I only logged 9 holes this morning...which is a good thing for two reasons.  1.  It's already about 90 degrees outside and it was over 80 degrees when I left the course.

2.  I'm headed to the Getty Villa this afternoon (Yaaay!).  I haven't been there in over 20 years and I'm headed there with Steve and Kevin, which should make for a delightful experience.  (Along with dinner later in Santa Monica with Dan joining us.

I am pleased to report that I tied my best score ever on the front 9.  Shot a 46, having been 7 over par through 8 holes.  Unfortunately on the 9th, I ended up in the fescue, then in the sand (plugged just beneath the ginormous lip of the trap) then onto the green in 7 with a 2 putt for a 9.  So 46.  Very fun round with Renee'.

I AM actually doing research on the props for May 15th's election.  So far, I'm leaning "No" on all but the last one,but I need to read the actual propositions now that I've gotten everyone's opinions on them straight.

Sounds like good chemo activity to me!  Let's hear it for Golf on Monday!

Phew!  I feel so much better!  I got my hair cut today and I feel like I've lost about 20 pounds.  (Not that I look that way, just feel it.)  It's cut pretty short because I'm trying to get the gray hair out from under the dye I've been using for the past several years.  I still have about 1 1/2 inches to go before I'm completely au naturel, but it's coming along.  Not too shocking, imho, but we'll see what everyone else thinks.  Dan hasn't noticed yet.

I also had a heck of a workout today with my trainer, Calin.  Calin is of African descent, has dreadlocks down to his booty and has a take-no-prisoners attitude about training.  He had me do the usual warm up, stretching and core exercises...then he got me to do --among other things--100 crunches (100!) and 35 push ups on the cable machine.  (I'd have to show you but believe me, it's harder than a regular pushup because you're balancing in midair on cables).  Then it was a super set of 30 overhead tricep thrusts and 20 bicep curls with an added 15 bicep curls using a 30 pound bar instead of a 20 pound bar.  This girl's gonna be sore tomorrow.

That's good though...because if I keep going like this, and implement my eating plan just a little bit more faithfully, I'll be "taking a load off." 
Other than that, not much to blog about today.  Just errands, appointments and a meeting to start the last phase of the Great Landscaping Project of 2007.  The only thing left to do is the "art"--copper cut outs of monstera leaves and a honu to go on top of the patio.  Oh!  I'll post some new photos below.

Can't wait till that project's done.  It will be (you guessed it) a big load off my mind.

Greetings from the other side of Artist/Gallery boot camp!  In case you're wondering where I've been for the last 3 days, I have been:

-Dismantling my house (which includes moving furniture, putting tables and chairs in the garage and generally turning the house into an art gallery);

-Removing the (mass-produced) art from our walls;

-Patching and painting;

-Placing (singly-produced) beautiful works of art by Dan's sister-in-law, Cindy on the walls of our newly gallery-ized home;

-Shopping for food, drink, poster putty (more about poster putty later), nylon thread, unidentified decorative vegetation (more about that later too) a laser level and Ook picture hangers;

-Hosting an Art Salon (and our first party since the completion of the Great Landscaping Project of 2007);

-Collapsing in a heap.

It's been busy around here, that's for sure.  I no longer need to marvel at how Cindy stays so trim...she's worked my butt off (well, gotten a good start on it anyway) the past week.  The results were wonderful.  We had a successful salon--Cindy sold some of her work, made good connections for potential future sales, had a nice party and learned enough to probably try it again in a year or so.

And Dan and I acquired a new, gorgeous piece of art for our living room called Three There. 

Right now, we're enjoying the BMW Championship while recuperating from our efforts.  I was dead on my feet after the event yesterday and enjoyed a morning of drinking coffee and reading today.

So, poster putty.  Who knew?  On Thursday, Cindy and I went shopping for the various items we'd need to hang her work.  She introduced me to poster putty...we went to 3 different stores before finding the right kind at the hardware store. 

The putty is like a sticky clay and functions to keep art work in place on the wall (as an assistant to the nail, not as a substitute).  We used it to hang all of Cindy's art and to secure a pesky print that keeps creeping off kilter on our living room wall. 

It's great because you can easily remove it,  it doesn't stain the walls and it's extremely useful in hanging things.  I can see myself using it in place of push pins or tiny nails in my office.

The unidentified vegetable matter was purchased as a decorative leaf (some sort of cabbage with purple, ruffled leaves...Dean should know the name...he used to be a produce manager) to put underneath the cheeses and yummy fruits we offered as light refreshment.  It merits mention only because no one at Henry's could figure out what it was so I think I just paid for a head of lettuce.  Quite a pretty head of lettuce, to be sure.

The turnout for the gathering was great.  We had friends from banking days (Cathy Simms and Garrett Bell), local chums Tom and Renee Dobyns, some friends from S&S (Fred and Karen), some acquaintances of Cindy's (Ginny, Sharen, and Betsy), our neighbors, Nicole and Sherman, Dan's friend, Bob, and my mom, Charlene, and her friend, Liliane.  It was a quite convivial gathering and even included an invigorating political discussion with Mom, Nicole, Liliane, and yours truly...turns out that Nicole and Sherman are self-described extreme conservatives who have been bemused by my bumper-stickers.    We discussed presidential candidates (she's for Romney) and I was glad of the research I've done to date on the dems.  I stated that I'm leaning toward Edwards (even tho I still have to check out Obama and Clinton).

All in all, a memorable art salon after a ton of effort over 3 days.  I'm going to upload some photos for all to enjoy.  Oh, and one final note, at one point the guys were all outside...what were they doing?  Using the putting green, of course.  Although, once they figured out that all the women were inside, they quickly headed back in.  No fools, them.

Happy birthday, Dick/Papasan.  That's it from Chez Morefield for now.

Three There

Elaborate Collaboration  What several folks said was the signature piece of the show.

Cindy arrived safely last night and we've already been out for coffee and chatted about how we are going to display her art in the house.  The crates (3 of them at over 100 pounds each!) should arrive in the next two days so we will be busy, busy, busy!

With Cindy here, I am in a partial vacation mode and also feeling the need to get several tasks done...so it's an interesting balancing act.  As ever though, Cindy is a very undemanding companion.  And it helps that we have history behind us in terms of a looooong road trip (Santa Clarita, CA to Prince Rupert, Canada) and a backpacking trip (the amazing Chilkoot Trail).  We determined last night that the trip was 3 years ago.

Time does indeed take wing.  My next big planned backpacking trip is a jaunt up the Inca Trail to Macchu Pichu for my 50th (gulp!) birthday.  So I have 3 years to get this bod back into backpacking shape.  I don't plan to take quite that long.  I'll want to get some shorter trips in over the next few years so, perhaps, my brother Dennis and I can hit the trail again early next year.

I'll need the extra practice.  The Chilkoot Trail was a 33 mile backpack with a relatively low elevations (3,500 feet although it seemed like we gained most of that in one day).  See the trail profile on this link.

The Inca Trail, by comparison, covers about the same distance but starts at a significantly higher altitude and goes to 13,775 feet.  (Gulp again!)  Check out the profile on this one.

So you can see it will be quite a challenge.  Requiring its own sort of prep work.  We will have to get acclimated for several days and then just make sure we're fit and attuned to our bodies as we hike.  The good news is that on this trip, there are porters.  So we will just be carrying day packs instead of 45 pound backpacks.  (We were travelling "light" for the Chilkoot.)  The porters are required in order to preserve the ancient trail and to provide employment opportunities for the local guides.  I think it's the only way I'd make it!

So far, my tentative companions on the trail are Lynne Secrest and Cindy Morefield.  Dan's about 90% committed.  Any other takers? 

In the meantime, it's back to measuring walls, taking down art and hanging out with my excellent friend, Cindy.

I read an article in the LA Times over the weekend about one of the propositions in California's upcoming elections...and it reminded me that a friend of mine told me she'd love to "subscribe" to a Voter's Guide by me.  Not so much that she agrees with me on everything, she doesn't.  But because she knows I'll research the issues, present the pro's and con's and make a clear recommendation that allows her to assess whether or not she agrees with me.

So I'm adding a page this week called "California Voter's Guide" wherein I will talk about my general biases, the specific propositions and tell folks how I'm going to vote.  I don't want to put it in the general blog because a number of folks who read this blog aren't from California.  (I wish they all could be California, I wish they all could be California, I wish they all could be Californi-ans!)

Other than that, I'm just at work on office clean up today and prepping for the Salon I'm hosting for Cindy Morefield, my sister-in-law, this coming Saturday.  Dan and I are big fans of her artwork, so it gives us great pleasure to be able to introduce her work to our friends and family.  Cindy arrives tonight for a one week visit. 

I've also been doing a heat-wave no-no...my laundry.  But Dan did just get back from being out of town and if I wait until tonight to do the laundry, I'll still be doing it when Cindy gets here.  Besides, I did my bit for the environment today.  Yep, I bought a mug to take with me to Starbucks in the morning so I'm not using up a paper cup each day.  And by way of another guilt-offset, I am also drinking water from our tap these days instead of bottled water.  We paid to get a water filter, why not use it?

Well, that's all the news from angst ridden Orange County today.  Look for the new page to be in full swing by the end of the week.