I know! I know!

I know I said I was going to get back to blogging again and I haven't. But even though I may not have been writing my blog, I have been writing! I am doing what I hope is the final edit on my book that I wrote several years ago and never totally finished. A little bit of grammatical tweaking and some adjustments to the storyline and I am almost finished. I plan to send it out to publishers again, but because I have had several people requesting a copy to read, I may just self-publish. I'm happy to just be finally finishing the *%^$#@# thing!!
I have also been working on another book about "ghost" hunting. I won't give away too many details because it's still a work in progress, but it's going to be different from anything else out there. And I've also been writing some short stories based on remembrances from my Mom's family that I scribbled down a few notes about at one of our family reunions.
And, of course, I've been doing a few decorating/craft projects as well. I got rid of a giant hutch that was overwhelming the dining area and sold a pile of old items at a flea market. I'm trying to scale back my possessions and simplify any area of my life that I can. (I even went back to being vegetarian a couple of months ago.) But I can never seem to get too simplified because I have way too many interests!
Anyway, I will try to do another post this week with some new photos or something more interesting than my everyday doings.

No, I'm not dead....

.....I've just been doing other things! I know I am being totally rude to those few people who actually read this somewhat sparse review of my daily doings, but what can I say...I'm easily distracted. But now that the holiday season has ended and I'm a little more settled into my new position at work, (Did I mention I was moved to a different division? I'm still doing the same thing, but in a different area) I'm finally working on my various projects again. This weekend I've been doing some decorating since I've decided I'll probably be in this apartment for at least another year.
I finally finished the Moroccan style doors/shutters that I found at an antique store. I think they came off of some kind of cabinet. I just sanded them a bit, then painted them a dark brown, faux woodgrain and added the red and gold beads I already had. Total cost was about $30 for two of them.

Before

After

I also painted two walls of my living room. That particular corner was rather dark and far away from the windows. Not to metion the fact that I was just coming home from work during the week and not doing much since the place was way too calm in color. The color I chose is called Woodlawn Music Room by Valspar. It is just the right shade to go with my black, brown and misty green that I have elsewhere in the living room. Like a bit of sunshine in the woods!

That's about it for now! I will do my best to update more often!

More Montana

Some of the fun and wacky people at our daily before dinner cave conference. Most of the time we actually discussed the day's events at the dig, but sometimes we got a bit off track and just chatted about whatever.

Zee archaeologists francaise, working at zee excavations. Hehe Actually it's Stephie, Cameron and Heather working in the "garbage dump" moments before we all strangley developed French accents.






One of Rich's ever-present goats greeting me as I emerged from the very odiferous Lion Cave. Previous excavations had been done here, but on our hike we weren't equipped to go in much farther than daylight could reach.

Aaaaaahhhh....Montana

Well, I don't know where to start! I could go on for hours about my vacation to Montana last week, but that would probably get boring. I am a believer in the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words" - well, at least if it's a good picture. So here are a few pics with short captions so you know what they are.



Petroglyphs at the entrance to Blacktail Cave

One of the thousands of beautiful views on the ranch

Ranch owner and cave discoverer Tag Rittel with his dog Kelly telling us about the Medicine Wheel and the history of the Native Americans in the area.

This shot is a little blurry because of the low light, but it shows two levels of the excavations in the cave.

I've been [tos]sed!

It's not just great, it's not just amazing, it's amazingly amazing!!It's [tos]ome to the 10th degree!!! I was blown away from the moment the curtain went up until the cast took their final bows. The crowd was full of die hard fans that went crazy at the drop of a hat. When Larry Pressgrove came onstage and took his seat behind Lady
88s it took almost a full minute for the crowd to settle down enough for the show to begin. Then Jeff and Hunter had to wait for everyone to settle down after they made their entrance. Pretty much after every moment that was special in some way (and to the super[tos]sers that's a lot of moments!) the audience was making enough noise for three theatres full of people.
And I was just as excited as everyone else. I laughed (almost constantly), I cried (when Heidi sang A Way Back to Then), I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. After the show, we went around the building to the stage door and had to squeeze through the crowd that was already forming to get inside. The dressing rooms were crowded with all sorts of people congratulating the cast. It was great to talk to Jeff after not seeing him for about 30 years. His mom, Jeannie showed up as well and we chatted in his dressing room while he visited with more people.
But the craziness wasn't over yet! The cast was paged to go down to the stage door to meet the HUGE crowd of fans that had gathered. Apparently the police were getting a little cheesed that they were BLOCKING ALL TRAFFIC ON 46TH STREET!!!
We sat in Jeff's dressing room while they went downstairs and we could hear the crowd screaming when they appeared. After that we had to see what was going on and took a gander out the window. There must have been at least 200 people all trying to get pictures and autographs. The phrase "rock stars" was being bandied about quite a bit in reference to the cast's popularity.
All in all it was an exciting evening! In addition to the show, we had a very yummy dinner at Connolly's, an Irish pub a few doors down. Great food and service and reasonable prices. And it was nice to see Nike and Todd too! And the Night Hotel was very dark, shiny and cool. And of course New York City was its usually sparkly self. Nike and Todd took us for an after dinner stroll and we went through Bryant Park (where we took pics of each other) to the Public Library (where we took pics of the lions)
I could go on and on about all the fun things we saw and did, but this post is getting too long. Suffice it to say, I will be heading back to New York again this fall!!

NYC Here we come!

One more week until we head to New York!!! It's going to be [tos]ome!! I just saw a cool trailer for an entry in this year's NY TV Pilot Festival. You can watch it here: .It's a humorous look at life at the zoo called "Living in Captivity" Let's hope we see it on the tube soon!

mhunkee and playbill

The countdown begins to the first preview performance of [title of show] on Broadway!! I can't wait! A friend and I are going up to NYC for the weekend to see the show at the Lyceum (buy tickets now if you haven't already!) I opted to go to the first preview show rather than the "opening night" because a) I am off work for the preview show and b) it won't be so crazy afterwards and I should be able to chat with my cousin Jeff for a little while. I think I was probably 5 or 6 the last time I saw him since they moved to Florida when we were little. Anyhoo, I've been listening to the [tos] CD a lot and- if it's possible- I love it more everytime I listen to it. It always inspires some new thought and mostly inspires me to keep creating whatever I like and not worry about what people might think or if it's any good. (My favorite number in the show is Die,Vampire,Die!) I think anyone, anywhere who has ever done anything remotely creative can connect with the show on some level. (That sounded good didn't it? Very all-inclusive and possibly a little [title of show] )

And speaking of shows, I also recently went to see Duran Duran in concert in Philly. It was amazing! They sound even better in person. The opening band was Your Vegas and they were so good I went out and bought their CD the next day. Duran Duran's set started with some of their new songs from Red Carpet Massacre. I love the new stuff as much as the old because it really has the flavor of their early stuff mixed with the intense dance rhythms provided by Timbaland and Justin Timberlake. It reminds me of their first three albums when they were more funky and danceable. Their middle set was an all electronic mix of new and old. I love how the reinvented some of the old songs. And the last set was all the good old hits. The whole show had an amazing energy and it was a blast!!