What's your opinion?

So after mom looked at my entry about my painting's new home, she promptly called to tell me that the painting didn't look good above the fireplace. I wasn't completely sold on it's new home, so I thought I'd take her advice and try it above the couch instead, relocating the wedding photo to above the fireplace.

So what's your opinion ... where does the painting look best?

Above the couch?

Or above the fireplace?

Breakfast at Elizabeth's ... again.

On Sunday morning, we met John, Meg, Becky, Bill, and Beth for breakfast at Elizabeth's. John and Meg were in town from Portland, OR for the weekend. Here are a few pictures:

I was a little disappointed because the "Crabby Eggs" weren't on the menu this time... so I had to go with the Eggs Florentine, which is creamed spinach topped with poached eggs with Hollandaise sauce, and fried oysters, served over hashbrowns. I ordered mine without the hashbrowns, as I'm on phase 1 right now. It was very good, though a little disappointing since it wasn't "crabby eggs". Jeff ventured away from the stuffed french toast, his usual, and got the special which was corned beef hash with poached eggs and hollandaise. He also said it was good, though not phenomenal.

The company was outstanding though! We miss you Meg and John!

Saturday night... Date night.

This past saturday, Jeff and I went to play some pick up volleyball with friends at Coconut beach in the morning. We ran some errands in the afternoon, then got cleaned up for saturday night - date night.

We started out our evening with dinner at a new restaurant on Magazine called Baru. The food was pretty good, but a little pricey. We have another Tapas restaurant that we go to occasionally, and I think I like that one better, so I'm not sure if we'll come back here again.

Following dinner, Jeff said.... Let's go get tattoos! I'd been wanting to have my dolphin tattoo on my foot covered with something new for awhile anyway, so I said "okay!", thinking I was calling his bluff..... Little did I know....

So off we went to Crescent City Tattoo on Magazine! Jeff already has his tattoo picked out from when we had stopped in there to ask about coverups. So, here it is in progress!

And here's the finished product! It looks FABULOUS!!!!!!!

Here's the before of my dolphin...

And the after the outline was done for the new tattoo...
(That's not bruising by my toes, just a little leftover ink!)

And my finished product...

While I'm not so sure about the shading behind the tattoo as it looks a little strange from my point of view, it was necessary to completely cover the dolphin. I'm really liking the overall picture though! I just had forgotten how much tattoos on the foot HURT!!! WOW!!! This hurt way more than either my back or my ankle, or the small dolphin in the same spot for that matter!

Our new family member...

So two weekends ago, while I was shopping at the outlet mall in Gonzales with my friend Becky, Jeff called me on my cell phone. Here's how the conversation went....

jen: "hi"

jeff: "hi. what are you doing?"

jen: "we are leaving the mall now, I'll be home in about 45 minutes. What
are you doing?"

jeff: "feeding our three dogs."

jen: "three!?!? ..... What kind of dog did you find, and are we keeping it?

jeff: "She looks like a german shepard mix and looks a
little like Sake, but bigger. She's young, still acts like a puppy."

jen: "I'll be home in 45 minutes. Bye."

jeff: "Bye."

So home I went. And this is the giant "puppy" I found when I got there.

And here's Jeff with our new "kid".

.............................................................................................................................................................................................

Just Kidding!

"Bella" had tags on, and we tracked down her owner's parents (since he wasn't answering his phone) through the magical powers of the internet. They came and picked "Bella" up about an hour after I got home.

I'm starting to think that our dogs leave little "messages" around the neighborhood telling lost dogs to come to our house if they need help. This is number 5 or 6 that we've helped return home since we've moved here.

Bilbo and Baxter, BFF

Our "kids" have taken a liking to hanging out on the bed together. They always seem to lay in identical positions, usually facing the same way. The other morning, I walked into the bedroom to find Baxter and Bilbo just about to fall asleep, facing each other.

Even cuter, they were "holding paws"!

This was very unusual for Baxter and Bilbo. Usually, Bilbo will try to nuzzle against Baxter for attention, and Baxter just sits there stoically, unsure what to do with Bilbo.

So I guess Baxter has finally decided he likes Bilbo and they will be

Best Friends Forever.

My painting's new home.

Yep, it's done. And here's its new home above our fireplace.

These pictures give a pretty good impression of the size of the painting.

My latest Painting.

In the beginnning of 2005, I purchased this very large canvas from Michaels, planning to do a giant oil painting for our living room.

I've been staring at it since then, completely intimidated by the size ... sort of a writer's block, only with an empty canvas. So I finally got it out of the spare bedroom and put it on my easel, where it sat for the last 3 months, looking slightly less scary, but not quite approachable.

I decided to start it on my day off, so I worked on it for a couple hours on thursday...

And then a couple hours on friday....

And a few more hours today....

And I think my giant painting is finished.

I love it!

What do you think?!?

31... How did this happen?!?

Well, August 30 has come and gone ... again. And I sit here and think ... I'm 31. I live in New Orleans. I have a husband of 7 years. I have a house, two dogs, and cat ... How did all of this happen when I still feel like I'm 16?

So since I've been working crazy, busy hours for the past few weeks, I decided to take some extra time off for the long weekend, and spend my birthday doing whatever I wanted to do. I managed to get out of work around 12:30 on Thursday, even though I planned to take the whole day off, and went for a hour walk around downtown (I try to do this at least a few times a week anyway, but usually only for about 30 minutes since it's usually on my lunch hour). Then I ran some errands, including getting my ring cleaned and checked at Ramsey's and doing a little shopping at Target ... I bought this really cute dress which I wore out to dinner.

We went to Drago's for dinner,

which is one of my favorite restaurants here.

We had the chargrilled oysters, of course.

And split the Shrimp and Eggpplant stack for our entree, which is much more impressive in person than in this picture.

Jeff made an appointment for me for friday to have a Manicure, a Pedicure, and a massage on my day off! I decided to be adventurous and go for red for my nail polish (no comments on my stubby little toes please).

The massage was interesting, though I wouldn't call it relaxing or enjoyable. It actually kind of hurt... a lot ... I'm not sure what type of massage it was. There was a lot of massage oil, and a lot of slapping and punching of my skin. I defintely will not go back there for a massage again.

So on my day off, I started out the day with an hour long walk at La Salle park, which has a really nice walking trail, and then spent my time painting until it was time for my spa appointment. It was a lovely birthday day and a half!

Brewmaster Jeff

My parents gave Jeff a "brew your own beer kit" for Christmas last year, and he's finally opened it and is making his own beer. He has bottled it, and is waiting for it to finish getting carbonated. I tasted some before the bottling step, and it actually tasted pretty good ... well, as good as beer that isn't Leinenkugel's Honey Weiss can taste.

Come visit us so you can try Jeff's homemade beer!