Thursday, February 26, 2009

Hair Cut

I wore my hair short for 30+ years. About 3 or 4 years ago, I let it grow.....and grow. A few months ago, I cut off a few inches. I needed to get it cut before our trip but decided that I wanted to go short again. My stylist told me to get a picture for her of what I wanted. Well!!! If you've ever looked a styling magazines or online sites, all of them are really up-do'd, gelled, sprayed, well, in a word "styled" and I don't want "style", I want "easy" :-) So I spotted a friend and thought - that's it - that's what I want. So, I took a picture of her and took it to my stylist. First, the "before" shots.

Now, for the after shots. Notice how she was able to cut off most of the gray! :-)

Suitcase Locks

So, we've been having this discussion back and forth about locking our suitcases when we fly. Not supposed to lock luggage on international flights originating from USA apparently, but information I found said you want to lock your luggage on internal flights in foreign countries. TSA locks are good because the officials can "unlock" them if they have to.....and as Ben says, so can anyone else! Of course, the first question is - do we have suitcase locks? Answer: Yes, we do. Question: Where are they? Answer: Should be somewhere around here. And so the search begins. As a last resort we check the suitcases (remember I said I wasn't going to start packing until Friday? Stuck to my guns, did I!) and guess what - there were the locks and they were locked. One of them was still set to the default so it opened. I remembered we had set the other lock to "something" but this was OVER TWO YEARS ago!! In my searching I had been searching for LOCKS. Now that we had the locks, I searched for INSTRUCTIONS and, surprisingly enough, found them with not too much effort (get the feeling I never throw anything away?) So now, we have the instructions and they have a place where you can write down the combination but of course, those spaces are still blank *sigh* Tried every combination of every series that "means something" which of course you are not supposed to do :-) and none worked. So, I tried 1, 2, 3 and that worked!! Life is hard - anybody tell you that? Locks don't indicate they are TSA approved but we are only going to use them for foreign internal flights anyway. On International Flights we use the KISS principle and use twisty-ties - using the same strategy people who do not have security systems use when they put signs in their windows saying they do - figuring that thieves will break into non-twisty-tied suitcases rather than go to the trouble.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Patience!

Not my long suit if you know anything about me. I am getting antsy to start packing. I already have a small stash of items but I am restraining myself from getting out the suitcases now! Oh, and today on one of the travel sites, there was a listing of food items in India. Some of the items were even in English. For example, a "cold drink" is a soft drink. Duh! Well, I guess that could be as opposed to a drink with ice in it - which by the way you are NOT supposed to drink in India because who knows where that ice came from! OK, I admit I am a BIG fan of fudge. However, ordering Barfi somehow doesn't conjure up fond images of food!! The bad thing about the food list is there is no proununciation so how will I know what they are saying? Fortunately (hopefully) our food will just be brought to us and explained in English. I do remember, though, asking what a dish was in China and was told "Fungus". Fungus?? It looked and tasted like spinach.

The Martians Have Landed

No, Wait! The MARTINS have landed! Oops!! :-) Yes!!! I saw two scouts this morning. I went to tell Ben and laughingly said, "They are checking out every apartment!" I went back to watch and Dadgum, if those two birds didn't go into every apartment on one side of the house! LOL So, Ben has gone out to replace a couple of doors that had blown off! So excited to see them back! Of course, these are only the scouts but still......

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Good News - Bad News

Recently I have added several new blog sites to my Reader (that's not the good news - although it could be good news in that I have more friends to check on!) The Bad News is that as I was catching all the past posts on one of my new blogs, I found myself leaning in to the screen to read it and my neck began to hurt (what doesn't at my age? but I digress). The Good News is that I discovered under View that I can Zoom In and enlarge the print. Sooo.....Good News - I can enlarge the print on the blogs. Bad News - I have to enlarge the print on the blogs! :-(

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Retirement

Ben: What are you doing today?
Lola: Nothing
Ben: You did that yesterday.
Lola: I wasn't finished.

Updates


Well, as you can see, I'm knitting Christmas stockings again. I say "again" because I knitted about 30 of them about 30 years ago. The "original" stocking is on the left. I was informed this Christmas that these stockings were too small!! We are really into stuffing Christmas stockings. The first "new and improved" stocking I knitted was about 1/3 larger than the one in the picture! I know our economy needs a consumer boost but taking out a loan in order to stuff huge stockings really didn't seem prudent! :-) So Jill's stocking will be the size of the new stockings. Red for Jan, Dark Blue for Dean, Green for Ben and Lavender for me! I took the picture on my new chair for perspective! Still whipping out shrugs and laprobes as well.

Photo Albums: I am 97% done with the Costa Rica albums - only a few more to print. The Summer 2007 albums are all done. Fall 2008 is still to come. Think I can safely say it won't be completed before our trip in March but you never know. That one will be like a jig-saw puzzle. I will probably print 700 of the 950 because the leaves are just soooo beautiful but putting, say, 350 leaf pictures in order *sigh* could take a while.

Cliftex Theatre: Forgot to add this point. How many theaters in large cities had teenage workers offering Kleenex to the patrons exiting Marley and Me? :-)

Subbing: I've done a few days subbing at school but in Learning Lab not a full-fledged classroom *shudder* Anyway after one day when I was the only one in Learning Lab, the regular teacher told me one of the students referred to me as "that girl". That will boost your self-esteem!! :-) Took the teacher a few minutes to realize the student was talking about me!

Next Trip: Coming up in March! Watch this space. I will post as often as I can!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Cliftex Theater



Last night Ben and I went to the movies at Clifton's newly renovated Cliftex Theater. It is the oldest continuously operating movie theater in Texas. When we moved here I delighted in telling my friends in the Metroplex about our theater that was open only on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings- and each evening had ONE showing of ONE movie! The new owners have completely restored the theater and it is just beautiful (as you can see from the pictures) It has new comfortable seats with drink holders and the interior has been tastefully restored. A few years ago, the theater began a showing on Thursday evening for adults only which quickly became popular. So obviously Ben and I went on Thursday evening! I estimate the theater holds between 150 and 200 people and there were very few seats left. I understand the theater has been selling out regularly these days. We get first run movies, too. Last night Ben and I saw Marley and Me. Australia was here a couple of weeks ago. This month they are adding a Sunday afternoon matinee. I just love livng in Clifton!!!