Did You Get a New Hair-Do?

For the last few days we have had unusually humid weather.

It's been a tad cloudy, a bit overcast and slightly foggy.

And since I've had Scotland on my mind for a while now ...

... I'll show you what it has looked liked here with a picture from there. I like to use visuals whenever possible to tell such enchanting stories on my blog.

You're welcome.

Except for the gorgeous hills, the quaint little stream and the overall greenness part, this photo could have been taken from my house. After all, the cloudy, overcast, foggy look is spot on. And if I look out my window, and ignore all the flat suburban sprawl, concrete, asphalt and traffic ... well it's just like I'm in Scotland!

I love using my imagination whenever possible.

One of the downsides of this misty weather is the effect it's having on my hair.

I don't know what happened. But after my last pregnancy my hair got wavy. The texture changed and it took on this kinky, curly, frizzy thing. Now this was just weird for me because I've had straight, flat hair my entire life.

Except for that time during the 80's where I looked like this ...

You can only imagine the massive amounts of fussing and Aqua-Net hairspray I used to achieve that look.

Good times!

And now I don't even need to try. I let my hair air dry and it goes all wavy and frizzy by itself. It takes some time and some serious hair product to get it to behave now. And that's on normal days.

Throw in the humidity of the last few days ... and look out!

Of course this photo isn't really me. But it could be. Except for the flawlessly youthful complexion. Focus on the hair and she could be my twin.

I'm wondering if I'd look like this all the time in Scotland?

Something Scottish

I almost forgot to mention another thing I did this summer.

I spent some time here ...

Yes, that's a real Scottish castle. In Scotland. It's called Glenbogle. And I spent many hours there. Getting to know these fine people ...

The handsome laird in the center is Archie MacDonald. He's quite charming. The staff is pretty quirky and entertaining. But his dad, Hector, is a real hoot!

If you want to spend some time with these fun people, and drool over the gorgeous Scottish countryside ... then do what I did ...

Get it on DVD!

Let me know what you think?

My Summer in Review

So by now you're probably wondering what I did all summer.

After all, my "little" break from blogging actually turned into a few months of being absent. I'd love to be able to report that I went on exotic vacations and spent the summer totally relaxing and renewing. But that's still just a fantasy I'm afraid. But if that's how you spent your summer, please don't tell me. ;-)

In reality, I actually had quite a wonderful summer. But it was busy. We had several activities going on, a couple of projects, a few parties and BBQs, a little trip, and some fun visitors.

Here's the recap in photos ...

Of course we spent most days enjoying the pool. And it's always more fun with friends!

We rescued these cuties from behind our garden shed. The black one is Junie Bug and the gray one is Fluffy Pants. They are incredibly entertaining!

True confessions time ... I had a little summer love affair with this guy! I couldn't help myself. He sucked me right into his world and melted my heart.

If you don't know who he is ... you should! It's ok, a friend shared him with me, I'm happy to share him with you. You won't be sorry!

It was another wonderful summer of Shakespeare! This the cast of Richard III. The show was fabulous. And those costumes were amazing!

And speaking of Shakespeare ...

... my oldest daughter had a great time taking part in a Summer Shakespeare Workshop. Here she is playing Romeo. Can you tell by the look on her face that she can't believe she just killed Tybalt?

Hubby and I went and saw these guys in concert. This is Counting Crows, along with Augustana, and Michael Franti and Spearhead. (Thanks again to Jimmy Bogios for hooking us up!) But here's how old I'm getting ... I wore earplugs for the entire concert! Reality. Seriously.

We had a bountiful harvest in the garden this year. The basil overfloweth. I made 14 batches of pesto. And the tomatoes were insane. I canned a dozen quarts. And we ate tomatoes at every meal.

Then I went back to my hometown of Dinuba to get a bunch of this fabulous fruit ... and I made jam! Plum, pluot and nectarine. It makes me smile just thinking about it.

I also made chow-chow. Who knows what that is?

Last summer we hosted a spectacular Shakespeare class. So how did we top that this summer? Why a Book/Movie Club of course! We read something like 9 books and then watched the movie version(s) of the book. Fun and great ones like Jane Eyre, The Princess Bride, Persuasion, Sherlock Holmes, Les Miserables. Good stuff. And what a great group of kids ... here they are dressed as characters from the books/movies. Fun!

We took a little vacation. Well Tonka is always on vacation. Just look at that roly-poly chunk of sunshine.

But we took it up a notch and went to Cambria.

Ah ... one of my most favorite places in the world.

Finally ... this guy celebrated his 13th birthday. I'm still trying to figure how this happened. Thirteen years? Wow. It probably wasn't the most festive celebration for him as the girls in the family all had the flu. So we still owe him a night out for dinner and bowling as he requested. Happy Birthday Alex!

And that my friends wraps up my summer adventures.

So what did you do this summer?

Is It Really True?.....

Yes ...

The moment you've all been waiting for

is almost here ...

... my return to the blogging stage!

I know ... the excitement is overwhelming.

Stay tuned ...