HOLY WEEK AT ST. ALBAN'S

THE CHARLESTON AND A MODEL A

Since we did so well with our tango, which is 3 short posts down, that we decided to change the mood and take you back to the Roaring Twenties. The post below this one is self explanatory. Here's our vehicle that we arrived at the competition in :-) Enjoy!!!

XOXO, Pcasso

ONE MORE TIME

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

ABOUT OUR AUDITION

We decided to stop being armchair dancers and try out for Dancing With the Stars. Check out the following post. Do you think we can make it? (You may have to click on the square to get it to load) Let me know what you think.
XOXO, Pcasso

OUR AUDITION

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

PAINTINGS, PARTIES, DWTS, AI AND THE TANGO!

The beginning of the week brought some really freaky weather to our area. As we were driving over to Fort Worth to deliver a painting, the skies contained the most threatening looking clouds that I've ever seen.

By God's grace we didn't have any really severe weather to accompany this dark, voluminous sky aside from a torrential downpour. When the skies in Texas look like this in the springtime, you're always prepared for tornado watches and warnings. I always feel that I need to sleep fully clothed during April and May in case I have to either hide in the bathroom or make a run for it. I'd hate to be caught in my tacky old nightgown for all the world to see. Tornadoes are the price you pay when you live in Texas, but the rest of the year makes it worth it!

On Saturday I went to a shower for a friend's daughter's wedding. The invitation was so darling that I thought I'd include a photo of it.

The girl on the invitation is almost as cute as the bride to be.

I was blessed to have sold 2 more of my paintings last week. One was a watercolor and when we delivered it, Frank said once again that my watercolors were among his favorites. With that in mind, I brought out the watercolors once again and started to paint.

The Irises in our front yard are blooming right now, so that seemed an appropriate subject for this little painting.

Of course, everyone always has orange juice on hand. Some of our friends with whom we go to church on Sunday morning will be coming over this weekend for a brunch, so we will need OJ for our Mimosas.

I then decided to paint something really funky, so this piece which I call "Travelin' Time" seemed to fit the bill. It makes a great greeting card.

There is a quotation from Oscar Wilde on it that reads, "I never travel without my diary. One should always have something SENSATIONAL to read on the train!" In my case that should read, "I never travel without my blog" ;-)

And speaking of blogs, I always play a CD while I'm writing ... seems to help my thought process. To get in the mood this morning, I'm playing a new Diana Krall CD entitled Quiet Nights. It's great!

It has wonderful, soft Latin American music on it and is perfect to set the mood for my ramblings. This style of music is one of my favorites ... however, I like ALL kinds of music. That's one reason that Frank and I are such big fans of American Idol.

And speaking of American Idol, my favorite this year is a young man whose name is Adam Lambert. (My folks lived on Lambert Avenue and Adam was the first and #1 man, so that may explain it!) He's a rocker and so are my son and grandson, so that may be my interest in his kind of music. We've been groupies for the past 40 years and have loved every minute of it.

Adam's also pretty easy on the eyes! Last week he changed his look completely as well as his style and sang a soft, romantic song. It was as good as the other things he does. He even looks a little like Elvis Pressley. I'm not a big fan of Elvis but we did have the opportunity to meet him in Las Vegas once.

Jimmy Dean is a friend of ours and he took us to Elvis' penthouse at the Landmark Hotel to meet him back in the 70's. I must admit that it was pretty exciting and he (Elvis) was very hospitable and a gracious host. Wish I'd had my camera with me at the time! Here is one photograph of me and Jimmy way back when.

This one is a shot I did manage to have taken by the Hotel photographer at the Desert Inn where Jimmy usually starred. The other young man in the photograph is Terry Blackwood who is one of the Blackwood Brothers. His group were backup singers for Elvis. They were all Gospel singers together before Elvis hit it "big" and he always treated his friends well. Terry used to come and stay with us when he was in the Metroplex area. Nice young man. As I understand it, he still has his group and they're still singing Gospel after all these years. Thank goodness the styles have changed. Don't you just love Jimmy's pants! I'm thankful that double-knit polyester is out.

Here is another shot of Adam with his Elvis look.

Here is a link to his performance this week. The song he is singing is "Play That Funky Music" and it's the ring tone that I have on my cell phone. I always know when it's my phone that is ringing! Check it out. He's HOT!

Adam Lambert: Play That Funky Music - Performances - American Idol

And speaking of hot, I also love Dancing With The Stars and my favorite dancer on it is Gilles Marini. He's gorgeous. Frank says that I have always liked the dark, greasy type and he may be right. I didn't marry one, but he is Hispanic, so that should count for something ;-)

This week he danced to the Argentinian Tango and scored the first perfect score of the season. That, to me, is the most romantic and sexy dance of all and he was WONDERFUL!

These photographs from the show pretty well show what I'm talking about. If you are interested in the tango, here is a clip that I found that is a perfect example of the dance. There are other clips at this site as well.

http://www.youtube.com/user/tangoclasses

To fit the mood, here is one of my paintings with a fedora in it (another watercolor) that is similar to the ones that the dancers in Argentina wear.

There is also a wonderful movie about the tango with Robert Duvall. It's entitled "Assassination Tango" and I highly recommend it. We've watched it several times and it's very good.

Having been to Buenos Aries, we really appreciate the dance and the music. Years ago we saw the musical, "Tango Argentina" and that's when I fell in love with the dance. When done right, there's nothing like it. It I was younger and about 50 pounds lighter, Arthur Murray would have me in his arms right now teaching me how to do it ... or better still ... Gilles :-)

With this fantasy, I think I'll close for the day. Next week is Holy Week and we'll be going to mass each day. Easter Sunday is just around the corner. Enjoy this most blessed time.

XOXO, Pcasso

RELATIVES AND RISTRAS

This past week was a typical week in Lent. We attended the Lenten series at St. Andrew's in downtown Fort Worth on Wednesday where the Rt. Rev'd John Guernsey was the guest preacher. He's a wonderful preacher and teacher and we learned a lot.




The stained glass windows there are remarkable and it gives you such a peaceful feeling to sit in their Nave and study the windows while you are listening to the organ concert that precedes the noonday service.


Last Monday was my Father's birthday. He was born on St. Patrick's Day and would be 105 if he was still alive. He was a sweet and a very handsome man and I still miss him very much.








On Sunday we had a Family Day gathering. It was at Nicholas and Dayna's this time and we had a wonderful time.

They live in Dallas now, so we had a 30 mile drive to get there which wasn't bad at all. We are so blessed to have the family near by. We have friends who don't get to see their children and grandchildren as often as we do and they are missing out on a lot.

Ian had just returned from a skiing trip to Vail the day before where he spent the week with his good friend, Billy, and his Mother. It was spring break in the Metroplex, so all the young ones were out of school.

Ethan followed Connor's lead and spent the day on his hand held Gameboy (I think that's what you call it)

Those little machines have turned our youth into anti-social creatures who never interact with people anymore. It's a pity as we'd love to talk to them and visit about what's going on in their lives. The art of conversation is no longer a subject with lots of the young people and that's a shame. They don't know what they're missing! Guess I'm just old fashioned but I liked it when we all visited with one another.
Nicholas and Dayna were the perfect host and hostess.


It was a real treat for Frank and me to be able to go to their home and be guests instead of the ones doing everything. Nick prepared fajitas and they were delicious. The rest of us brought snacks and dessert and that made it easy for everyone. We will have Easter dinner at our house and then Beth and Franklin will host the next Family Day in May.





While he was cooking, Franklin played a game or two of Frisbee Golf and he was really good at it. Frisbee golf (also called Disc Golf or frolf) is a disc game in which individual players throw a flying disc into a basket or at a target. According to the Professional Disc Golf Association, "The object of the game is to traverse a course from beginning to end in the fewest number of throws of the disc."

For the first time in a long time, everyone was there that day!

We even had a new family member there. I think his name is Dangle and he's a Bearded Dragon.

He even has his own "desert dwelling" in Nicholas' office.

I am told that Bearded Dragons are popular exotic pets, most commonly Pogona vitticeps, the Inland or Central Bearded Dragon. They are a popular species , because of their friendly and calm nature, along with the relative ease of caring for them.

I, personally, would rather have a cat or a dog, but to each his own!

We also noticed a family resemblance that we hadn't discovered before. It seems that Franklin and Nicholas now have the same "hairline".

There again, I'd rather have a cat or a dog than a shaved head!

I returned to my Easel early this week. I was commissioned by a client who lives in Las Vegas to paint some Chilies for her. Here is the final painting. It's 8x10 on a Gallery wrapped canvas and she really liked it. So do I!

It was good to be back to my paints again. It's been a while and I really miss painting. Life sometimes just gets in the way ;-)

I'll be writing again as soon as something new or interesting happens in our lives. We still Dance with the Stars each week as well as sing along with American Idol wannabe's, so that keeps us content in the evenings.

Take care and have a good rest of the week.

XOXO, Pcasso

FRENCH FOOD. FRIENDS AND FUN

We have had another busy week. Aside from studying and doing the usualt things, we went to a little French restaurant last Friday night with friends from Dallas.

Walter is an antique dealer and they were in Fort Worth this weekend as there was a show there, so they called us and we joined them for dinner.

Saint Emilion is a quaint little place and they start you out with a blackboard filled with the specialties of the day.

Of course, as soon as you have selected what you want to eat. the somelier magically appears with wine suggestions to accompany your meal.

The wine list was extensive and expensive, so we settled on something that was suggested and it was the perfect compliment for our food.

There was a large selection of appetizers and they were all very good.

As you know, I love to cook and I really love to eat, so I always take photographs of the food both at home and when we are out.

I had a mixed green salad which was followed by a steak and pomme frite. As good as it looked, I was a little disappointed in my entree as the steak was tough. What a disappointment!

However, I wasn't disappointed very long. Dessert came and it was wonderful! I had the Moitié - Moitié, which is a tarte that is topped with half raspberries and half chocolate. It was dark chocolate and I'm a milk chocolate person, but this was to die for!

Anne had Oeuf à la Neige which is also known as a Floating Island. It consisted of poached soft meringue on top of a rich English custard with caramel sauce drizzled over the top. She said that it was delicious.

It was a delightful evening and we had a great time with old friends. Don't remember if I mentioned this before, but we met on a cruise in the Mediterranean three years ago and have seen a lot of one another since then. They live in Dallas and have a second home in Santa Fe (does that sound familiar?), so we are with them both at home and at our homes away from home!

We took Saturday off and had what I call a "gown day". It was wonderful to have a full 24 hours to do absolutely nothing. It was a dreary, rainy day, so I took advantage of the weather and read a book and stewed a chicken for our evening meal of chicken and dumplings.

I make drop dumplings using Bisquick and they are always good. They make this wonderful rich gravy as they cook and you can put it both on the chicken as well as the dumplings. It was the perfect comfort food to end a very comfortable stay at home day.

We attended church yesterday morning, went to breakfast with friends after as we always do, and then had a party to attend in the late afternoon. We were going to Ridglea Country Club in Fort Worth to help celebrate Donna Iker's birthday.

I'll be nice and not tell which birthday it was. All I can say is that she still looks like a teenager and is as beautiful as ever.

We all had a wonderful time and were back home by 9:00. I gave her one of my paintings for her birthday. It's entitled "Fruit of the Wine" and I hope that she likes it. She promised her grandchildren that they could help her open her gifts, so she took them all home with her unopened so they could enjoy that part of her special day.

I have a busy week ahead and am really looking forward to next weekend for several reasons. We will have our family day over at Nicholas and Dayna's home on Sunday and my dear friend from childhood will be coming in town from California for a week's visit. We have promised to spend some time together, so I'm really looking forward to that. We were to have seen him when we were in California several weeks ago, but if you remember, we had to cancel the trip as poor Frank had the flu. We're all up and running now, so maybe things will work out better this time!

Speaking of running, I'd better run and get ready for church and book club. I'm looking forward to Father Matkin's lecture to help me understand what I've been reading! Have a good week. I'll be back in touch soon.

XOXO, Pcasso