Beautiful February Day

I don't want to hurt the feelings of those that live back home in freezing Utah, but today it will be 70 F outside.  I am sorry. In your name I am going to take my Madsen Cargo Bike out to the store and around the town. Maybe I will even go for a run (I say that as a maybe cause if you know me you know how badly I hate running, so more realistically I will go for a brisk walk).  I am hoping this weather means that it will officially become springtime here in Virginia.  I can not wait for this...

The National Cherry Blossom Festival March 26-April 10.

Hope you guys have a great weekend.  I am going to go to a movie tomorrow morning. Any suggestions?

PS.  What are your feelings on Lady Gaga's new song "Born This Way"


Can we say "Express Yourself" by Madonna.  I was pretty shocked when I heard it.  I think that is wrong and sounds like plagiarism to me. I realize the lyrics and melody are different, which are the two things that can be copy written, but it just sounds so much like the song that maybe it is just unethical.  Maybe Lady Gaga missed that lecture in school.  It doesn't take as much talent to copy someone else. Read this article about the song. It contains a mash-up of the two songs (for all your Gleeks out there). 

Painting People

Twenty-four-year-old artist Alexa Meade paints portraits on people. She puts acrylic paint directly on live models, so they appear to be two-dimensional paintings of themselves. These are incredible.

Alexa Meade thinks completely backwards. Most artists use acrylic paints to create portraits of people on canvas. But not Meade - she applies acrylic paints on her subjects and makes them appear to be a part of the painting!

Meade is an installation artist based in the Washington, DC area. Her innovative use of paint on the three dimensional surfaces of found objects, live models, and architectural spaces has been incorporated into a series of installations that create a perceptual shift in how we experience and interpret spatial relationships.



This post is taken from a Cup of Jo Blog where she found them at (My Modern Met).  Click HERE for more amazing photos.

Model for a Day

Paul's mom, Shari, came in town to spend time with Paul and I and we have been having a great time. Yesterday we went to Harper's Ferry in West Virginia. Shari is a fabulous photographer and she took a couple of headshots of me and all of these photos in this posting. Tell me what you think...which one is good enough to use on my website for teaching?

Other Pictures of us at Harper's Ferry

We also saw the movie "Julie & Julia" about Julia Child and a so we had to go the Museum of American History to see Julia Child's kitchen.

Ruby Slippers Judy Garland wore in the "Wizard of Oz"

Smithsonian
White House

Obama's Body Guard

Church in Georgetown, Washington, D.C.

Oh by the way...did I mention that Paul and I are having 19-20 people over for Thanksgiving in Virginia. Yikes! My party got bigger than expected, but hey the more the merrier I say --as long as there is room for everyone. Thank goodness I have Shari here to help me cook, or else it would be a huge disaster or burned turkey and lumpy gravy. I will keep you posted on how it goes.

To Be or Not to Be...That is the Question.

Paul and I went to NYC last weekend. There is this amazing bus called the Bolt bus that drives from downtown DC to downtown NYC in about 4 hours. We saw the oh so sexy and scrumptious Jude Law play Hamlet in Shakespeare's Hamlet on Broadway. Jude Law is incredibly talented and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. If I wasn't already married I would have waited around at the stage door to see if Jude Law wanted to kiss me or marry me. I would have been satisfied if he even groped me a little! Alas, I was faithful to Paul--Blah!

More pictures will come of NYC when I upload them from the camera. We also went to Central Park and the Met Steps so I could feel like I was a part of Gossip Girl, xoxo L.

So Paul and I have been major slackers when it comes to posting anything new on our blog. Let me tell you what we have been up to since we moved out to DC.

July- settled into our house and toured around the city. Also Paul and I turned 27!

We went out to a Mexican Restaurant for Paul's Birthday and I told the waiter to sing and dance for Paul-so he did just that and made us wear sombreros!

Leah's Birthday

Went to see 42nd Street at Wolf Trap (an outdoor theater in a National Park), it was fabulous and very beautiful.

View of the stage. We sat on the lawn and had a picnic just like everyone else.

Hanging out with my new friends at the Dairy Godmother (the best Custard around) in Alexandria, Virginia.

(left to right: me, Sarah, Tiffany, and Emily with baby Dean)

The Pier

Shopping. Isn't this a cute street!

Hanging out with Van Gogh. I love his self portrait. I am at the National Gallery of Art.

With friend Sarah outside the National Gallery of Art. Look close cause Charlie was cold and is inside my red bag.

Paul and I are having a fabulous time. We bought a guest bed if anyone wants to come visit us and see the sights. We have made great friends out here. My music teaching is doing fabulous! School is great. I am doing a master's in arts in Arts Management and am really liking my program and classes and Paul is doing a master's in Conflict Resolution and is working on opening his own practice to do mediation and conflict resolution.

The fall is beginning and when the trees start changing colors I will post some pictures!

The 4th of July and Our New Home

Since we arrived in DC late on the 3rd of July, we figured we should see what all the buzz is about on the 4th at the capital of the U.S. I was a little upset that our good buddy Obama failed to put our invitation in the mail to watch the fireworks with him at his house, so we were forced to watch them from Abraham's front lawn.

We didn't let that get us down though, we had a great time enjoying one of the best firework shows we've seen with 500,000 others. Most of the people were festive so that made it even more fun.

Even Charlie liked the fireworks, however, he growled at a few weirdos.

Here are two pictures of us, we couldn't fit in the same frame as we sat waiting for the sun to go down.

Here is where we will be living for a while, its just a rental until we can buy a house of our own. We just need some good jobs first, any help?

What Do These Things Have In Common

1-White House

2-Lincoln Memorial

3-Arlington Cemetery

4-Humidity

5-Traffic so bad it makes you want to pull your hair out

6-Everything named after a former President...especially George this, that and the other

7-Lots of Trees

8-Tons of Universities

Any ideas???