GOLDEN GIRLS ALMOST GONE

The news of Rue McClanahan's death is making me nervous. Of course those Golden Girls Bea Arther and Estelle Getty died a few years back. What's got me wondering is how long will Betty White be the new senior sex-symbol? Go Betty, Go!

Kinda makes you wonder as you get older; my world has lost Dixie Carter and Lena Horne, who's next? Once heard T. Boone Pickens say "at my age nothing is for certain, why I don't even buy green bananas." Neither do I.

Three days of packing has worn me out. Maybe it was not actually that long but it feels like I have been packing forever. Checking the rules, what can you carry on board and what not? What will need for the first stop? the second?
Advised my step-children of a week's worth of menus for the Oregon coast retreat. With a sample of recipes to try decided to copy the whole file to a cd instead of making paper. Where was this shortcut when I was consulting, needed files at my reach and usually had the wrong one? If I was pitching today, the whole game would be different.

Which reminds me...found a new app. Sherwin-Williams' "Color Snap," (free at iTunes App Store). Yes, I've gone pretty much crazy for apps lately but can you blame me-they are SO-o-o handy. Even located the nearest Whole Foods store to the coast (Portland).

Anyway....Color Snap is a supposed-color-tool for picking and refining color schemes. Who are they kidding? The color as you see it in optical-screen format will never match the paint color and trying to find a paint chip that will, makes you crazy. One of the hardest color lessons to teach is that 'light' color (i e. photography) is not the same as 'pigment' color (dyes, paints, lacquers etc.). For reasons that I will not bore you with here but suggest you read Sir Issac Newton's treatise on light refraction. Not that I expect you will.

What Color Snap is, or may become, is one of the most fun forms of entertainment on my iPod, offering ways to begin with a selected color. Then choose two more and click for variations and alternate schemes, as suggested by SW, by the millions. Years of working with a color-card producer and pitching the paint industry the hardest part was instructing executives about color scheming; that is using color wheel and how to devise harmonic schemes based on color relationships.
For teaching color this app will surpass any color wheel lesson known to artists. Forget your Pantone color deck, or the Rit Dye color chart - pick up the app and begin to see how limited those products really are. Play with it, keep playing and you will find that there is a difference between lightness, saturation, neutrality, brightness and whiteness. Once you have practiced Color Snap about a thousand times, the paint chip display will look like - child's play.

Also bought an app call "Mirror" offering a handy makeup mirror on your iPod. Do not buy it, there is no mirror; just the blank screen surrounded by tiny 'makeup' lights. What a scam!

Finished "Blood from Stones," and "Noble Radiance" by Donna Leon and have the Kindle2 already loaded for travel reading. Down loaded Follet's "World Without End," and Leon's "Doctored Evidence," just for the trip - and maybe I'll read one of DH's books. We are traveling with luggage plus a laptop, two iPods, two cell phones and two Kindles. We need an extra bag just for the electronics.

Already sent several boxes with items we did not want to carry to Mother's (Midwest), and to the west coast. Have you found the pre-printed U.S. Postal shipping boxes to be a big help? Various sizes, each pre-priced for Express Delivery: if it fits, it ships!
Pick up the boxes at the post office, fill, seal, label and pay when you ship. The costs are reasonable, the weight is not a factor and all the boxes are scanned for delivery to the address. You even get a receipt with a web address where you may confirm delivery. DH who usually avoids the process of packing found these to be a easy do. And the standard box sizes make it easier for the post office; they all fit, stack and ship far more efficiently. Who knew the P.O. business could be revitalized with boxes? Anything to stave off another stamp increase.

Will not be posting for most of June but will have much to talk about after we get home again. Stay tuned. . . .bbf