Our weather has been beautiful here in Dallas the last couple of days! Between that and March's arrival this weekend, it's easy to turn my thoughts toward spring. Yay!
My sweet blog friend, Hopsy, (also known as Kappa Prep from Monograms and Manicures), invited me to a Spring trunk show at the Lilly Pulitzer store yesterday. I have worn and loved Lilly since I was in high school (I still have my first Lilly shift, although I called it a *sundress* then). 2009 is Lilly Pulitzer's 50th anniversary, and they are celebrating with a vintage-inspired Jubilee line. I found this cute Jubilee shift which will be perfect to take to Hawaii next month.
Best of all, though, we ran into Hopsy and her equally cute and fun roommate C at the store! Dots was with me, and she was thrilled to meet the famous *Kappa Prep.* Thanks, Hopsy, for the invitation to the Lilly event. I look forward to seeing you again soon!
On another note, Dots and I got a kick out of this precious panda clip. We love pandas!
Growing up, I took many a car trip from our home in Atlanta to my grandparents' cabin (*The Cabin*) in Vidalia, Georgia. I'm always telling my kids how much better road trips are in cars now.
In those days there was no clear delineation of personal space like the Captains Chairs and third row seat provide today. My brother, sister and I sat three abreast in the back seat of our Ford Country Squire station wagon and resorted to drawing imaginary lines to establish each person's territory. Car rides in the 70's were also WAY before the advent of personal entertainment such as iPods, Game Boys, built-in DVD players and the like.
My mother had a rule that "the driver picks the music" so we were subjected to her and my dad's choices of which 8-track tapes we would listen to throughout the three-hour drive. Usually the selections ran along the lines of the Ray Conniff Singers or Roy Clark and Buck Owens, which were met by moans and groans from the back seat.
One album that we all liked, however, was The Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975. Time in the car passed much more quickly and pleasantly as we sang along to the likes of Take It Easy, Lyin' Eyes and Take It to the Limit.
A couple of years ago I saw an Eagles special on TV that featured a 2004 reunion concert in Melbourne. Their reprisals of old favorites were interspersed with interviews with the band members, and it was tremendously entertaining. They played the music exactly as I remembered it, and the songs sounded every bit as good as they did 30 (!) years ago. The renditions of Hotel California and my favorite Eagles hit, Tequila Sunrise, were the highlights of the concert for me. It was especially fun to watch Joe Walsh's incredible guitar playing and his hilarious antics and expressions.
I discovered that the concert was available on DVD from Amazon, so I ordered a copy for myself and one for my dad (who loved it). I've given the DVD as a gift several other times to unanimous acclaim.
If you're a fan of The Eagles, I highly recommend it.
For many years we have gathered with another movie-loving family for the Academy Awards. Sadly we missed the last two years because Hockey Boy had JV Hockey games on Sunday nights, but this year he is playing Varsity Hockey so we were able to resume our annual Oscar-watching party.
Dots and Robert took charge of decorations. This was the entrance to the third floor
Sometimes we have cleverly served food that related to the titles of the Best Picture nominees, but this year we elected to order pizza in the interest of preserving my sanity.
Vivian put in an early appearance just long enough to throw her dog *Sam* at our guests
Every year at our party each of us completes a ballot, guessing who will win each Academy Award category. We award a little Oscar to the person with the highest number of correct answers. This year Story predicted 19 out of 24 winners! Wow! As best we can recall, the most anyone has ever gotten before was 13 or 14 (and that was Robert who picked the third Lord of the Rings installment the year it swept everything). Way to go, Story!
Robert with Reid, Yale, Story and Donna. Our big winner, Story, is in the center on the couch, working intently on completing her ballot
Obviously Story's stragegy of taking her time in selecting the winners was far superior to choosing quickly in order to get first dibs on pizza as my family (pictured here) did!
Vivian rejoined us later; Robert kept her happy by rolling pool balls with her
The biggest winners were our two families who enjoyed a very fun evening together!
Married since 1987 to Robert, three grown kids: Will, Vivian, and Dots, one granddaughter: Charlotte ~~~~
Majored in mathematics at SMU, taught elementary school for six years before Will was born, currently tutoring math ~~~~
Things I enjoy: playing duplicate bridge, working NY Times crossword puzzles, reading good books, entertaining, visiting with friends, planning trips, traveling, playing board games, spending time with family, working Liberty jigsaw puzzles, cooking, keeping up with old friends ~~~ happy to correspond with other parents about raising a child with special needs
I unintentionally contaminated all of the pictures on my blog when I changed my privacy settings on Flickr. I am working backwards to correct them all, but it is quite a tedious procedure! If you encounter a post with error messages from Flickr where the pictures should be, then I haven't gotten to that post yet. Please let me know and I will update it immediately. Thanks for your patience!
