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!