A night out.
As part of my Christmas gift from Mike, he bought us tickets to see "The Phantom of the Opera" at the Civic Center in Des Moines. It was the first time I have seen a professional productions in a LONG time. It was wonderful! I could have looked at the Masquerade scene for an hour. There was just so much to see! The costumes were so good. The singing was good. That effects were so good that I think I will have permanent spots on my retina from the flashes!!
To add to the evening we stayed in the Renaissance Savery Hotel in downtown Des Moines. It is an historic elegant hotel that is beautifully kept up with some of the best service I have received anywhere. Our room was on the 10th floor, (only 11 in the whole hotel) and the view from our room was of the Capital building. Downtown Des Moines has a skywalk and we were able to walk to our restaurant and the Civic center without cumbersome coats. This time of year, that is a real luxury!! The whole weekend was so much fun, that I am hoping to get tickets to "Spamalot" that I saw is coming there in July, and do it all over again. My darling husband knows me well, and I think this was one of the best Christmas gifts he has given me to date. It was so good that I hardly noticed that I had to 'rub thighs ' with the man sitting on the opposite of me from Mike. I realized that he was quite large and that he had no other place to put his arms than over the arm rest, but if he would have just made an effort to sit this his knees together I would not have had to get WAAAYYY to close and personal with his leg. uck, shiver! At least, he was wearing some really pleasant mens after shave/colone. (I told you it was close in those seats)

This is our dog, Gracie. She is completely blind and will be 15 yrs old this May. Yesterday, I put her out as usual for her morning constitution. After about 5 minutes, I heard her bark and went to let her back in. She was half laying in the snow, and when I tried to set her upright, she would not put her one arm down and fell over again. So I picked her up and I could feel her little heart beating 100mph. I thought, 'Omigod, she is having a heart attack and will die here right in my arms. So I carried her back into the house and started to set her down on the carpet. All the sudden, pop, pop, pop. Three little poopies landed on the floor behind us. And suddenly, as I set her down, she put all 4 paws on the carpet and stood alone. She kinda blinked and looked around, sniffed at bit and walked away. What I though was a heart attack, evidently was constipation!!! That dog is killing me. If she isn't under my feet trying to trip me, she is scaring the begeebies out of me with fake heart attacks.

Happy Valentine's Day!
We took this picture several years ago on a trip to Texas. I always thought it would make a cute Valentine card, but never got around to using it.
I want to wish all my family and friends a
non-prickly Valentine day. I hope it is full of many sweet things and lots of hugs and kisses.

Happy Birthday, Jim!
I found the 'then' picture in the old slides. It was dated 1964-65. That was before Mike and I even met. Looks like he was quite the helper around the house. Hope you have a great birthday! You are still a cutie!

Happy Birthday, Tom!
Here is a picture of Tom when I first met him back in Beaver Dam, WI. We were in a 'show' to raise money for the United Catholic Parish Schools, and our act was George Burns and Gracie Allen.
I hope Tom appreciates the fact that I did not post the picture of him in his 'other costume' from the same show. And in the spirit of fair play, I included myself in the 'now' picture. (I am not an egotist.) Tom and his wife JoAnn, ( see Jan. birthdays) are great friends. They have always come through for me. From this first show together to helping out the day of Katy's wedding. You are the greatest!!

Fashion???
I must be getting old. I freely admit it, I just don't get this. You can judge for yourself where this guys pants are. I was afraid he would turn around I had a bad feeling what was holding his pants up in the front!! Is it that these guys have paid big bucks for designer underware and this is the only way to show it off, other than laundry day? This was in Arizona, we dont see much of this in Iowa in the winter at least. Can you guess why? The high temp this weekend if forcast to be around 0.