Top of the World Photos

Here we are - Jim, Mom and I.

Jim and His BFF at Top of the World

To celebrate Mother's Day a little early, Jim and I took my mom (his BFF) to Top of the World for lunch.  If you visit Las Vegas, I recommend it to you.  It was our first time there and we loved it.  It's 1, 100 feet up.  The view of Las Vegas is spectacular and the restaurant moves so that after one hour and twenty minutes, you have gotten a 360 degree view of our beautiful city.  The food was delicious and the dessert was, in Vegas tradition, sinfully good!  Our waitress and busperson were very nice.  I will post photos when I can talk Jim into downloading them off his camera.  (He's taking a nap right now.)  If you do check it out, be sure to tell them when you arrive that you are going to the restaurant, otherwise, they charge $16.00 per person to ride up.  The price of the food is about the same as other really nice restaurants.  We wouldn't be able to go there every day, but we will go again.  Maybe next time we'll go at sunset.

There is some entertainment, too.  While you eat, you may see some crazy - er - I mean brave people jumping off of the side of the building.  They have jumps and some rides, but I don't think I would ever try any of that.

Happy Mother's Day to everybody!

Crosby, Stills and Nash

Can they still sing?  Can they still play?  Can they still write songs?  Yes.  Jim and I went to the Crosby, Stills and Nash concert last night at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel here in Las Vegas.  (I can tell I'm tired because I already made 4 typos.)  They sound fabulous.  Graham Nash said they're 70 years old.  According to my calculations, this means that if you include the time before they got together, they've been singing and playing for at least 50 years.  They performed for over two and a half hours, sang many of their hits and sang some of their new songs.  During the second set, we really got a chance to appreciate the beautiful harmony and how well those voices have held up.  Plus at the end of the set, they really rocked (as promised by Graham Nash).  Stephen Stills is a monster on the guitar!

We had great seats about 10 or 12 rows back in the center of the room.  The audience was made up mainly of 40 to 70-year-olds:)  A man and woman came in with two boys in their late teens or early twenties and sat down two rows in front of us.  Before the concert started, the man stood up and announced to the audience that his sons were there only because he had bought them tickets and made them go:)  I think the boys ended up having as good a time as the rest of us.

This was a big night for us.  We're usually in bed by 9:00 and up by 4:20.  The concert started at 8:00 and ended at 11:00.  Then we had to drive 30 minutes to the other side of town because we're dogsitting.  We got home around 12:30.  We got up at the usual time so we could run over to let our furry grandchildren out.  I think I'm ready for a nap and it's only 8:12 a.m.!

I hope all is well with everybody.  I've been following your blogs and enjoying the art even though I haven't been posting.  I'm back now and plan to do some painting and posting...but now, I'm going back to bed.  Please forgive any typos I may have missed.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of my blogging buddies!  2011 was wonderful.  I'm looking forward to starting 2012.

Tonight we're spending a quiet evening welcoming in the new year. 
I wish you all the best in the new year!

She'll Be Here on Tuesday!

Mom will be here on Tuesday.  Guess what I'm doing!  Yes, that's right - cleaning the house.  I also baked oatmeal cranberry cookies and chocolate chip cookies today.  Yummy.  I've been taking a break and browsing blogs.  I've seen some absolutely gorgeous paintings.  You guys rock!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you have a wonderful holiday!  I would like to start my day thinking about all that I am thankful for.  (Actually, my day started 3 hours ago when I got up to walk the dogs, but you know what I mean.)  My husband and I are in love and enjoy each other's company.  I'm very good friends with my sister Tammy.  My parents taught us well and their three daughters grew up to be happy adults.  My sisters and I like to spend time with our parents.  Our grandparents were the best!

I've been blessed with wonderful animals now and throughout my life.  They've been my children and have given me much love. 

I'm healthy.  I'm seldom sick, except (oddly enough) I'm sick today.  I have a cold or something.  The cool thing is that I'm not cooking Thanksgiving dinner.  We're going out.  Jim asked me this morning what I would have done if we were having Thanksgiving here like we usually do.  I said that I would have handed someone the ingredients and told him or her to have fun:) 

I love my job.  I love working with students.  I'm very grateful for the opportunity to teach.  I'm even more grateful if my students have actually learned something from me:)

I'm thankful for having discovered you artists here in the world of technology.

I love my little granddaughters.  I got them the easy way by marrying a man who already had children who grew up to have children of their own.  One of my favorite things to do is to paint with my oldest granddaughter. 

I could go on and on, but I don't want anyone to fall asleep reading.  In short, life is very, very good.  I am truly blessed.

Waaaaaah!! This Is Really Hard!

This afternoon I went here http://www.fcembranelli.com.br/english/at-demo1.html to do a demo by Fabio Cembranelli.  Oh my goodness!  Let us say that my painting looks nothing like his.  The best thing I can say about my painting is that although none of my roses look like roses, one looks like a very large pansy:)  We have Thanksgiving break coming up, so my plan is to paint, paint, paint.

I hope you all are having a wonderful weekend!