One of my long-time dreams is to do some driving on a race course. Fast driving. In a fast car. A Porsche, maybe.

For many years, I could not have made this dream come true, because I literally would not fit into the driver's seat of a racing car. Nor into the stock driving suit. So when I got serious about losing weight, I decided that one of the first things I'd do, once at goal, was to take a race driving course.

In the intervening years, I moved from Atlanta, home to both the Atlanta Motor Speedway and Road Atlanta, to Alabama. Yes, the infamous Talledega track is here, but they didn't have any courses that interested me out there. I have been keeping an eye on courses at Road Atlanta for quite some time. And then...and then! Then came the Barber Motorsports Park, right outside Birmingham. And I can't believe I didn't pick up on this sooner - it's home to the Porsche Sport Driving School! ( Read more... )

It was so hard to get all the big birthday weekend arrangements in place, and even harder to completely undo them to be here in Atlanta today. But it still turned out to be a great day. The Joan Baez tickets were sold within ten minutes of our letting folks know they were available. I gave up on the football vendor stand. Logistics=impossible. I'll hope to catch a meal or cup of coffee with my BestGalPal who was going to spend the weekend with me at home. So that was all fairly easily undone.

Today, my father came through his surgery very well, and was talking by the time they got him back to his room. No trouble coming back off the ventilator, no blood pressure problems or any other problems. So far, no fever. He did ask to see my identification, and eventually he fell asleep somewhat distrusting of the strange woman claiming to be his daughter sat there at his bedside. If that's the worst of it, halleluia. We assume this is the lingering effects of the general anesthesia. ( Read more... )

Is this the perfect apron for The Pioneer Woman or what?

I checked into the Super8 hotel near the hospital on Wednesday night so that I could hunker down to meet a deadline for work which was foisted upon me the day before. I had to complete the final report on my complex year-long inve$tigation by Friday morning. Which I did. My mom insisted on paying for the room, and pressed even further for me to keep it for the weekend and DreamGuy's visit. I didn't argue too hard. My friend who owns the B&B where we usually stay was in Mexico and we couldn't work out a stay there so here we are.

We spent the day rambling around east Atlanta - Decatur, Oakhurst, East Atlanta Village. We drove around and picked up flyers at houses for sale to get an idea of what it would take to buy a place over here...someday.( Read more... )

New hair day!

Once I got over my confusion about the days of the week, and which one I'd scheduled my hair appointment for, I made it to my friend's new salon in Buckhead to get my roots retouched. I like the new location, and they have some great art hanging around. It felt wonderful to get a good old-fashioned invigorating professional shampoo. And I'm much happier looking at myself without the big skunk stripe down my part. I really enjoyed catching up with my friend, too. He's been through some changes, "fighting the old Irish black d0g," he calls it, and seems to be in much better physical and mental health. It was a nice break from my recent "usual."( Read more... )

Self portrait, at my desk.

A few folks have asked about how Rosey the Amazing Destructo-Puppy has been doing since she was chewed on by that dog on our walk a few weeks ago. She's doing great! She got over the limping the very next day, and her surgeon said her knees appeared to be fine, her recently-operated-on one in particular. She's got a weird diagonal bald strip on her side where the vet here shaved her to expose the puncture wounds. They've all healed up fine. Thanks for asking! ( Read more... )

Great look huh? Sorry bout the super baggy rolled up jeans. And that's a silly vase that was in front of the shop mirror. Love the look of these boots. Too bad I couldn't walk in them!

I am in and out of love with shopping. And when I say "shopping," I mean mostly for clothing and things for myself. At this time of year, I find it hard to be in love with shopping, given the crowds and general insanity. It seems to have gone crazy very early this season. That said, I dropped into a little shoe shop in downtown Tuscaloosa last week, and spied a pair of boots I wanted to try on. ( Read more... )