March 1 - john and joyce are remodeling their master bath in a southwest theme. john is painting an acrylic painting for it on a 28 x 30 canvas. The painting is a result of john watching Jerry Yarnell paint "Sedona Canyon" on Public Television. john will post some "before" photos of the bath, and then some of the new bath.

Happy Spring!

March 7 - joyce and john had a rather pleasant surprise today in the mail. They received a copy of "Water Gardens" magazine. Their backyard is featured on pages 44 - 45. This was very much a surprise to them, as journalist, Gloria Gale, and photograher, Bill Mathews, took pictures of zenpond on the very hot morning of July 4th last year. john and joyce had almost totally forgotten about it.

john and joyce haven't posted any of the "before" photos of their master bath because of wise discretion. It looked too bad to post here! However, the new bath photos will be posted shortly, and will be beautiful!

john and joyce have both been asked to serve on The New Theatre Guild board. john will be th new President and joyce the Telephone Committee Chair. This organization provides scholarships to help theatre students pay for books and tution at three local universities: the University of Kansas, the University of Missouri at Kansas City, and the University of Central Missouri. This year the Guild will be giving $5000 to each university.

The Guild was founded by Dodie Brown, actress at The New Theatre Restaurant. She will be in an upcoming play at The New Theatre entitled "All Shook Up" running from June 26th - August 31.

The New Theatre Restaurant is one of the most respected dinner theatres in the United States according to the actors who come here.

To see more about the Guild go to: www.thenewtheatreguild.org . To see more about The New Theatre Restaurant, go to: www.newtheatre.com .

March 26 - john apologizes for the long delay since the last entry to the journal. As john has said before, the fewer entries in the journal, the busier john is.

john had to buy a new pre-filter for the small waterfall. Early this month, while it was still below freezing, john broke the ice in the top of the pre-filter, only to see that he had broken the bottom of the filter too. Oops!

The white squirrel has made a nest in john and joyce's oak tree in their front yard. A mother cardinal has been eyeing the leftover nest from last year in the Japanese Maple in the front water garden. Two Mallard ducks have been spending their days at zenpond.

The new master bath remodel is complete except for the wait involving the mirror, the shower door, a sconce, and three pendant lights. The bath is quite beautiful. The walls are stuccoed and painted an adobe reddish brown. The ceiling is a very light green. The sconce and pendant lights will be ceramic and their color is red rock. john is painting a painting for the new bath from a PBS Art Show by Jerry Yarnell called "Sedona Canyon". john will put it on the website when it is nearly finished. The vanity is at a comfort height of 36 inches, not the old height of 24 inches. It is nice not to have to bend over to brush one's teeth!