What's New This Week?   Pink Snow! We've all seen white snow, gray snow and even yellow snow but not very often do we see Pink Snow. This phenomenon only happens here in the northwest every April. We have thousands of beautiful pink flowering trees blooming this time of year. Every year after the blooms have been on the trees for a couple of weeks we seem to get some wind and rain that knocks a bunch of the peddles off the flowers and makes what looks like Pink Snow. It's especially thick this year because of the warm spring and recent winds. It's just one more of those things that makes spring so special.

Here's a neighbors car. Notice how the license plate is completely built up with "Pink Snow".
By the way, we are back to our normal spring weather in the low 60's with scattered showers almost every day. Now you know the secret of why the northwet is so green :-)

     Are you tired of doing your taxes and all that other boring junk on the computer? Here's a fun site that will give you a break from all of that. There are a number of different activities you can do at this site. There are also two different navigation methods you can use to move around within the site. One is kind of fun but can be a bit awkward the other is pretty straight forward. We found that the Boredom and Nature pages were the most fun for us. Have a ball playing around on this neat site, www.metaphorical.net.

Flower Pot Tower

     This project gets better with age. As the plants grow the effect gets more spectacular. This is a wonderful project to make with your kids. They get to dirty their hands while making something pretty.

Here's what you'll need:

Various sized terra cotta pots
Potting soil
Succulents, cactus or small plants like violas.
Decorative items like a mirror ball, pretty rocks or pinecones.

Arrange the saucers and pots into a tower.
Add potting soil.
Arrange and plant your plants.
I topped mine with a saucer and candle for evening garden parties.
You can add what ever you like to the top. You could even use a saucer filled with water for a bird bath. If you do then paint it with a water proof sealer or paint to prevent the water from leaking out through the terra cotta.
You could even make a small mosaic in the top tray or paint the pots. Glue pieces of ceramic tile for even more character.

I like mine pretty plain but it's your project so do what you like.

     We hope you enjoy Marilyn's Corner and look forward to all the fun things she brings you each week. If you have a fun project that would be suitable for our newsletter we'd love to share it with our readers. Just contact marilyn@runnerduck.com and we'll do the rest.

Remember we have all of our past projects archived on our web site at www.runnerduck.com. Just click on the Projects or Kids Only Eggs.

Looking for playthings to keep your busy baby engaged and drooling with delight? For a limited time, take advantage of free shipping on select toys in our Imaginarium Baby Store.

Check out the Free Shipping.

We'd like to remind you about the upcoming Knights of Columbus benefit on May 1st. Just two weeks away the dance will be held at the Knights of Columbus Counsel 676 building at 722 East Union Street in Seattle, Washington, beginning at 7:30. All proceeds will go to the restoration and maintenance of this wonderful old 1913 building.

Tickets are only $5.00 per person and there will be a no host bar. You can make reservations by calling 206-325-3410. We'd love to see you and we think you'll love hearing us.

Album Pick of the Week

"Algeria"
by Wayne Shorter

Wayne Shorter is composer/saxophone player extraordinary and this CD shows off some of his best. A reader from Argentina wrote; As the sticker on the cover says: "The greatest living composer in jazz". There's so much high quality music in this album that appreciating it to its deeper levels could take a considerable amount of time. As an example, what he did with Villa-Lobos' "Bachiana Brasileira No. 5" is beautifully outstanding. A major Opus by Mr. Shorter. Come on Wayne! We want more!!!

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Here's a really strange post Easter story that came to us by way of Marilyn's dad Frank.

There were 3 Italians killed in a car wreck and when they got up to the pearly gates they were met by St. Peter. St. Peter told them that if they could explain the story of Easter they could go through the pearly gates but if they couldn't they would have to go down below to hell.
The first Italian said he knew all about Easter and that is when you get a biga box what looks like a heart and paint it red, fill it with candy and give it to your girl friend!!
No Saint peter said that is wrong and you will have to go down to hell.
The next Italian said he knew about Easter for that is when you go geta a tree what comes up to a point and puta presents under it!!
No Saint Peter said , that is wrong too so you will have to go down to hell also
The third Italian said he really knew about Easter for many years ago the Jews and Romans had a biga fight and they took deesa guy and nailed him to a cross until he died. Then they tooka him down and gotta a lot of shovels and diga a bigga hole and putted dis guy in the hole. Then they gota a bigga rock and put over the hole. By golley three days later the guy moved the rock, comea out of the hole and saw his shadow!

Thanks Frank, I think ;-)

      How about conserving money? I don't know how many filling stations I go by that are 5 to 10 cents more expensive than the station I always fill up at but there are people lined up there filling their tanks. If you do a lot of driving it can really add up over a year. If you have a 20 gallon tank and fill up once a week at a cheaper station you could save $2.00. Doesn't sound like much until you look at a year savings of $104. I also believe that if people would shop at only the cheaper stations that the higher priced ones would start to drop their prices. I know the gas wars of the 1960's worked that way and they could again if people would just take the extra step of shopping for a lower price.

If you have a conservation tip please send it to conservation@runnerduck.com and we'll post it in our newsletter.

   THIS WEEK'S FREE RECIPE

Remember, if you have a recipe you'd like to share please send it to marilyn@runnerduck.com.

     Every month we post a new recipe on our web page. Be sure and check out the April recipe at the RunnerDuck Kitchen Store.
We'd be happy to post your favorite recipe there or in our newsletter and give you credit. Just drop a line to marilyn@runnerduck.com.

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Be sure and visit the RunnerDuck Cookbook Store for other great savings on cookbooks and cooking supplies.

Shop Cupboard Doors

We've been talking about doing some projects on dust control which makes you usually think of vacuums and hoods. One of the first places I started in getting a handle on my dust was to put some doors on my tool cabinets. Every time I wanted to get a tool off the shelf it was covered with dust. I was always breaking out the vacuum to dust them off. We'll that all ended when I put doors on them.
These cabinets were nothing more than some particle board shelves with open fronts. I wanted to make something cheap and light. I think these worked perfect. This is more of a concept project so you will have to adjust the measurements to fit your situation.

Here's what you'll need:

• 1/4" MDF sized to fit your cabinets.
• 1/4" X 1 1/2" hemlock for boarders around the doors.
• A brass handle.
• 1 1/2" hinges.
• Glue
• #8 Screw, nut and washer.

Measure your cabinet to cut the wood. Leave about a 1/4" in the middle so the doors close easily. Leave about 1/2" off the bottom so they don't drag on the floor.
Mount three hinges on each door spaced a couple inches down from the top, the bottom and in the middle. On the inside chisel out a notch for each hinge.

Since MDF isn't a great screw holding material, glue and screw the hinges in place.
Cut pieces of 1 1/2" X 1/4" wood to frame each door. I just used a butt joint in each corner but you could miter them for a nicer look. Space the center pieces so that one is set back from the edge about 1/2" and the other one is over the edge by a 1/2". This will make for a seal in the middle of the door.

Glue and clamp the edges around each door.
Using the 1 1/2" X 1/4" stock make a latch. For the catch I cut one piece 3" long and one piece 1 1/2" long. I rounded the top of one piece.
Glue and screw the two pieces to the door (screws from inside the door) so that the two pieces align at the bottom forming a catch.

Cut the latch from 1 1/2" X 1/4" stock 4" long and radius the top.
Drill a clearance hole for the #8 screw 1/2" up, centered on the bottom.
Align the latch in the catch and square with the edge of the door trim. Drill a clearance hole for the screw and mount the latch.
You can use a nylock nut to keep the latch from loosening up.

That's about it. I didn't bother to finish my doors and they've been working great for several months now. I may get around to putting some polyurethane on them some day but for now they look good and work great.

We hope you liked this project. If you build it and your friends ask where you got such a clever idea, please tell them that you got it at RunnerDuck.com.

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If you have a project that you would like to share please send us an email and we'll help get it published in the RunnerDuck review. We are looking for woodworking, gardening, crafts and kids projects so send us your thoughts at projects@runnerduck.com .

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