Good news and bad news

Good news: my favorite late winter/early spring flowers are coming out. I don't know what they are. I'm not very good at identifying flowers. My lovely friend Melis is like a bird/plant/flower encyclopedia. If she took it upon herself to read my blog, she might help me out. Alas, she does not.
These flowers (whatever they are), smell amazing. I cut some and brought them into the kitchen. Though they might need to go into the fridge or outside overnight. They are quite fragrant. I used to buy them at the Davis Farmers' Market and put them in the kitchen of my (small) apartment. I had to close the door to the kitchen or the whole house would be overwhelmed. I'm hoping my gigantic (ha ha) house will absorb the smell.

Good news: I had a few minutes today to trim back some flowers that grow up, bloom, die, and then start growing up again from the bottom. The top, however, is left as brown, dead spires that need to be clipped. My back yard is showing signs of spring.
Here they are in their 'trying-to-evolve' state.
And this is after the clipping:
The small greens at the bottom are the new flowers. I tried to do the same surgery on the daisies. I love daisies and I'm always so excited when they start popping up -- they have a ways to go though. I wish my backyard were self-executing.

Good news: I went to the gym this morning and had a fabulous workout. Taught kinesis at 6:15a., then taught abs at 6:45a. After that, I got on the fancy new elliptical machine (I'll try to get a photo one of these days) and then did this crazy workout that I found on a fitness blog (the "Muscle Endurance Workout" not the crazy pull-ups). Truth be told, however, I don't know what all of it means and I was scared to do one or two of them, so I did MOST of this workout.
Then I went out to my car and ate the banana I'd brought with me. Then I went back for Darcy's pilates class. It's a fabulous class. The last time I had a Thursday off, I went to it as well. Darcy's a great teacher and I love how she explains things. If you miss her at the Rec Center, check out these pilates classes (and if you want to get me a gift certificate for these classes, I won't mind a bit). I've had a lousy day of eating since I got home from the gym. Can't quite seem to find an appetite for anything. Maybe I'll spend a little time cleaning the kitchen and seeing whether there are easy-to-prepare foods in there.

Good news: I got home and did some gardening (above) and then got an email from a friend I rarely get to see saying she was free this afternoon and did I want to meet. I was free too. Hurray!

Good news: I saw this in the parking lot this morning:

Bad news: I'm so free today because my agency just found out last week that California's furlough applies to our office. We had previously been told it would not apply. Then suddenly it does apply, so our chairman closed the office today and tomorrow because if we're not getting paid, he's not making us work.
Bad news: That's a 10% reduction in pay.
Bad news: There is no 10% reduction in workload or deadlines.
Bad news: There is no 10% reduction in mortgage payments.

Good news: My kitchen smells like spring flowers.