With the mild winters here it seems strange to think I’d hunkered down and have now spent the month of April emerging from the gloom, but that’s how it seems.

The first weekend of April my parents came for a special long weekend escape from the extreme Wisconsin winter. We had a great time exploring new parts of downtown, including the Marriott Marquis hotel and checking the progress of spring at Arabia Mountain. They were also the first to receive the full-on Thailand recap, complete with SB’s fantastic massaman curry.

The following weekend SB and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary with a long weekend on the coast, exploring Savannah, Tybee Island and Hilton Head Island. Our first night we joined a haunted pub tour, wandering the bars of Savannah, hearing ghost stories and the history of the town. We didn’t see anything supernatural but others on the tour did, which made for much fun. The next day we explored Fort Pulaski where civil war re-enactors were shooting guns, firing cannons and making bugle calls. In Hilton Head we loved standing on the edge of water again and realized that we can be to the ocean in just under four hours.

The weekend after that we found Lola and since then it has been one change after another as we all learn to live and love a puppy.

In other notes, the TV house next door is now officially on the market. We went to an open house on Sunday and found what we expected, half-finished, poorly done trim work and a layout lacking the vision of a designer who wants to live in that space. I hope it sells but wonder who will be attracted to a house like that.

In May we welcome a weekend house guest, in town to see Alton Brown, and we have big plans for our first major home improvement project, adding a screened porch to the back of our house.

If a tree falls in the middle of the night will you be able to find it?

In the early morning hours SB and I were rattled awake by a huge crashing boom. It was like a sonic blast, shaking all our windows and our bed. I leapt from bed and started looking out all the windows. Was it another tornado? Had we been bombed? Did something in our house explode? The sky was clear, with a beautiful sunrise poking above the trees. My nose detected no smoke.

I lay back down but had trouble falling asleep. Not knowing what it was and being half asleep my mind wandered to all sorts of catastrophes and I started to think I heard helicopters in the distance.

After a fitful last couple hours of sleep I awoke to the sound of chainsaws. In the full morning light it became obvious that the neighbor down the street’s tree had fallen over. Luckily it fell into the street, missing every mailbox and trash can, landing safely if loudly.

Our local firemen, with full ladder truck, lights blazing, were out in our street, cutting up the tree and clearing the way. It looked like they were having fun and we wondered if they get bored in their fire house in our quiet neighborhood. A great way to start the morning.

Sunday started out sleep deprived and grumpy. I couldn’t sleep Saturday night, after all the excitement of getting our new dog and knowing she was out in the other room. We have decided to crate train her so she was spending the night in her crate in our office area, being very quiet, which just left me in bed wondering how she was doing.

I got up at 3am and SB at 7 to take her outside where she would promptly sit down and look expectantly up at us while not producing any deposits for our thirsty yard.

When we got up for the day Zoe came out to the office, rounding the corner in obvious hopes that the dog would be gone, only to find Lola sitting in her crate. Zoe hissed and ran off. This set the tone for the day. Zoe would make drive by hisses at the dog and then run back to “her” room and the dog would sit quietly wondering what was going on.

The cat proceeded to eat the dog’s food and drink the dog’s water while Lola spent the day not eating or drinking much of anything. We invited our friends who also have a new puppy over to help Lola feel more comfortable. They got along great, with much puppy tumbling, water drinking and snack eating. After the puppy visit Lola took a long nap in her new bed and was starting to feel more comfortable and adventurous.

Then it was time to load her in the car, which she loved, and take her back to the rescue organization. First thing this morning she was off to the vet to be spayed and micro-chipped. Tonight we will get her back, much to the disappointment of Zoe, who has been happily prancing the puppy free house.

Welcome the newest member of our family, Lola. We adopted her from a local rescue organization this afternoon. She is six months old and part to mostly Australian Shepherd. Right now she’s under twenty pounds and no one knows how large she will get.

Zoe, our cat, is handling the new addition like the lady of the house that she is. There’s been a little light scolding and some pointed paw shaking, puppies are smelly. Tonight they both ate from their own dishes in the kitchen at the same time. I’m calling day one a huge success.

I love those house flipping shows and those home remodel shows. When the TV crews showed up at the foreclosure next door in early February, we couldn’t wait to find out what was going on. A&E’s Flip This House had descended with a flurry of activity.

Two months into the flip I am so ready for them to be done. The everyday workers and the camera crew are very nice but the investors and “stars” of the show make terrible neighbors. I’m tired of coming home to the aggravations of whatever over-the-line thing they have been doing all day while I’m at work.

I’m not sure what a house that was flipped for a TV show really means to the value and integrity of the house. Would you buy a house that was flipped for TV?

I was so involved in hostessing and eating that I didn’t take a single photo. Luckily, Karyn not only took a picture but uploaded it AND added captions. The brunch table.

The spread included the following:

• Shortbread waffles
• Phyllo wrapped brie with apricot and rosemary chutney
• Sweet and spicy bacon
• Chipotle roulade - rolled egg souffle with cheese
• Fresh herb roulade - rolled egg souffle with cheese
• My accidentally vegan biscuits
• Fresh fruit salad with mint
• Oven roasted asparagus and artichoke
• Horseradish aioli (made with tofu shhhhh)
• Fruit compote
• Whipped cream
• Champagne mimosas (guava, mango and/or orange)
• Coffee

Yes, a tornado hit downtown Atlanta last night. Yes, we live and work in the path of the tornado. Thankfully we are safe and our house is in-tact.

Last night after 9pm we were home, trying to catch-up on some Netflix movies. I kept being distracted by huge lightening flashes outside our window, but not a lot of thunder. SB brought up the radar on his iPhone and it looked like the storm was on the north side of the city. A few minutes after that our power started surging, but this is nothing new for us. Big thunderstorms roll through Atlanta all the time and our power grid is nothing if not flaky.

When the power went out for good SB went to find the flashlights, radio and candles while I went to the kitchen window to check on the weather. I pulled open the blind, to see all our huge trees in the backyard bending over. The sky was a strange green color and then I heard it, the sound of freight train headed right at us.

I ran to the center of the house, calling to Ryan to come quick. We found the cat and a big blanket and hid out in our bathroom, desperately trying to find a weather station on our radio as we listened to the roar of wind and the pummeling of stuff hitting our house.

Once it fell silent we emerged. Thankfully everything in our house was still there. No broken windows. The rain stopped shortly and we headed out into the street, meeting-up with our neighbors who were equally shaken. We quickly learned that the main roadway, a half block from our house was full of debris and that it was indeed a tornado that had passed within five houses of our house.

We called work to find out that many windows had been blown out, the roof partly removed and a feeling like a bomb had exploded. Our co-workers were OK and jumping to action.

After checking the car and motorcycles, we went back inside to hear on the radio that there was a second tornado headed right at us. We made some desperate phone calls to find someone who had power and could look at the weather radar for us. Then we gathered our supplies and the cat and headed back to the bathroom. The hail and strong winds came again, but not the thunderous sound of a tornado.

When we emerged everything was still ok with our house. As we listened to our battery powered radio, in our dark house, we watched patrol cars with big spotlights circle our block. Today we heard many reports of looting so we were very happy to see that our area was being looked after.

In the morning we ventured out of our house and up the street to see the damage. Luckily it is mostly fallen trees that crushed parts of houses and cars. No reports of serious injury or fatality in our neighborhood. See more photos from my hood.

Electricity still has not been restored to our house, no surprise since our main lines were all felled in the storm. They say we may have power tomorrow night. Right now we are hanging out at a coffee shop, enjoying electricity and wi-fi while we can.

I started my third knitting project, a lace scarf of cashmere, back before Christmas. This piece looked so simple, but after ripping it out five times it was all I could do to start over again and slog my way through. I learned a lot and the end product makes me smile but I don’t plan to undertake something with this fussy of a yarn for a while.

Forget loaner fish at your hotel, what is truly modern in Salt Lake is the public library! I’ve never visited such a great, inviting, beautiful public library. I had huge library envy! Beyond the light filled architecture they have the city NPR station INSIDE the building, plus a cafe, a gift shop and even a comic book store. The building has a beautiful sweeping ramp walkway up to a rooftop garden with panoramic views of snow covered peaks.

You can see more of my photos and check out the library’s own website.

Thank you to my librarian husband for guiding me to the front door.