ALOHA AND MAHALO

I spent the last week in beautiful Hawaii on the island of Oahu. It was work-related, but I can think of many worse places to have to work. LOL!! My coworker and I had the chance to do some sightseeing, go to a luau, and meet some really friendly people. The scenery and the color of the ocean is indescribably beautiful. I've posted some of my photos for your enjoyment. Although I thoroughly enjoyed my visit and loved Hawaii, like Dorothy said, there's no place like home.

FALL PAINTING

Before

After

After many years, I'm starting to do some of the things I love and didn't have time to do when I was raising my kids. This is the first time I've put a brush to canvas in a loooooong time. It's not too bad for an amateur, but I'm seriously hoping I'll improve with practice. It's from a photo I took at a winery in Charlottesville, VA, "wine weekend".

HINT, HINT

L'IL SMUSH FACE GAL

Pay no attention to the woman behind the curtain. The great and powerful Oz has spoken!

Memory Lane

Facebook is a wonderful thing. I was contacted by two former classmates of my high school graduating class, and one of them was kind enough to send me some photos! I couldn't believe it. See if you can guess which photo is me. Obviously flips and bobs were in the year we graduated since 90 percent of the class has the same hairdo. LOL!

Orcas

One of my favorite mammals are orcas. I've been sitting here, listening to them this evening live at Orca Live. There is a lot of great information on this site and other sites, including the different call dialects, identifiable by pod (which is just a bunch of related orcas). Folks who have been listening for a long time can identify each pod by the sound of the calls. The website is the mind child of Dr. Paul Spong who is noted for his work in studying orcas in their natural habitat. In 2000, they actually had live-streaming video that the world could see. The footage was amazing, and unfortunately I didn't get a lot of things done when the whales could be spotted. The live video portion is no longer available due to lack of funding, but don't miss the chance to listen to these wonderful and amazing creatures. You can see excerpts from the live recordings on "Highlights." Full recordings are also available for purchase. The funding goes toward furthering the Orca research projects.

I get goose bumps every time I hear them. Here's another great site with wonderful photos and information Orca Homepage.