Samuel Alito was confirmed by the Senate after a fizzled filibuster by Senator Kennedy and Senator Kerry and sworn into office. One could have predicted this deluded duo would make a suicidal last stand against the inevitable. The filibuster was quickly voted to a halt and the nomination was approved. We now have another judge dedicated to the interpretation of law instead of the making of law from the bench.

We have similar good news for our Tennessee state Supreme Court. One of the judges who found a right to a legal abortion, Riley Anderson, is going to resign on August 31, 2006. That will leave only two of the four justices who supported this 4-1 decision. The lone dissenter, Justice William Barker, is now the Chief Justice. We have a chance to vote against the retention of the three pro-abortion justices Holder, Birch, and Anderson and for the retention of Barker on August 3. That is a date in my organizer for sure!

The President gave a splendid State of the Union Address. It was a cry for freedom and democracy around the world as well as good news on the home front. It should be a great start for the next elections.

The days are getting gradually longer and staying unusually warm. I took a look around the garden in shirt-sleeve weather today. The daffodils are up and flaunting fat buds about to bloom. The roses are decked in tender new leaves. The snow peas are blooming heavily, and I munched on six big, sweet pods as I looked them over. They should have frozen long ago in a normal winter. The lawn is greening up as well. If we have a last blast of winter, the spring bloomers are going to be hit hard by the cold.

My fabric stash got brightened by the new quilting cottons. Thanks, Nancy! My brother found the box left by the swift, silent-footed UPS man and trudged into my room with it. I took a picture of the quilting cottons overlapping each other. Now I have to find the cottons in my stash that they are supposed to go with, somewhere under the yarn stash.

I got another cotton lace towel finished and the second sweater is nearly done. I've been making pretty good progress on the knitting, rushing to get it done before gardening really gets going. It is so warm that the seedlings could sit on the terrace during the day and even most nights.

I'm in my usual "I've got to get organized" frenzy again. It happens every year when the weather starts looking like spinach might survive in the garden. I just plain have too much to do on the organizer, and now I've got even more to do. I'm now the official secretary for my American Business Women's Association chapter as well as keeper of the chapter website. The former secretary had to resign, so as acting secretary I took over the rest of the duties. Now I have to get all that organized. I need to update the website pages again with the new information for this year and print it out.