79 degrees in March!

OMG - It's only March 14th and it's 79 degrees here today.  Considering we usually have snow cover and our lakes are still frozen this time of year, this is pretty amazing!  I just realized that I never, not once, took my snow suit out this winter.  I also never wore my snow hat, my scarf or my snow boots.  Not my actual "get out and shovel the snow" boots anyway.   That's never happened before.   What the heck happened to winter??

I knew it was supposed to be nice today, so I had decided that today was going to be window washing day.  I like to wash my windows every spring and fall.  Washing windows is one of those jobs that I really don't like to do, but once it's done, I'm thrilled I did it.  Know what I mean?  It took me just over 2 hours, but every window in the house is sparkling clean and I can actually see outside.  All the windows are wide open and a beautiful breeze is blowing through the house.  Did I mention that it's 79 degrees?  In Chicago!  In March!

Chablis got home from work at 1:00, eyed at her watch, looked at me, and said, "We could put our bathing suits on and sit outside for 2 hours until I have to leave for school."  We are 2 peas-in-the-pod-beach-babies!  Quicker than you could say "Beach Blanket Bingo" we were in our bathing suits and slapping on the sun tan lotion.  In March!!

While we were outside I decided to clean up the yard.  Our 2 dogs can drop a lot of "doggie bombs" in a week, so I scooped poop and then dragged out the hose and washed down the whole yard.  All around the perimeter of the yard I can see plants already emerging from the soil.  All my irises and hostas are coming up.  Then I coaxed the dogs over by the hose and gave them each a much needed bath, clipped their nails and brushed their teeth.  That's another job I hate to do but I'm always glad when it's done!

At any rate, I feel like I really accomplished a lot today already.  I'm heading back to my office now to file some paperwork, but I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself.  Plus, I have a little bit of a tan.  In March!  I still can't believe it's 79 degrees out.

Unusually Warm Temperatures

The temperatures around here have been unusually high for March.  Hello??  Almost 70 degrees?  We decided to take advantage of the warm weather and late afternoon sunlight, and go grab a few caches.  We did 5 of them in about an hour and a half.  Two were in the woods and the rest were in parks.

I really liked the cache container for this one....

All the ice is already gone from the river and the nearby lakes.  Even my pool is completely thawed already.  Here, the water is flowing freely over the dam...

Occasionally we run across survey markers when we're out geocaching.  I know there's a way to log them in, but I can't figure it out.  It's kind of confusing.  But they're still fun to find and I usually take a picture of them...

Tonight the thermometer has dipped back down to 32 degrees.  But for a few days this week we were able to open the windows and air out the house.  How warm did it get by you this week?