield and today I am watching daffodils sway in the breeze. Just the few days we were in Kansas City for Steve's Dad's funeral the neighbors have been busy bringing signs of Spring to their yards. It will be a bit before Steve gets any yard work done as he caught a nasty flu in KC and is in bed with it. With both the KC and Detroit flights delayed and him with the chills and running a fever it was a long trip! Then I had to drive home from Cincinnati and I hate driving in the dark.

We were able to see the granddaughters for a few minutes before the funeral, but missed out on a planned day at the dinosaur themed restaurant so Ally and Kady could build their own stuffed dinosaur. Kind of like Build a Bear places. Steve was too sick to get out of bed and he sure didn't need to give the flu to the rest of the family. Ally, who is 5, is sure Grampa is going to take her to ride a real horse when they come visit in July so Steve has to make sure that occurs. She wasn't even excited that our subdivision's pool is very close to us - she wants horses!! Kady has the most beautiful big brown eyes and she just looked at us and didn't say a word, but she did let Steve carry her around for a bit.

I am fighting Steve's flu with the chills and then sweats but I am still, hopefully, leaving for Greenville tomorrow and coming home Sunday. Steve has a friend coming down for the weekend to go to the opening days of horse racing at Keeneland so he won't even know I am gone. Hopefully Ron won't get the flu from him while he is here.

I have gotten hooked on easy crossword puzzles while sitting in the airport and on the planes so have done less reading than I normally do during trips, but I did finish Mary E. Pearson's The Adoration of Jenna Fox. What an incredible book! For those of you who know me well, I will just say I sobbed with understanding at the conclusion of this book. Jenna was once the driven- to-please-them 17-year-old daughter of a bioscientist father and home renovator mother, but now she isn't sure what she is. Are you human if only a small percentage of your brain is your own? How much do you need for it to still retain your soul? Lots of mind bending questions addressed in this riveting science fiction (at least for now) novel set in a time when genetic alteration and brain controlled artificial body parts are common place. Jenna wakes up after a car accident in which her two best friends died, but they still keep calling to her. She is in a new home and her grandmother Lily is living with them and seems to dislike Jenna. Jenna cannot remember if this was the case before the accident or not as her memory is slow in returning. Her parents have always been protective, at least she thinks so, but this level of surveillance is intensive, even to the point of going out into the yard. With time Jenna will be allowed to go to school, but a very small charter school where she will meet other teens who are missing parts, physical or emotional, just as she is. An incredible novel that will niggle naggle at me for a long time. I don't talk to Steve about every YA novel I read but I have been talking to him about this one as it has me thinking about how selfish I am in relation to how I care for the world around me. Would be a great book for HS Biology classes to read and discuss.

On the "sassy" reading front I finished Christine Feehan's Night Game, another one of her paranormal romances - this time between the Cajun sweet talker Gator and Flame, the young woman who escaped from the laboratory where she was injected with cancer cells for experimentation. Both are Ghostwalkers with paranormal powers - these two can control sound waves, but they can't control the physical attraction for each other - of course! This is a steamy romance novel after all. This one did get a bit much toward the end, but I love the science part of this series. However, I won't be recommending them to teen readers, although I am sure many teens are reading these as they are Feehan's vampire series.

Lots to do today before I pack for the trip to Greenville - will leave first thing in a a.m. as it is a long drive and these days I need to get out often to stretch my aching muscles. The planes about kill me. Will be a rough drive as I can't take the strong painkillers when I drive. I am more than a little bit disgusted with the UK Rheumatology clinic here in Lexington as I waited for over a month to get an appointment and then was told that I was not "sick enough" for them to take me. A friend here in Lex, Amber, recommended Vanderbilt and she is so right. A real person answered the phone and explained that my GP had to call to set up the first appointment but that yes, the fibromyalgia specialist would take me as a new patient. What a difference from the many, many, many phone calls to the UK clinic where I only got voice mail. So, I have my fingers crossed I will get in to see him soon - about a 4 1/2 drive from here, but well worth it as I have had no luck with finding a local doctor.

All for today.