Of a Rock Band Birthday, Painting and "Les Miserables."

This year, for the first time in many years, I wanted to have a birthday party. You see, my birthday is on New Year's Eve. I had so much fun playing Rock Band on Thanksgiving, that I wanted a repeat.

We threw the party together in a day and luckily, a few of our friends were on hand to help us celebrate. We actually had the party on the 30th. I simply saw no need to compete with New Years Eve. A nasty crud is going around, so some people who would have otherwise enjoyed the evening could not join us.

We had lots of sweet appetizers, a taco & burrito bar and cinnamon rolls, in addition to royal velvet cake, for dessert.

We totally rocked with The Beatles songs, but were pretty sucky when we tried the Rock Band 2 disc, the one with the music from the late 1990's.

New Year's Eve was really pretty understated around here. We mostly stayed home. Ellie and Kohlton hung out at his house. In the past Larr and I had always gone to the Book Group party, but with the median age being something in the 80's, many of them have died and a few have come down with terrible illnesses like Althizmer's. They start their party early (around 5:30, I believe) and sing "Auld Lang Syne" at about 7:30 and call it a night. It seemed more fitting to stay home this year.

I also spent part of the day painting. I have three paintings that I am not happy with, yet. I decided I would try to "fix" them. I sought out Ellie's advice as I trust her artistic sense. She says that she thinks they are all good, but was also able to listen to my ideas and give me feedback. I am still working on one of the paintings, the only one I got to so far. I will post about it once I am happier with how it looks.

Next up on my artistic winter holiday, I went to see "Les Miserables." It is such a season for really lush, beautiful films and this was no exception.



I really enjoyed this version of the story, but I liked the 1998 film with Liam Nelson, too. Considering them side by side, you can see how much an actor brings to a role with his or her interpretation of the character.



In my next life, I would love to design and create costumes for such amazing movies as "Les Miserable."


Okay, I could be persuaded to help make the sets, too.



Tomorrow I am going to take in the Victor Van Gogh exhibit at the art museum.