poof! spring is here!

and it’s bustin’ out all over!  i was late to work this morning because i just had to take a minute to snap some shots of these cute little purply-blue weedflowers that have taken over our side yard (and they are welcome to it!) while they still had morning dew.  almost (but not quite) as good as a field full of texas bluebonnets!

this shot was taken at work with the point-and-shoot camera.  i’ve been taking that one with me instead of hauling around “big black” on a daily basis, but i realllllly miss the manual focusing capabilities on shots like this one!  i just love the festive little fireworks of buds on this branch.

the weather outside was so nice today that i just had to get outside at lunchtime.  but i didn’t have a blanket to sit on (and fresh grass + khaki pants seemed like a bad idea), so i just went to my car, rolled the windows down, cracked the moonroof open and laid the seats down for a nice nap.  it was surprisingly relaxing and comfortable.  maybe it helps that my parking space was facing a big green hill that blocks all views of traffic?  maybe i just really needed to be outside.  here’s a shot of my happy, glowing toes.

the other thing today that thrilled me to a surprising degree was a re-organization of the staff area at work.  there are just two computers in our workroom, shared by all the staff.  i normally sit at the one on the left when i’m back there and today (for the first time in the 2+ years i’ve been working there) while chatting about the arrangement of the desks with a colleague, we had a lightning bolt of inspiration.  see, most of the stuff on the shelves above the left desk were things i never used and people had to reach over me (or wait until i moved) to get to them.  similarly, there were things on the right desk that only i used (how could i never have noticed this before?!) that i had to hassle people to get to.  there were also issues with some of the computer peripherals and their main users and as soon as we realized this, i couldn’t stand it any longer and went right to work flipping the stuff that i used more frequently to the desk i use more frequently and vice versa.  wow!  what a difference!  plus, the phone (on the right desk) has always been a bother because it doesn’t really reach to the left desk very well, so i’ve always had to either breathe over the shoulder of the person working at the right desk, or have a phone cord reaching tautly through their workspace.  inspiration?  ding!  longer phone cord!  between those things and the trashcan upgrade in the staff kitchen that i initiated last week*, i am quickly becoming the queen of small but significant improvements at work!

okay, one last photo of spring.  this one is currently sitting as my desktop wallpaper and looks purty.  maybe i’ll make it one of the freebies in the sidebar.  anyone interested?

*in case you care, we’d been using a large, round outdoor style garbage can for years.  it took up lots of room right in front of the bathroom door, plus you had to lift the lid with your fingers everytime you wanted to throw any little thing away and then sometimes the lid would fall off and….. ugh!  there is now a slim, indoor trashcan with a swinging-door lid and several people have commented on how nice it is not to have to touch that trashcan lid!  (we’re easy to please, we just don’t always notice how bad it is until it gets better.)