We spent much of the winter renovating our living space. Thought I'd put up a few pictures showing our changed look. In the entry way, what we call the mud room, we expanded to a 3 by 10 foot tile floor section. We've learned that tile floors are like rugs and can have patterns in the middle and fringe on the edges. The right size fringe can also mean no cuts. In the kitchen we cut a peninsula loose, angled it to the rest of the kitchen, put some red beaded board on it, some track lighting over it and called it an island. We tore up the carpeting in the the living room, the parquet in the dining room, repainted walls, and covered the whole floor with 3/4 inch thick Canadian birch hauled home box by box from Marden's. Daryl, our carpenter, started me off with two straight lines of flooring and I nailed the rest down until we got to the other side of the room and he finished that line. I need to take my hammering arm on vacation. The space has a lighter, airier feel and looks larger because the furniture is in groupings with open space around the groupings. The living room is grouped on a rug carefully selected to blend with dog and cat hair. The old huge coffee table grew longer legs and became the desk in the home office downstairs; it was replaced by the coffee table from the Copper Heron. We are a long way from done, but will break from renovation work for a while, because we're headed into gardening season. My first show at the theater this year was Friday night, a performance by Randy Sabien Quartet with bassist Brian Torff doing a tribute to Stephane Grappelli. It was an amazing performance; the audience was just crazy about them. Now I know what "virtuoso bassist" means. I comped some tickets to Colby and UMA music departments, trying to teach them the way to the theater. My show night experience starts around 3 pm with the arrival of the band, sound check around 5 pm, feed them dinner after that, then an hour of intense anxiety from 7 to 8 when I don't know if enough people will come. Then the music starts. If the performer is someone I've listened to for years, I'm amazed to hear them live. If the live music is as wonderful as it was Friday night, it is a peak experience, hearing it, watching the audience respond to the band, and knowing I made it happen. It takes me a couple of days to recover. The ice went out of the lake a few days ago and the loons are back. This is their most vocal season, when they are establishing territory. Woodpeckers are making a lot of sound also. They have learned to hit on the empty sand barrel next to the driveway, like their own steel band. The bird who makes the most noise gets the mate is how it must work.

Packing my shorts for New Orleans. We land there Thursday. If you need to connect with us, my cell number is 207 462-1731 and Melissa's is 207 322-4397. And I obscessively check email wherever I am.

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