What can I say?

Friday night was a true family night. Turkey soup (probably the best I've ever made - the secret is in the barley), D&D, and a fire in the fireplace. Ahhh.

Saturday we were on the go from early on - 9am soccer game (elder son's team won - and he played amazingly well at forward); home, then a wedding to prepare for and get to; too many hours there and not able to go to the reception because of needing to perform POE and GOREY at the Huntington Library (and, all you So Cal-ers, if you've never been there, you're just LAME) which was marvelous, all lit by candles and tiki torches and such. We performed at 7pm, 8pm and 9pm, and really all told had a wonderful time. Unfortunately, I wore the wrong shoes, not able to FIND the right shoes, and am still suffering the foot and knee consequences. 'scuse me while I eat up some ibuprofen...

Better now.

Today, after sleeping *way* in and eating a huge breakfast of cinnamon french toast and bacon, we were out the door at 11am to the Duncan Phillips exhibit at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, for the uninitiated). He has a fabulous museum in Washington D.C., and the collection is touring because they're renovating the main museum (his old house, actually). The main painting is "Afternoon with the Boating Party" or something like that by Renoir. OH MY GODDESSES...it is a wonderful painting. I swear the wine really did sit in the glass...the still life on the table within the portrait studies of the people around the table was just so vibrant. I'm telling you now, no photo of the painting has done it justice. It's all in the ability of the ink to replicate the paint, you see...and rarely does the ink measure up.

After shopping suitably in the museum gift shops (there are *always* xmas presents to pick up), we headed off to Best Buy, where the kids spent their bday presents from their cousin Doug. Then of course we had to hit Home Depot for copies of keys and flowers...

And hubby and I spent two hours planting and tearing out and adding color and shifting bulbs in a garden that was damp, and green, and scented with lavendar and basil and rosemary and thyme, as the sun went down in a blaze of orange.

I leave for Las Vegas on Tuesday to work a music teacher's convention. I'll be taking my laptop in order to continue my work on Lily. Control will be the watch word. No major gambling allowed, I'm afraid.

Not that I ever major gamble...$40 is about my limit, lol!

Now...time to feed the family. Change the sheets. Take more ibuprofen, and sleep long and well.