Fun in the Snow on Snowshoes!

Early Sunday afternoon while the snow lightly flew along the Wasatch front, I was off enjoying snowshoeing with friends.  Diane, Kym, and myself found ourselves amid a peaceful winter wonderland at a local golf course.  Kym just got new snowshoes that were just begging to be broke in.  Her new snowshoes are yellow with flowers... a little too flamboyant for my taste.  ha-ha!  It felt good to be out and getting a bit of exercise after all the eatting of Thanksgiving.  I ate too much of course!  I was really glad that the chocolate hazelnut torte that I took over to Diane's was a big hit!  I came home with enough to have a bit for breakfast the next morning.  How VERY bad of me!
   
Here's a few quick pictures that were taken during our snowshoe...

Kym with her new snowshoes. 

Diane," Can you hear me now?"

Me, with a chocolate bon-bon in mouth.  Diane didn't want to wait for me to swallow...Hello!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I wanted to wish everyone a very

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! 

I hope its a wonderful day for you and yours.  Outside of my favorite Holiday of Halloween, Thanksgiving runs a quick second; mostly due to the food.  Turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and the pumpkin pie!  My mouth is just watering at the thought of it all; much to the chagrin of my waistline!  Is there another Holiday that is SO focused on the FOOD?!  I have to THANKFULLY say No!  One more thing to be thankful for.  Though, I will say there's a great deal of candy & cookies involved with Christmas.  Oh boy!  I think I'm definitely going to need to renew my gym membership!   

Here's a recent painting I did of my mom's cat.  I thought it was appropiate because she often refers to her spoiled and some what chubby cat by the name of Butterball.  Here's Buddy better known as Butterball...


"Mom's 10 lb. Butterball", oil on canvasboard 11" x 14".

Now try not to eat TOO much!

Best Laid Plans…?

I was on the phone on Sunday evening with a friend, and as we chatted we both spoke of those best laid plans. As the Robert Burns’ titled poem To a Mouse goes,

”…in proving foresight may be in vain;

The best laid schemes of Mice and Men oft go awry,

And leave us nothing but grief and pain…”

These few lines of the poem VERY much described my Saturday evening. I HAD to laugh about the evening because otherwise I would have been drowned in frustration.


It all started about three weeks ago when I started planning the evening. I had managed to get a hold of some half price tickets (8 of them prepaid) to a local Mystery Dinner Theater, and I thought it would be a fun way to celebrate my birthday and have a fun girl’s night out. I sent out emails to various female friends to join in the fun. Right away, I had eight, possibly nine gals going to the show with me.

As the day arrived closer and I sent out reminders, I had a couple of the gals drop out. I contacted a couple of other friends, and it looked as though I would have all the tickets taken. Then, one of the other gals had to leave early for the Thanksgiving Holiday and she dropped. I found a replacement for her ticket. Then, another friend made the mistake that it was taking place on a Friday night but this was all to take place on a Saturday night. But I was okay, I found someone to take her ticket. It was getting rather frustrating but it was still manageable.

I was getting so excited and really looking forward to celebrating my birthday in a new way. Then Saturday afternoon arrived; at 3 pm one of the gals called and she had a nasty cold. Then, 4pm arrived and another gal called that she had a migraine. I was okay with just having 6 of us going to the dinner theater. I wasn’t about to run around and locate 2 more people at the last minute to make sure all of the tickets were used.


At about 45 minutes before the doors opened to the show I went and picked up Mary, the Popette, from her place. The weather was a steady down pour and I ran to the door with umbrella in hand to escort her to my parked car. With both of us excitedly chatting and buckled in I started to drive to the interstate.


Three blocks before the interstate, disaster struck! The battery light came on in my car and the temperature gauge rose to the big red “H”. The car was getting very hard to steer. I pulled over to a 7-11 parking lot and wrestled with the steering wheel to get the car pulled into a stall. Then, the car just died! That was it! No More!


With heaviness in my throat, I looked at the Popette and let her know that we wouldn’t be making the show tonight. I started calling everyone to let them know to go on without me to the show. Two of the gals did make it to the show. One of the other gals turned around because the weather was getting nasty. The rain had turned to snow by this time. Another didn’t want to attend if I wasn’t there.

AAA was called and I called a cab for the Popette. The cab arrived, and the Popette gave me a present wrapped in an old yellow sock. She’s always wrapping presents in ways “normal” people would not think of. She told me to call me when I got home and to open it later. The tow driver came and got my car on the truck. I pointed out that there was a missing belt in the engine; must have broken. He agreed and asked me where I wanted to be towed. I chose the 2nd closest AAA approved garage because it was closer to my place and my work.



Car was dropped off at the garage which didn’t have Sunday hours (of course!).  A key was put in the drop box, and then the tow driver dropped off a snow soaked me to my place. The good news of the night is that all the mileage for the tow and dropping me off were all within the 5 free miles I had on my AAA. Yeah! I got in my door peeled off a layer of wet and opened my birthday present from the Popette. The present contained —an “I Don’t Do Happy” pin, a sliver spoon with a can of instant Suisse Mocha coffee, and a raw potato. A potato? WTF?  Oh, she keeps my life interesting... not that it's not interesting enough but I will admit she does supply a bit of comic relief that I needed!

Win/Win-- Art, Wine, & More...

Oil paintings displayed in the living room.  Some of these were from the Tale of Two Mains show I did in March.

Last week I had my little private art show that I referred to as Art, Wine & More.  Overall it was a Win/Win situation, and a BIG thanks to all of those who showed.  A box was filled with non-perishable foods and I ended up selling 6 paintings which 10% of the proceeds is going to the Utah Food Bank. 

Watercolor paintings and a couple of new oils were displayed in another room.

I held the event on both Thursday and Friday.  Thursday night I had a couple of people in attendance, and I was kind of getting concerned but I know that I had a few people that had mentioned they were coming on Friday night. 

Look at all of these Food Donations!

Friday night arrived and I had a co-worker that came over shortly after work.  The co-worker purchased a painting.  Then, a friend arrived early and shortly after that my water color teacher, Colleen, showed up.  It rather kept up steady with people arriving and leaving until about the last hour.  It was during this last hour that a group of friends and myself just hung out in the living room and chatted.  While we chatted we enjoyed sipping beverages and sampling food.  It was a very fun and relaxed atmosphere. 

I ended up having about 13 people overall visit on Friday night.  At the end of Friday night, 4 water color paintings and 2 oil paintings had sold.  AND the Food Donation Box was practically filled. Wow~! Thus, I'm calling it a Win/Win situation.  I even managed to talk a couple of friends into taking some fudge home.   Can you say," I don't need that fudge on my hips!"

***- Oh and Mom- the first picture-- that's the chair I was talking about.  The one that you re-upholstered which I just LOVE! 

Preparing for ART, WINE, & MORE...

This Thursday and Friday night, I’m doing a little private art showing that I’ve come to refer as ART, WINE, and MORE. I started taking water color painting classes in August and I’ve built up a new supply of paintings to show. With that in mind, I thought I would do a little showing of my new works of art. You can view some of my art works on my blog at ALLGOOD ART (http://allgoodart.blogspot.com/)

"Sisters on a Sunny Sunday Afternoon"- water color on yupo- 9" x 12"

I, also, thought it would be nice to combine the showing with a charity. With the coming holidays and the demands needed for food. I chose the charity of the local Utah Food Bank. I’m encouraging friends to come with a can of food and I’ll give them $1 off (up to $3) a purchase of a painting. I think this is a good way to combine some fun, and help out a charity.

"Tower Against the Sky"- water color on yupo - 9" x 12"

I will be serving wine, desserts, and hor d’oeuvres for everyone to enjoy while they view the art. With that in mind, I’ve been busy up late the last few nights making sweet things to serve at this showing. One night I was up late making three different flavors of fudge; peanut butter chocolate, dark chocolate with cherry, and milk chocolate with pecans. Last night, I put together a candy cluster that contains white chocolate, dried cranberries, chopped almonds, and caramel. I tested one this morning for breakfast, and OMG! It was AMAZING! I am really hoping that I have a good amount of friends coming because otherwise I’m going to be in trouble of gaining a bunch of weight from eating leftovers. 

Running with the Dogs & Chasing Tail...

A BEAU-ti-ful Saturday morning with highs predicted to be in the low 70's.  It was hard to believe that it was the first Saturday in November.  It was a perfect day for the Squatter's Chasing Tail 5K Run at Wheeler Farm.  A fun event where it helps raise funds for Therapy Animals of Utah. 



Wheeler Farm's large barn and pretty Fall color in the background as people & dogs moved towards the start of the run.


I couldn't help but introduce myself and pet a few of the furry friends prior to the 5K.  All of them people and dogs would be running along with me on the 5K.  Some of the four legged friends got along well, and others caused some barking and growls but those were few.  There were all sizes of furry friends from the very small to the larger breed of dog. 

All breeds of dogs and sizes.

Look at this cute little one!

Twins even! And check out the Fall color!

I was loving it!  All the benefits of being around all these dogs with NONE of the clean up.  I picked up my goody bag and was a little disappointed that the tech shirt this year was orange.  ORANGE??!!  The runners got orange shirts the volunteers got green shirts. 

At the start- orange shirts for runners and green shirts for volunteers.

I got near the back of the mass start and slowly built up my speed as the run went along.  I was pleasantly surprised when I reached the 1 mile water mark and the gal with the stop watched who was calling out the time said," 11:23!"  I was zooming right along!  Nice!  I crossed the finish line while it said 37:48 and I was pleased!  It's only 9 seconds short off a full minute quicker than my run time of last year.  Slowly but surely I'm getting faster!   

I thought this little boy was just adorable!  He was wearing Dad's coat!

A Whimp in the Making...

Twice a week in the early mornings, I've been going to the gym with my friend Diane.  We usually start out on the dredmill or the elliptical for about 30 to 45 minutes of cardio.  Then we head over to the weight machines for some strength training.  I REALLY hate doing this but I do it because I should and I have a friend with me.  (Maybe not the most motivating reasons, but still... I'm hanging in there at 5:30am twice a week!) 

So Monday, I do real well on the weight machines.  BUT come Thursday morning... FOr-GETita-Boud-it!  It's like my muscles have been zapped on Wednesday night and I'm like a TOTAL Whimp!  I can barely manage 1 rep of 10 at the lightest weight, and on my nemesis machine-- this machine where you are doing a variation of a chest press while sitting up.  Well, on that machine I just pull the pin and let it sit in my lap. What's up with that?  Is it a form of Thursday-itis? Or am I just the making of a Whimp on Thursday mornings! 

The 4th Annual Tricky Treat Costume Ride...

The 4th Annual Tricky Treat Costume Bike Ride was wonderful!  I was concerned about the possibility of rain but it held off till much later in the afternoon.  There was a good turn out too!  There was 23 adults, a grandson, and a dog; all dressed out in costumes for the bike ride.  It was VERY hard deciding who was going home with 1st, 2nd, 3rd, & 4th place costume prizes.  Here's some photos of the ride...

A Shot Gun Wedding!??!

Pochantas and a Ninja

Diane- Little Red that hit a chicken coop-- must have been on her bike!

Little Mr. Buzz Lightyear and his Grandpa Builder Bob

Yabba-dabba-Do! The Flinstones!

Was it the Hockey Player?  A possibility for the Shot Gun Wedding?!

And here's the whole group!

Look out Ghost Busters-- A White & Black Ghost!

And here's me the Killer Bee on my bike during the ride!