I thought yesterday’s April Fools Day post was hilarious. Unfortunately, this sentiment was not universally held. Anne, my lovely spouse, muse and the subject of said post was not amused. So, a day later, this post is a bit of a makeup post. Hopefully, it will smooth some feathers and mend some bridges.

Skunk Cabbage (Eastern), also-known-as Clumpfoot Cabbage, Foetid Pothos, Meadow Cabbage, Polecat Weed, or more formally, in Latin, as Symplocarpus foetidus, is a low growing, foul-smelling plant that prefers wetlands. It is also the subject of Anne’s latest knitting creation, a pair of Skunk Cabbage inspired mittens. Anne models her creation, in the two photos with this post, inspired by a link or two. When Anne isn’t knitting, she is biking, making her monthly quota of miles for March, and doing the family’s taxes. She has finished Dan’s and is pretty much done with ours, but Dave’s taxes are driving her nuts.

Part of the problem is that while Dave has been working and getting paid, he isn’t being paid a salary. Last summer, at Rochester, he was a consultant, not an employee, so no taxes were taken out, bad enough. Last fall, at NIH, as an intern, he is being paid in “taxable energy credits”. TurboTax interprets these credits as equivalent to short-term capital gains and taxes them accordingly.

Speaking of David, he has selected Purdue University, as his school. He will attend this fall, as a doctoral candidate in Biomedical-Engineering. Can you say Doctor Dave? He visited Drexel last week, but was not as impressed with it as he had been with Purdue during his visit there earlier in the month. I wonder it that humongous Philly cheese-steak sandwich didn’t agree with him? He was also accepted at Rochester, his safety school, but the prospect of another Rochester winter, did not appeal to him. There are still several schools that he hasn’t heard from, but he was tired of waiting and decided to enroll.

Dan, our left-coast son, has been busy preparing for this year’s CalArts MFA Open Studios (April 10th). He doesn’t have a formal show this year, but he does have some recent work that he might be able to exhibit. The formal spaces for this show are reserved for graduating students. He had laryngitis earlier this week, but hopefully he is over that by now. Thursday, he took the train up to San Francisco, to visit Cousin Liz and take in an art show.

Under the topic of home restoration, all the contractors, to repair the storm damage are lined up. First comes, the mason, then the roofer and then the awning guy. This will likely take all month or more to occur. As my general contractor cautioned, each day it rains, is a slipped day of schedule. At least he didn’t start rhyming, April showers, brings May sub-contractors, or however it goes. I just remembered a question, who is going to do the trim, vents and lights? Something to ask him, next time we speak, then onto the gutter guy.