Saturday, July 24, 2004
I'll be gone for awhile...
While I'm in Nevada, I thought I might provide you with a "best of..." list ... for your reading enjoyment. Here are some of MY favorite posts to my blog throughout its 15 months of existence:
- The two random acts of kindness aimed at me in December of 2003 (see the last two posts)
- The Mother's Day Card Saga (see the post dated Sunday, May 11, 2003)
- The Dream a Little Dream of Me Song-Saga start with the post on Monday, October 27 and scroll up from there) and continuing into the next month (scroll to the bottom of the page)
- The Painting Saga, parts one, two, three, four, five, six and seven ... and then before & after pictures
Or, if you're REALLY bored, you can check out my other blog.
Or, if you're really, really bored you can look at my photography portfolio (scroll down to where it says "Gallery Photos" ... there are about 15 folders in a bullet list ... each folder is clickable, and each photo is also clickable for a larger version) at Photo.net.
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Painting Pictures!!
You asked for them! Before and after pictures from when I painted my room. Here you go!!
http://www.louannsplace.com/paint.html
Not sure how exciting that will be, but enjoy.......
Saturday, July 17, 2004
Auntie Mame Update (read yesterday's post first!)
Mame! at the Lancaster Opera House last night was wonderful!! It's been so long since I've seen that show/movie that I'd forgotten many parts of the story. But it all came rushing back to me. What a wonderful story! I think that I will temporarily change my favorite musical to Mame! (Of course, only temporarily ... because I really LOVE Into the Woods, but I'll get back to that eventually without a doubt!!) ANYWAY ... I can certainly see myself being like Auntie Mame to my own nephews ... and it was rather ironic that I saw the show the night before spending a day in Big Flats (that's in the Southern Tier of New York State, if you didn't already know that) with my nephews, Ian, Aaron, and Will. At the end of Mame!, she takes her rather young great-nephew to India, after some persuasive talk with his parents. Oh ... I can TOTALLY see ME doing that!! I'm already plotting to take Ian to Disney world the summer before he starts Kindergarden. LOL!!
Anyway ... after the show, we all (6 of us) came back to my mother's house to have cake and ice cream in honor of her best friend's birthday (which was actually yesterday). We had lots of fun conversation and laughs. As we talked about the show, we also went back to talking about the movies that have been made. I realized that I've never seen either the Rosalind Russell version NOR the Lucille Ball version ... which I just looked up on the Inernet Movie Data Base, and discovered that Bea Arthur plays Vera Charles, which must be absolutely perfect. Off to Blockbuster.........
Friday, July 16, 2004
Auntie Mame!
Tonight several of us are going to the Lancaster Opera House to see Mame! The Lancaster Opera House is an awesome little theater in the town where my mom lives. Year round, they run great shows. I look forward to this one. Maybe Auntie Mame is someone I ought to emulate when I'm with my own little nephews!! :-)
Monday, July 12, 2004
Really!!??
Okay ... this is mainly for my teacher friends ... who probably don't even read my blog during the summer anyway ... but I'll try. So, when I was in Las Vegas, I met a friend of my friend. This woman works as a dealer in one of the casinos ... she deals high stakes blackjack games in private rooms. She is a single parent, and her daughter is adopted. We had a wonderful conversation, for the most part, about kids and school and adoption, etc. At one point, I mentioned that I had once considered adopting a child, but didn't think that I could handle the emotional aspects of parenting all by myself, without a spouse. Her answer to this floored me. She said that for me, it wouldn't be too difficult because I "don't work very much" (her words!!) ... not like herself, she said. She said that she works "eight hours a day, five days a week." It would be much more difficult for someone like her to be a single parent than for someone like me. I wonder (hmmmm....) what the implication is........
Thursday, July 08, 2004
Looking forward to Summer 2005!! (??)
I am taking a break during a hectic day to blog a bit (while eating dinner... what does that say to you!?) LOL!!
I got home from Las Vegas about 2:00 a.m. today, Thursday. Ugh!! I only slept a few hours before I got ready to leave for NY tomorrow, Friday. Whew!
Anyway ... that's not what I wanted to blog about this evening. Really, what I wanted to talk about was my flights Sunday and last night. I was a bit bored at one point early in the outgoing flight on Sunday, so I got out the flight magazine and was looking at the map in the back. (I LOVE maps ... didn't ya' know that!?) I realized that the flight path from Baltimore to Las Vegas would probably take us right over the "Four Corners" area (where the borders of Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona share a common point). Sure enough, after I watched the Rock Mountains go by, I spent a good chunk of the end of the flight watching the Colorado River flow through the Grand Canyon and into Lake Mead. It was wonderful!! I got to do the same thing on the way back last night. Again ... wonderful.
Now, I don't know if you realize that I am hoping to make my next cross country road trip next summer, and that I've been hoping to spend the great majority of the summer in the Four Corners area, specifically concentrating on the Grand Canyon, the Navajo Indian Reservation, and some of the other park areas in and around that part of the country. Flying over it REALLY whet my appetite. When we went to see Hoover Dam on Tuesday, I bought a book about the Grand Canyon (full of bibliographies!) And, I've spent a lot of time contemplating the trip. I'm more and more excited about it the more and more that I think about it.
In the next couple of weeks, I hope that I am going to be putting a page up in my site to give you an idea of my planning for that trip. I'll let you know when it's up. I can't decide on a name for the trip ... like my cross country trip in 2001 was called "Lou Ann's Great Adventure 2001" and the trip to Alaska in 2003 was called "Lou Ann's Folly 2003". So I need to come up with something. I don't care if my name is in it ... or if it's something like "Southwest 2005" or "The Four Corners 2005" or something about the Colorado River ... or what? Any ideas?
Monday, July 05, 2004
Whaddya know ... I didn't think I'd find internet access here in Las Vegas (staying with a friend, etc.) ... but sure enough, I'm online.
Fourth of July in a place like Las Vegas is pretty neat. We didn't go to the Strip for the fireworks, as they did a wonderful (and LONG) show here in the development where my friend lives. What's neat about it is that because we're pretty much in the desert here, and there are no real trees, you can watch fireworks all around the sky, being shot off at all different locations, 360 degrees, for several hours. It was awesome. From where we were, on the deck of the clubhouse, we watched the fireworks over the Strip, the fireworks right in front of us, and fireworks all over the valley and from the mountain sides. Cool!
Another point that I'd like to make ... there are certain things in life that you simply MUST do with some young children around. A few days ago I took a friend of mine's 10-year-old son and his friend to see _Around the World in 80 Days_. Now, it is a super movie ... Jackie Chan is wonderful, the story is fun, the movie very well done. But, when you go to see that movie, please try to find a couple of 10-year-old boys to see it with because your experience will be heightened by their reactions to everything on the screen. Fun!!!
And ... when you see fireworks, it really helps to see it with children who are (1) not so young that they get scared, but (2) young enough that they still think that everything is NEW. Here in Las Vegas last night, my friend that I'm staying with, Jenny, had a friend of her's and her daughter over to watch with us. The daughter brought another friend ... the two girls being about 9-years-old. Again ... such fun!!!
Hope your Fourth was a blast!!
Saturday, July 03, 2004
Yesterday, Friday, I had plans at the hair salon. Now, going to get my hair done is always an adventure. My hairdresser, Jenny, owns her own salon. She is quite a personality ... and lots of fun! Her shop is called Classic Look. The website is there, but not full service yet, so to speak. Well, during my last cut & color, Jenny and I were chatting, and I mentioned my new-ish hobby of photography. In case you haven't seen it, I have a photography portfolio online with a website called Photo.net. Please visit my portfolio (scroll to the section that says "Folders").
Anyway, several weeks ago, Jenny called me and told me that she remembered my comment about the photography, and would I make an appointment with her to come in and take some pictures. She was going to hire a model and have me take some "before and after" shots of "updo's" to put on the website that is being developed for her business. Not a problem. So we decided that I would come in on July 2 (yesterday) at 10:30 a.m. and that I would get my own hair cut and colored at 12:30 ... plenty of time for us to get some pictures of the updo's. Yup.
So, yesterday I go to Classic Look with my camera and tripod and film at 10:30. Jenny was apologetic and explained that the model called and told her that she had strep throat (I think that was it...) and cancelled at the last moment. But ... true to her personality ... Jenny had a quick and fun solution. Yes, Jenny decided to use LOU ANN's long hair for the updo's. Now, my first reaction was "How do I take pictures of me!?" But I realized that I have a remote shutter release. That would work.
SOOOOooooo ... Jenny colored my hair first, trimmed it, and then started with the updo's. I think that she must have done 4 or 5 updo's on my hair ... with all of the hairspray, pins, and decorations to boot. And then, after she did the second last one, she decided to wash my hair again (to get rid of all of that hairspray!) and did one last updo for me to wear for the rest of the day.
Two funny sub-anecdotes: (1) One of the updo's was to be a wedding "do". She put my hair up, and then stuck little white flowers all up in my hair (I chose those particular words on purpose). Now, I'm sure that the up-do was a wonderful one, as far as up-do's go. And, I'm sure that some women want little white flowers all stuck up in their hair. But I can tell you, for sure, that when I get married some day, I will NOT have little white flowers all up in my hair. And, (2) at one point, she decided that she wanted to have an image of one of her employees doing my eyebrows (they do that at that shop). Well, I usually "do" my own eyebrows at home. But, they took me upstairs to the day-spa and pretended to "do" my eyebrows (threading) for the camera.
Therefore, when the pictures have been posted to her website, I may ("MAY" is NOT a guarantee!) remind you to take a look at the pictures of me. With updo's. Hah!!
