End of March Project...

... albeit early. Why? Because my computer is broke-y and has to be sent away to figure out what's wrong with it. At no small price either. Monetary or otherwise.

So that means while I might or might not be able to take pictures during those days, I won't get to upload them until a week or so later. Depending on the rehearsal schedule. Eeek.

Speaking of rehearsal, someone made a video of our set in action, and I'm going to share it with you because actions truly speak louder than words. DA, thank you so VERY much for letting me share this. I don't know if you even read this blog, but just in case, thank you.



Don't necessarily listen with your speakers on. It's all about the visuals. That's our amazing set in our rehearsal room. Love it. I am excited to work on this show, but I'd also very much like to have an out-of-body experience so I might watch it from the audience as well. I so very rarely say that of shows I'm on. And the singing? Just about as stupendous as the set, if not more so. Principals and chorus alike. And we've only rehearsed two days so far.

See you in a week or so.

Oldie But Goodie

Seven days left in the March Project. Today's super-long day meant no time or drive to take pictures. Though, I really want to take a picture, or really, a video, of our set in action. It's pretty amazing.

Today's photo is an oldie but a goodie:



What story does this have? This was taken while I was in LA, bowling with a friend or friends. (Don't remember which time it was that I took it). I just happened to look over while waiting for my turn and there those balls were. All rainbow-y and colorful.

I think I'll always be a sucker for rainbows... one of my girly traits, I suppose. That and spiders... EWWW! LK joins me on that. I can't even look at a spider in a box at the Museum of Natural Science.

It's off to bed after a VERY long day and an unexpected awakening at 4:45am. The debate is whether I get up at my 'normal' time in order to work out or sleep in. Decisions, decisions.

Museum of Natural Science

We were going to go to the beach since the rain that had been predicted seemed to be not making an appearance. However, one of our party had an obligation at 6pm so that made our post-Easter Brunch departure a very short trip (considering we lose 2 hours in driving, at least.)

Instead, we decided to head to Hermann Park (which was a MADHOUSE - no surprise there). We had planned on stopping in at the Museum of Natural Science and ended up spending the entire afternoon there.

We started with the butterfly house where we watched one about to emerge from his cocoon, and some of his newly-emerged cousins dry out. Then we entered the uber-humid butterfly house and tried to snap pictures of the fast-moving residents. I really liked the butterflies that had gorgeous blue or purple on their wings, but they mostly sat around with their wings together, hiding the gorgeousness. Still, I think I got some fair shots:

Next, we visited the gem and mineral exhibit, specifically the gem vault which is home to some AMAZING gemstones:













As for jewelry that I wear, I'm not one for flash and huge stones and overly ornate; however, I can appreciate the gorgeousness and the sheer enormity of these stones!

Tomorrow will be a long day... and tonight's disappearing fast. I've still got much more to do!

Eeyore

A brief post, because the head still wants to explode from the amount of information accumulated in it on the show. Will have to post a picture someday of my score because as someone at work say, "it looks like Rainbow Brite threw up in/on my book."

Terribly phrased, but it really does. Frightening. But hopefully it will have me well-prepared for this show.

A few colleagues and I went to USITT's Stage Expo to walk around before work today. It was interesting, but not as interesting to us as it would have been if we were high school students in search of a college or a college student in search of a grad school. Still, we tried on some amazingly light and nifty headsets.

However, I saw the best thing ever today. It really just made me smile.



This absolutely made my day. I adore Eeyore, and he just looks amazingly cute in a headset. Doesn't he?

Snoopy. Eeyore. Winnie-the-Pooh. Favorite cartoon characters ever.

Good Week

It's been a good week, although, I've been so social this week, that my sleep is suffering from it! Ah well, that's what days off are for, right?

Today, after a 9am-7pm day of prep (but man, did I get stuff accomplished - and my head feels less like it wants to explode), I texted a friend of mine to see what he was up to. "Steak dinner," he says. I think, "Well, I haven't seen him in ages and steak sounded yummy." So I met him and a few of his colleagues and students for a truly stupendous steak dinner. I now know where to go to splurge for GOOD steak.

It was definitely good times and a great end to the week. Reminiscing and sharing great stories from college and hearing stories from others.

The picture of the day comes from the Chihuly (!) chandelier in the Hilton Americas where a lot of USITT folk are staying:



Tomorrow, I hit up the Stage Expo to see what's new in the theatre word and to hopefully snag some cool swag!

Missing Home

I'm missing home a bit... so tonight's entry is brief. And picture-based.

Bllssed out Tom, relaxing in his favorite way:



She looks like she's ready to pounce, but its just because of how her tail is set against the cushions:



And together:



Sorry for the puppy overload. Believe me, I've got more where they came from. They're pretty darn photogenic.

Reminiscing

Tonight was a trip back in time. I met up with a classmate of mine from IU. He was a MFA in lighting design when I was an undergrad in stage management. We met up for dinner (we went to Blue Fish House) and then called up a colleague of ours from there to see what he was up to. Turns out he and his entire project were at a very good Mexican place called Ninfa's. Yum. I said "Great, we'll join you for drinks- because Ninfa's has fabulous margaritas!" When we arrived, it was a whole table full of stage managers (students and professionals) and I knew TWO of them! One of my colleagues from LA was there - we had planned to meet for coffee but it was great seeing her tonight. It was so much fun - telling and hearing all sorts of stories about people I knew and people I didn't.

Tonight was fun which totally made up for the paperwork making my head want to explode at work. Sometimes a lot of energy is spent trying to figure out how to best get the information out there. That's 85% of the battle, then it's a matter of inputting it and keeping it current. Today was definitely a head exploding day.

Tomorrow, it's more studying and then another USITT evening. Wheee!!

To keep 'somewhat' in tune with the March Project, here's a picture that I was considering for a header for the blog. It was taken at IU:



Unfortunately/fortunately, the dinner ran later than I had planned and the work I brought home simply didn't get done. Ah well. Tomorrow's another day!

Two for Two

Wow... two for two on not taking pictures of something that happened during they day. My life's simply not that incredibly interesting right now. I go to work, I immerse myself in learning the show and then I come home.

The main excitement tonight? Remembering and finding the wesome strawberries found at Krogers. I know... I live an exciting life. Yummy dessert, though.

Today was a normal prep day, and then some of the staff stayed to listen to the chorus music rehearsal. The chorus music is GORGEOUS. Absolutely stunning. I love it. I can't wait to hear it layered with the principal artists. I'm excited about this show.

Here's a picture from one of the recent batches of photos I put up on flickr:



Famed glass artist Chihuly created an integrated exhibition within the Missouri Botanical Garden. Already a stunning garden, the beauty was enhanced by his glasswork.

Ever since he had an exhibit at the St. Louis Art Museum, I've been fascinated with his work. In the exhibit, he had created one little room with a drop-glass ceiling. In that dropped part, there was about 6 inches between the actually ceiling and the room's ceiling. He had scattered different glass pieces of varying sizes and colors. And it was lit from above. I swore right then and there that if I ever had money to spare, I wanted a room like that. Chilhuly-blown glass or not. It was stunning.

Hopefully, I'll get back to this whole march project thing, or else its going to be a few weeks of rerun pictures. I started this blog when I was on 'vacation', so we'll see how often I'll actually get to post. I just need to get to the end of March and then I'll post when I have the inspiration and the time.

First Day At Work

No picture from today, not that I was crazily busy, but it didn't really occur to me. It was great reuniting with a former colleague and seeing other regular colleagues as well.

This show will be fun, no doubt. For one, we don't have to tape out the set because we'll have it in rehearsal. This is rare in my world. Tape out the set means laying down a blueprint of the show's sets in different colors of tape. It's an interesting job, that's for sure.

Here's an example of one of the meanest tape-outs I've ever done:



I've had the pleasure of taping this set out twice. Once, by myself, with a handful of people who were foreign to this stage management art on a day where I found out that five former schoolmates had died. All for three rehearsals - it took five hours to put down and about 30 seconds for 100+ people to pull up.

This picture is from a more recent time. This set is no fun to tape out because it not only is made up of curves but it is made up of lots of curves. And curves are *really* fun to measure out and plot points for. Let me tell you.

Yikes. At any rate, you can see why someone might jump for joy about not having to tape out a set.

Windy Day

Today was a gorgeous day. Also, a much more productive day, this being my last known free day for awhile. Not that I won't have them, (I have to have them every 10 days I think), but I won't know which day they'll be too far in advance. And quite often, we'll have fabulous weather all the days I work, but the day off will have horrid weather.

So I definitely went out to take advantage of the day. Except Hermann Park (my intended destination) was a zoo. It was insanity. I wonder if there was something special going on - there were extra stop signs and police cars watching traffic. Whatever it was, I couldn't wait to turn around and get out of there. Instead, I decided to head my neighboring park, Memorial Park and explored the picnic areas.

I found a quiet stone bench and decided there wasn't much to photograph, so maybe I'd sketch and/or watercolor a bit. Except inspiration ran a bit dry. I finally sketched something and no, you don't get to see it. I'm terrible at drawing and sketching. But I took some photos of the paints and water, for the heck of it.







The moderate winds which were lovely, also blew in some clouds. Not wanting to get rained on, I packed up and did a grocery store run.

Now, I'm just relaxing and hoping to hang out with a friend, schedule depending. And I have to go to bed at a reasonable hour... for tomorrow, work begins!

And thanks to USITT, it'll be reunion week as well!

Another Quiet Day/Teddy

Today was another quiet day. I did mundane stuff. I did get a lot accomplished, but I'm telling you, nothing was interesting enough to photo-document.

So today, we take a tiny step back in time. To the end of the last show that I worked on: "Abduction from the Seraglio". The tenor in the show has a suitcase with his belongings. The bass starts throwing the contents out of the window. In the suitcase is:



But, to add insult to injury, the singer does one last thing before pitching it out the window:



This is, by far, one of my favorite props ever for a show. Wanting to document this prop forever, my sense of humor later triggered this concept for a picture:



I swear I laughed myself silly for 10 minutes before I could compose myself enough to actually take the photo without photo shake.

Too funny. I hope you enjoyed as much as I did.

Reliving Childhood

I've babysat twice now for the singer kiddo, and had major refresher courses in Disney movies. Kiddo wanted to watch "Mulan" and "Pocahontas" both times, and the second time, we actually started "Beauty and the Beast". I haven't seen these movies for years and it was enjoyable to look back at Disney, especially in their last hurrah decade. I mean, "Beauty and the Beast" (1991) and "Pocahontas" (1995) were made pre-Pixar. That was the era of "Lion King" (1994) and "Aladdin" (1992) and heck, even "Little Mermaid" (1989) counts.

Though I haven't seen them I think "Hunchback..." (1997) and "Hercules" (1997) were the last old era films, based on the clips I've seen. There's a definite difference in the animation and look of "Pocahontas" compared to "Mulan".

So why exactly am I taking this random trip down memory lane? Because of "Fantasia". I am gradually replacing my VHS tapes with DVDs as I know my VCR isn't going to last forever - and eventually they are going to stop making them. Since Disney has that lovely habit of putting things back in their 'vault', what I was actually seeking was 'out of print'. A three-DVD set of "Fantasia" (1940) and Fantasia 2000, with third extras DVD. It just looked like the best buy all around. I found a reasonably priced eBay auction and won!

Due to the inundation of Disney into my life, I decided to watch "Fantasia" and really relive my childhood. I *loved* this movie when I was young and watched it endlessly. I also happen to like the idea of creatively illustrating orchestral classical music. Perhaps it would get more people to come to the symphony? Did you know it was intended to be a serial? To be played as a tradition and with changing order and new segments? Hence why 60 years later, Fantasia 2000 was born. That's next on my watching list when I tired of "CSI" and "Law and Order:SVU"

Aside from accidentally putting me to sleep mid-way through (I used to fall asleep to classical music when I was young - irony considering my job, right?), I enjoyed myself.

Especially this clip, which I'd forgotten about:



It is one of my favorite ones, because it is beautiful in its simplicity.

And of course, here' all-together familiar images from "Fantasia":



These are very literally screen shots of the non-computer kind. I used my camera and shutter speeds to experiment and actually captured better pictures than I expected. The poor grainy quality of the pictures tells you how old my TV is. In fact, no matter what, I think my TV needs to be replaced at some point or another, because it is severely outdated in terms of hooking it up to appropriate equipment. It mystified my cable installer.

Oh, and did you know it was 87° today? Spring is here... no doubt now!

Losing Faith

I'm losing faith in the mail/package delivery services. No kidding.

I have little faith in my local branch - because I recently received mail that was sent in mid-February. Thank goodness that the accurate paperwork actually got to me. It was important. They also lost a package from home with mail, and more importantly, tax documents. That was sometime in mid-February.

Taxes make my head hurt, and because I work in so many states, it is easier to pay someone else to make sense of those insane documents. So I accumulated all the right papers and info and sent them off to my tax preparer at the end of February.

I hadn't heard anything and my mom called this morning about another document that she found. (Not a terribly important one, but we'll eventually need it). So I emailed my tax preparer and asked her if we should send or fax it to her. She responded and then mentioned she hadn't gotten my taxes yet.

My heart dropped. I had sent them certified and return receipt and purposely from a different branch than my own. I tossed the label # in their tracking system and found out that it had indeed arrived in the post office there 10 days ago. After a few calls were made, they confirmed they'd received it in California, but had no idea where it was. They're investigating, but they also said it's possible it has been returned me. Considering how I get mail here, it may be awhile before I find out.

So if you send something to me, give me a head's up, will ya?

But that's only half the rant: FedEx gave my parents the run-around recently too over something stupid. It just kind of drives me up the wall.

Grrrrrrrrrr.

Now that I'm done with my rant for now... how about some cuteness?



I feel a bit better.

And next year, I'm going to learn how to do my own taxes. Nothing against my current tax preparer, but I don't want to entrust important documents to the USPS more than necessary.

Fun Evening

After a quiet day in, I went out to dinner with a friend of mine. She and I have talked about hanging out together but our schedules have been so opposite. After running into each other at the grocery store at midnight, we resolved to get together.

Today, she and I, and a few colleagues hit up this place for beer and hot wings:



Yes, I know it has an unfortunate name, but 35 cent wings are nothing to turn down. And for being a sports bar, it wasn't overwhelmingly so. Good wings, decent beer and awesome stories.

But we weren't done yet - we changed locales, to a good ol' favorite:



And guess what I had there? Not breakfast! No biscuits with honey but old-fashioned blueberry pie. When W and I went the other night to celebrate her new car, I had a brownie sundae but was lusting after everyone else's pies because they looked good. Tonight, I was lusting after T's strawberry rhubarb pie. That's what I'm getting next time - as long as I'm not in the mood for breakfast!

Tonight was not my normal group of people to hang out with and it was definitely a blast! We've got to do this more often - and I have to acquire a better taste for beer. No hard cider cop-outs for me at the Wet Spot!

Newfound Respect

After tonight, I have a newfound respect for moms (and dads) with young kids, especially ones who work.

Tonight, I babysat for a singer's kiddo who is three and a half-going-on-four. The kiddo was FULL of energy. He is at that delightful stage where half the time he communicates perfectly and the other half I'm sitting there going "huh?" He was like an Energizer Bunny all night.

I finally got him semi-calmed down and into PJs and thinking about bed (not really) when it was time to go downstairs and see Mom before another little rehearsal. He had some animal crackers and some Gatorade and was off like a rocket again. I need to bottle his energy and save some for the future for me.

How she chases him around all day, then comes into work and performs... amazing. I mean, I always had respect for moms and dads, especially those who work. But it's been awhile since I've babysat, especially for someone who is old enough to talk back and quick enough to run around. This kiddo wore me out over 4-5 hours.

KC, you ROCK! And so do all you other working parents-with-young-kids out there! And parents, period.

Here's a photo of his favorite toy which he dismantled over-and-over-again. Endlessly. Poor Power Ranger.

Spring Is Here!

I do believe spring is here. How can I tell, you ask? By this:



Sudden downpours that come from almost nowhere are very spring- and summer-like apparently. I was just doing the dishes when I heard a rush of... something. I thought perhaps the apartment above me was doing dishes as well and that was the rush of water in the pipes above.

No, no, it was the absolute downpour echoing in the carpark that is right below my apartment.

I went immediately to poke my head outside the door and beheld this. I grabbed my camera and took a very rather boring video, though the pictures were just not catching the speed and powerfulness of the rain well enough.

That cool wind from last night definitely heralded this storm. And by the looks of the radar, this storm is here to stay.

Glad I didn't have any outdoor plans!

Let it storm away, as long as it does not knock my power out!

Vantage Point

I spent the evening with family friends, and after a dinner of delicious BBQ (tempered only by a chilling wind), we headed to the nearby movie theatre to see what was playing. Because of our timing, there was only one movie that didn't require a long wait: Vantage Point.



Having seen the previews on TV more than a few times, it certainly had piqued my interest, but I wasn't exactly rushing to the theatre to see it.

So we saw it and thoroughly enjoyed it. Cast comprises of Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Sigourney Weaver, Forest Whitaker and William Hurt among others. Told in Rashomon style format, the story takes place over about 45 minutes but is told from several different perspectives, hence the title.

When you think you've figured out what's going on, they leave you on a cliffhanger like no tomorrow and it all starts again. If you think everything is given away in the trailer, you're wrong. It sets up just enough that you can pay attention to the details, and believe me, this movie is about the details.

It's a suspense thriller along the lines of the Bourne trilogy, complete with a car chase.

If that's your thing, then I suggest you check it out. I think this movie will be one that I add to my collection, I definitely want to see if I can see the small details that I missed.

Another Quiet Day.../Zoo

...so instead of boring you with the simpleness of my Saturday, I shall dig back into the 'archives' of my photos. At the end of February, i made a visit to the Zoo. I'd been putting it off, because I was spoilt growing up in St. Louis. Spoilt in the fact that our Museums and other attractions are subsidized and therefore are free. Science Center, Zoo, Art Museum, etc.

So I finally bit the proverbial bullet and made a visit. There are things I liked about it and there are things I miss about my own zoo. I really wish a panda (my all-time favorite zoo animal) lived here, but I'll settle for the baby giraffe and elephant. I mean, how cute are they?





The giraffe was insanely curious and was not shy. He came right up to the two-way glass in their feed loft. He was also pretty darn adorable. I've more pictures at flickr and even more in my HD.

The elephant really wanted to play but his adult companions didn't want to. He finally settled down on the dirt pile for a nap, but kept playing around with the dirt as evidenced in the picture above.

I swear I spent most of my time there at those two paddocks. I really must go at another time when the animals are more active. Most of the other residents were napping. Perhaps I should ask when the best time was. Probably right when it opens.

At any rate, I should give in and give it another try. I really wish they had more sea lions... two is pathetic in comparison to the several we have in St. Louis!

Quiet Day

No terribly scintillating post today, for today was a rather uneventful day.

Did laundry. Emptied the dishwasher. Took an unplanned 3 hour nap - whoops. 

4 days until I can walk like a normal person. 

Today's image actually comes from a purchase made two days ago.

Remember my obsession with sprinkles?

This cookie is my dream cookie, almost. Coated in my favorite sprinkles, it's not your run-of-the-mill sugar cookie, but it was pretty good. The (minorly) interesting part of the story comes from its purchase point.

My mom and dad *love* to cook. *LOVE*. I haven't quite inherited their passion, but it's certainly rubbing off on me. When they were here in the fall, they *adored* Central Market. I don't blame them - they have some great stuff there, though a bit pricey for everyday shopping for my tastes. When Mom and I did our random drive of Houston, we ended up in the unofficial Koreatown. Which also happens to be quite immeshed with a Hispanic population. We stopped and looked around in a Mexican grocery store. We found the above cookies as well as some delicious looking pastries. 

I just might have to go back - and if I want to cook Mexican food, I now know a good source!

Two for One

Because of yesterday's timeline, I missed posting and was too tired to post when I got home.

Yesterday

Yesterday's highlights included a random lunch! Mom and I decided to drive around town and see what there was to explore. "Blind" exploration, if you will. See a street and just take it. I ended up in the 'unofficial' Koreatown. We decided to lunch at a random restaurant (there are far too many in close proximity), and lucked out with a delicious meal for a deal! 

That's bulgogi (Korean BBQ beef) on the left and rice on the right. And yes, it's purple. We think it's from the black beans mixed in. Damn tasty, I'm telling you!

The day was topped off by attending a world premiere opera, Last Acts, based on a play by Terrance McNally and composed by Jake Heggie. A 3-person emotional heavy-hitter, it was stunning to watch these three singers explore the emotions of the piece. Contemporary opera is unfortunately unpopular with the 'old' opera crowd it seems - but they should put their doubts aside. He has this way of writing music so it supports the emotions onstage instead of distracting or detracting. 

Sometimes it's fun being on the other side of the curtain!

Today

Today's adventures included navigating rush hour traffic plus a big thunderstorm. Makes me flashback to driving around in L.A. I don't miss stop-and-go traffic. I must find a good non-highway route to Hobby.

But before those water-logged adventures, we traveled back in time. At the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), a new exhibit opened about Pompeii. Having actually been at the site this past summer, I wanted to see what they chose to send along for the exhibition. It was interesting to see all the jewelry and other items that they found and the conclusions that they had drawn. Most of the items were not 'on display' at the ruins, so I definitely did get to see things I hadn't before. After finishing there, we explored a few of the other exhibitions that I deemed "can't miss" when I explored last week. 

Unfortunately Mom had to go back to the land of winter today, but I think we had a fun week. Not too long now before I start another show...

Wonderful Day

Folks, I have had a wonderful day.

First of all, the sky was clear and no rain to be seen. The weather was delightfully crisp. And the sun was shining. There were four main factors to today's wonderful day:

Bayou Bend.  I braved the slightly disconcerting suspension bridge to the gardens (yes, I'm a wimp about heights and moving bridges).  Mom and I wandered around the gorgeous gardens on Ima Hogg's estate. Ms. Hogg was very fond of pink. The azaleas were in full bloom and the grounds impressive

Galveston. We made the fairly smooth and easy drive down to the Texas Coast. Upon arrival, we had the requisite seafood (what else would one have when you go to the Coast?) and then visited the antique shops. Opening night gifts for "Billy Budd" were acquired as well as exploring several other stores on the Strand. We drove to a beach I had visited a year ago where the sand is littered with shells. We spent awhile combing the sand for fully intact shells which are amazingly easy to find. In fact, we encountered a gorgeous one, complete with resident: 

 
Blue Fish House. As mentioned here, I've become a sushi fan. Mom definitely wanted to find out what I've been talking about. We met up with WM and had a sushi feast. But the night wasn't over yet.

Chocolate Bar. What a way to finish out the night. Going to the mecca of chocolate, drooling over all the possibilities and indulging ourselves in some absolutely divine ice cream (chocolate-flavored of course - their uber-chocolatey cookie dough for me, espresso-infused chocolate ice cream for mom) Did I mention that tonight was live jazz night and the 4-man group was delightful?

What a wonderful day. 

Juno

Today, I saw Juno. Seeing this movie makes me so happy. Why? Because it reassures me that there is still good writing out there and there is still brilliant directing and great acting out there. And good, quality movies are still being made. I've been doing a lot of TV catch-up lately, and I keep seeing ads for terrible-looking movies. Ones that are obviously made to make a lot of money (and often don't). Those movies make me sad.

If you haven't seen Juno (and most likely you have since I've come so late to the movie game), then go see it. Ellen Page is brilliant in it; and I really enjoyed seeing Allison Janney, not to mention J.K. Simmons who was great as Juno's father.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My mom escaped from Missouri winter only to be chilled by the front that has come through. We're hoping for a lovely day tomorrow to go exploring outdoors!

Cleaning

Mom's coming for a visit, so it was time for a deep-clean of the apartment. Thanks to my allergies, my apartment's gotten more than a few cleanings recently. So today's rolling-up-the-sleeves duties weren't as arduous as they could be. I try to keep my apartment fairly clean. Most of today's cleaning was more of putting things away that I leave out because it's just me around, no one to impress or annoy with my semi-clutter. My apartment was more 'lived-in' than 'dirty'.

And, I started off the day by making one of my favorite breakfasts, Swedish Pancakes. A long-time favorite which was often cooked by one of my dad's college roommates on our joint family trips or visits, it's definitely worth all the hassle of prep time and cooking time.

The only other thing on today's absolute to-do list was to relax. Mom's here for just a short time and we have a lot planned. I want to make the best of the trip. Now if only she could bring dad and the pups too...

I'm looking forward to taking a lot of good photos to share with you soon!

March Project, Day 1

Welcome to March! It's time for a new project. I don't know if I'll be able to stick to it as well as the February project, especially since I'll be starting time consuming work midway through the month.

My intention is to take a few pictures every day and post them on this blog. Something that pertains to that day.

I may or may not post descriptions about the pictures or I may share thoughts I had during the day. And if I'm really hard up for ideas, I'll go back to the February Project as there are still several pictures I had hoped to share stories about.

Hopefully my life won't be too boring for you!

So without further adieu...

---

I hung out with my cousin today, and friends of hers from college. One of our stops was here:



I was introduced to Jamba Juice in Northern California by a good friend of mine from college. Nine times out of ten, I'll pick Jamba Juice over something like Smoothie King for my smoothie craving. I prefer fruit or fruit juice smoothies to the ones containing yogurt or other dairy products. It was definitely a tasty treat today on a slightly humid day.

Later, when dinner was a necessary thing, I was introduced to a new restaurant:



Not bad. I'm a fan of Hickory Hollow already but Goode Company wasn't bad at all. I had stuffed baked potato topped with sausage. Yum! And the portion was just right. So, another Houston restaurant to enjoy.

What was a nice slightly busy day was capped off wonderfully by an unexpected happening.



I needed to pick up some groceries for tomorrow's breakfast, so I stopped at the glitzy 24-hour Krogers near my house. I had taken just a few steps inside the door when I heard my name called out. One of the Studio singers, JB, was standing there chatting with another singer friend of hers. And moments later, JB informed me that another Studio colleague, AG, was also randomly shopping at the Krogers tonight. So JB and I ended up catching up and shopping together.

I love unexpected happenings like that! A nice start to the month, don't you think?