New Journey Around the Sun Begins!

A big Happy Birthday to twin brother Todd and me on January 30!  Wow...can't believe we are 57!!  Yikes!  At least I only feel 37!

Primed for my birthday by taking two webinars on Thursday and Friday from 6am to 3pm. Yes, 6am!  It was Central time so there you go!  Thursday night had Abbie the hair goddess color and style my hair. Decided to get a bob/lob style as it just hasn't had a real style in awhile, especially when it's in a pony all the time.  She added some more blonde and it turned out bellisima!!

Friday after work Viking visited and we ran a few errands. Viking gifted me with a sweet silver bracelet along with a TON of acrylic paint his mom was no longer using.  We stopped at Big Lots and I found a three shelf organizer to store my paints.  My current process is all my paints in a large bag and I'm forced to dig for the right color.  This will make my painting life much easier.

At 6pm joined Stan/Susan for dinner at Teri's restaurant.   The front had plastic screening and we were seated inside by the front door with a small heater.  Damn it was cold!  Viking ran back to the car and grabbed me his jacket which I used as a blanket.  Great meal which we finished off with a surprise deluxe cupcake from Susan.  Also tried a Teritini, which was a mix of vanilla vodka, kahlua, butterscotch, and cream.  So icy cold and tasty it beckoned for a second round and I happily surrendered!

Spent the evening watching Doris Day in Calamity Jane. Songs were vaguely familiar (and not as well written) as Annie Get Your Gun. Sure nuf when I looked it up Wikipedia said it was made following that blockbuster.  Cute movie though.

Went to dinner with Sam on Saturday. We decided on Porky's Public House.  Porky's installed a rollup garage door, a tent, and enrobed all outdoor space in plastic.  I had come prepared with layers and jacket but there were so many heaters the coat had to be shed!!  Described the Teritini to the waitress; they made a flavorful attempt but the original was better. Sam and I also toasted my birthday with a tequila shot!

Here's my attempt at a recipe. 

Ingredients

• 1.5 ounces Butterscotch Schnapps
• 1.5 ounces Kahlua
• 1.5 ounces Vanilla Vodka
• 1.5 ounces half and half (the recipes I found showed Bailey's but I don't think that was used in the Teritini)
• 2 maraschino cherries

Instructions

• Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and pour liquor and cream into the shaker.
• Shake to combine. Pour over ice in cocktail glasses, serve as shots, or serve as a martini. Or throw a straw in the shaker as that'll do!! 😉
• Top cocktails with maraschino cherries.  Enjoy!

Dinner done, we stopped by Jordan and Candy's.  They gifted me with a canvas, frame, slippers, and more paints!  They also served me a sweet little chocolate dessert that was sublime.  Arriving back home, spent the evening sorting and organizing my paints while watching Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.

Today picked Sam up from Jimmy's, who gave me the most perfect cup. He said it screamed me and I have to agree.  

After dropping off Sam, hit Goodwill and found a few 99 cent specials along with the following shirt which is definitely in the running to be christened "The Ugliest Shirt of All Time!"  I wanted to add a note to it saying "You are better than this!  Do Not Buy!" but cha know some sad soul will!

Went to Walmart for groceries, ate Teri restaurant leftovers for dinner and am now watching The Girl, which is a movie based on Tippi Hedren, Alfred Hitchcock, and the making of The Birds which ironically I watched last week.  Serious Me Too issues Tippi experienced with Hitch.

May you all have a fabulous week!  Happy February!

Odds and Ends

If you haven't been under a rock, you've had to have seen all the Bernie Sanders mitten memes floating around. Not sure why, but these crack me up!!!

Was grocery shopping and ran across this ice cream. Couldn't help myself so picked it up. It is so tasty! Yummy coconut with tangy, sharp mango with a kick sherbet running through it.  Try it.....you'll like it!

Here's an odd one. Was surfing the web and ran across an article about people who met a celebrity in some weird way.  The following was posted saying when the kid was 11 he played chess against Morgan Freeman. What struck me was that the chess player looks just like my friend Michael, who passed in 2014 and not Morgan Freeman. Scarily so. I searched all over to find an article with details about this casual match; only found a Reddit article that had been archived.  So strange I may continue searching to see when and where this picture was taken.

Worked almost five hours today to get on top of tasks. Then spent time doing -yes, you guessed it - painting. Decided to follow up the Don Knotts rock with Willy Wonka.

From Brice to Bigfoot

Seriously been on a rock painting obsession! Here are the most recent:

Attempted to fix Jimmy Stewart's face; now he looks like a 12-year old and Grace Kelly looks like Sandy from Grease!  Also attempted Shirley Temple but wound up with Fanny Brice.  I'm happy with Judy Garland and Elizabeth Taylor.

Little Tuscan scene.

The Incredible Mr. Limped. This turned out so great. I love it!

A few heart shaped rocks along with Bigfoot which looks like a chimp which is why I labeled it!

Highwaymen, Hitchcock and Holiday

Viking came to visit Friday. He wanted to see the Toutle River and I was happy to serve as tour guide, perhaps due to the fact that's where I snag my painting rocks.  Without being asked, he even grabbed a bag to help grab rocks for my latest artistic outlet. He's a good man!

Next stop was Michael's for more paint (and browse the 80% off clearance) then Bob's Sporting Goods in search of fish lure paint for Viking.  While he looked, I wandered and stumbled upon a $2.99 blue spiked collar for Stubbs.

Grabbed Chinese food to go from Yan's then back to the house to eat and watch The Highwaymen with Kevin Coster - great flick. Followed that up with one of my fav's Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much.  

Been sending sister Erin rock art when she mentioned she'd love to have a bullfight painting with yellow and red. Of course that got my imagination going. After running errands in the morning, returned home Saturday and began to paint and binge Hitchcock - Psycho, Saboteur, The 39 Steps. Even watched All About Eve since had that on my mind since painting the Bette Davis rock.

Finished Erin's painting today, then sealed a Rosalind Russell rock, painted a Carol Channing rock, then created a Rear Window rock.  My attempt was to paint Grace Kelly and Jimmy Stewart; unfortunately they wound up looking like Mae West and Peter Lorre.  Have decided to label it "in the spirit of" Rear Window in order to maintain my pride!

Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Monday so I will be spending my time studying for the test for the last CRM course I finished on Friday.  Will be completely done with the classes, studying, and tests for the certification around February 15 and cannot wait!

More Rock Art

I LOVE this rock I finished tonight.  Fasten your seatbelts - it's going to be a bumpy ride!!!

Also finished a few others this week including:

Betty & Wilma, along with Lucy & Ethel, I posted on PNW Rocks as they were having a best friends challenge.

Lucy & Ethel.  This one was a bitch to get the face right with the full mouths and tiny eyes.  At one point the thought crossed my mind to just revise them as zombies as the faces were sooo bad.  Finally threw in the towel and called it good.

A Merman!!  No, not Ethel Merman but a finned MerMan!

The Viking sent me a cool pic for inspiration so wound up painting this kilt dancing picture.  Kind of digging it.

A Little Work and A Little Art

You know that feeling when you are swamped at work yet everything gets thrown at you?  Yeah, my life lately.  Cannot stand to have tasks hanging over my head and for that reason put in 7 hours of OT today. Uninterrupted time ticking off tasks one by one.  Feels great to have a big chunk of my backlog caught up.

This evening finished off rocks I began painting over the last few days.  Love the mermaid!

Deadpool 2

Viking treated me to dinner last night and we were actually able to dine in!  Well, sort of.  Sat in the outside covered area of Fiesta Bonita.  At first we were seated away from the heater but thankfully moved closer once a table became available.

After dinner came home and watched Deadpool 2.  Movie was hysterical!  Haven't laughed that much over a movie in a long time. 🤣

Handmaid's Tale

Just finished watching The Handmaid's Tale series with Elizabeth Moss. So addicting as well as disturbing.  Especially since you could see a future like this occurring in today's political environment.

On that note, ran across a picture of congressional aides removing locked boxes containing the electoral college votes from Congress during the D.C. riot.  Immediately this image reminded me of the Wives from Handmaid.  Not sure of the correlation but it's an unexpected comparison.

Hello 2021

Spending New Year's at the beach was relaxing. Wandered antique shops in Astoria, browsed Warrenton Goodwill, and  downtown Seaside, which was just a few steps away from the hotel. The Kathryn Riverfront Hotel was scenic, cozy, and included a balcony and fireplace.  No dine-in restaurants so ate to-go seafood in the room.  Took my partner in crime Viking so even received a kiss at midnight! 

View from hotel

Ilwaco marina decor

Friday adventured to Long Beach on the very rainy day.  Wandered downtown first in search of a bathroom because I had to go and it was not going to be in a Honey Bucket!  Stopped off at public restroom #1 - locked.  Public restroom #2 - locked. C'mon!  Asked a cashier in a souvenir shop and she pointed us to a restaurant or bakery as if they served food there had to be a restroom.

Made it to the bakery and I spied with my floating eye an open restroom!  Yay!  Ran in there, locked the door, and began to unbuckle my belt when I saw there was no toilet paper!  Dammit! The gods were working against me!  Pants up, opened the door and hollered to the doughnut gal, with sweaty desperation, "Do you have any tissue?" She tossed me a roll and it was smooth sailing from there! Whew!

Crisis over, we hopped back in the truck (well, truth be told, after we picked up a bag of bakery delights) and made our way first to Ocean Park then Oysterville, trading childhood stories along the way. We did find another antique store which was huge and thus sucked us in for way too long.  Didn't make it home until later evening where we indulged ourselves with Chinese food.

Oysterville

Saturday night showered then rolled my damp hair in a "bun maker' which I don't typically use.  OMG talk about curl central! Once I tamed it have to say it was pretty cute. This technique is going to be added to my arsenal of hair tricks.

Weird hair bun wrap

Wrap = Wow!

The first weekend of 2021 was pretty much one of relaxation, bonding with Stubbs, and cleaning my room.  Also spent time with Jimmy and Sam catching up. 

Now it's Monday and back to work!