Our lawn actually needs mowing today. It's only March 17! WHAT IS THIS FRESH HELL?

It's raining like mad here. Big "winter" storm. Not supposed to stop until sometime Monday. I don't mind--we really need it, and rain has become a lovely novelty after almost seven years in SoCal.

Yeah, everything is in bloom here -- cherry trees, daffodils, dogwoods.

Have you ever been so upset (and this applies more to people in uncomfortable but easy-to-remove shoes) that you're stepped out of your shoes to run away and left them behind? I can't imagine being that verklempt. Either I can't get out of the shoes (because I tend to lace into my heels), or I'm taking them with...

Yes, actually. In 1999, I worked at a DV shelter in a ROUGH hood. I was wearing cute (for 1999) platform clogs at work when I heard a ruckus, and I stopped dead in the middle of a converstation with a client and sprinted like a mad bitch to break up a fight. Kicked off my shoes and BOOKED.

This morning: weeded, mulched, planted, watered, got stung. Daffodils about to bloom. It's totally spring here.

Have you ever been so upset (and this applies more to people in uncomfortable but easy-to-remove shoes) that you're stepped out of your shoes to run away and left them behind? I can't imagine being that verklempt.

You must have watched Fairly Legal last night. I thought the same thing. I've been upset enough to leave in haste, but never to leave my shoes behind. I'd kick off my heels if I meant to run, but I wouldn't ditch them unless I were running for my life. Those were expensive shoes, too. But I'm sure her ex will return them. By post, if he's smart.

Oh, I totally reclaimed my shoes about a half-hour later. They were still in the hallway.

It snowed a bit overnight here but it's almost all melted now.

As someone who's got 1/2 Irish lineage, I hate how St. Patrick's day is a yobbish drunkfest. At 8 AM there were already people on my bus heading downtown in moronic green hats to drink. Who drinks at 8 AM??

It's one of my BFFs birthdays, so I am going to celebrate that instead.

I woke up this morning and it was 77 degrees inside my apartment. Now I have windows open and a fan going, trying to cool my place down before it gets hotter outside than in (high is 80 today).

I may need to put in my air conditioner.

Did anyone read the interview with a guy from Weather Underground, where he talks about global warming apparently causing a weird shift in global weather patterns about two years ago, which is why our weather has been so strange since then?

Weird weather is becoming the new norm.

It's one of my BFFs birthdays, so I am going to celebrate that instead.

Me, too. Or the 14th, anyway, and her family is part Irish, part German -- BIG partiers -- so she always has a celebration at her house, which is perfect. All the fun of St. Pats's, none of the asshattery.

Ah, here it is:

Meteorologist Masters: “The Climate Has Shifted to a New State Capable of Delivering Rare & Unprecedented Weather Events”

Jeff Masters: The natural weather rhythms I’ve grown used to during my 30 years as a meteorologist have become disrupted over the past few years. Many of Earth’s major atmospheric circulation patterns have seen significant shifts and unprecedented behavior; new patterns that were unknown have emerged; extreme weather events were incredibly intense and numerous during 2010 – 2011. The laws of physics demand that the huge amount of heat-trapping gases humans are pumping into the atmosphere must be significantly altering the fundamental large-scale circulation pattern of the atmosphere. Unprecedented behavior like we’ve witnessed in the configuration of the winter jet stream over North America–with the four most extreme years since 1865 occurring since 2006–could very well be due to human-caused climate change. Something is definitely up with the weather, and it is clear to me that over the past two years, the climate has shifted to a new state capable of delivering rare and unprecedented weather events. Human emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide are the most likely cause of such a shift in the climate.

Christine Shearer: Having really looked closely at the weather for a while now, is there something that stands out to you most?

Jeff Masters: The atmosphere I grew up with no longer exists. My new motto with regards to the weather is, “expect the unprecedented.”