SPRING IS HERE! SPRING IS HERE! SPRING IS HERE!

But first: disclosure. Ahem... I, Megan Venable Smith, am a nerd. An NPR nerd, specifically.

i went to go see carl kassell speak when he came to campus! how cool! i love working at ut (if you couldn't tell) and one of the reasons is because so many cool people come and speak on campus. my fave to date (besides my boyfriend, carl) was maya angelou.

Then, this weekend got started off with a bang! (Literally. Mr. Smith and I ran in a 5 K early Saturday morning and it did, indeed, start with a bang.)

mr. smith and i run like greased lightening

friend and co-worker, betsy adams talked me into running the race

please take note of my fabulous new ringling sweatshirt

Next - oh boy oh boy oh boy! Spring is here! Amanda and I go on a picnic on the first incredibly amazing day of spring!

whoo-whoo! whoo-whoo! amanda gives a hoot, and don't pollute. that and she knows how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop.

Here is our spread:

snacks!

And here is our view:

mead's quarry

Specifically, here is my view:

amanda!

I have mentioned on occasion that Amanda and I like to refer to ourselves as Gravity and Levity due to our differing dispositions. Today, I would like to point out that we often unwittingly dress up like we're cartoons in Mad Magazine's Spy vs. Spy.

seriously, we dressed exactly alike but in black and in white

Insects were involved, natch. It is a picnic after all.

i went shopping friday afternoon and refreshed my undie supply. i was wearing a new pair and kept telling amanda the tags were tickling my butt... then reached in to grab the offending tag... and found this guy hangin' where the sun don't shine.

this bee scared the pants off amanda and really cracked me up until he landed on me then i freaked out

Afterward, Mr. Smith and I went to the Mowrer's to watch the Vols! Kristina was there too!

the ladies smile pretty

Kristina bears gifts for Jenny and me!

jar opening pigs that say 'knoxville tva employee's credit union; join us, join us NOW!'

I made the mistake of telling Kristina I already had one:

whoopsie

row mow and i snuggle. well. i snuggle and row mow complacently takes it.

Then, I core a pineapple!

it's the little things that make me happy

Jenny shows off her bench pressing prowess (she's started taking classes and is into it HARD CORE. BTW, she's running her first 5K next weekend and is going to kick its butt. Shout out, Ames Hussar and Jenny! Can't wait to see you guys at the finish line!)

up

and down (our team don't mess around)

Lastly, I leave you with a photo of:

my boys, mr. smith and the loke-ster

Allow me to just mention that although my blog post title is "Spring is Here, et al" I should in the interest of full disclosure say we built a fire for the whole day yesterday and it actually snowed today. So. Welcome to spring in East Tennessee, folks.

All right, holler at you soon! But you're definitely going to want to tune in next week because I have not one but TWO epic adventures on the ticker, but I'm not saying what. You don't wanna miss out!