No, I'm not dead

Whew...I've spent the last week moving into my new place, running errands during the day and unpacking stuff at night. I've had muscles hurting that I didn't even know existed. Still not quite ready for pictures, as the dude is still making my cabinet doors, so the kitchen looks rather ghetto. I'm been a lazy blog reader, but I just haven't had a lot of time/energy the past couple weeks, but I'll be around soon enough.

I thought I'd take it easy on my first post back in a while and do more of a pictoral issue. So, I went to Arizona for Christmas to visit my youngest brother and his family. They live about an hour outside Tucson in a small town that basically supports the Army base.

One day, we spent going to a town called Bisbee, which has an old copper mine and we took the tour there. Here's a pic of A and me in our tour gear. There is somewhat of a purpose for showing myself to compare against a pic you'll see in a sec.














This was my favorite little trip into Tombstone, which is probably no surprise given what a movie whore I am and I do happen to adore this particular flick. What you see here is a shot of the Crystal Palace and down the main drag. Many of the exteriors are original from the Earp era, and some of the saloons still have the original mahogany bar tops.

Across the street to the right of the Crystal Palace is The Oriental where the Earps bought into the Faro game. Virgil Earp was walking from The Oriental to the Crystal Palace when he was shot in the arm by The Cowboys. The Oriental now sells period clothing to gullible tourists. A couple of buildings down is the old billiard hall where Morgan Earp was shot in the back and succumbed to his wounds. In the middle of this tourist store, they have a pool table with light over it and the story. Kind of cheesy, but still interesting.

The building on the right side of this pic is where the Earps picked up Doc Holliday on their way to the OK Corral in what became their infamous 30-second shoot-out. They walked down that street and took a left and it all took place next to the OK Corral, contrary to popular belief. Fascinated yet? I thought so...







My brother and his family were doing one of those period tourist shots, and they convinced me to do one for myself. Jessica, my SIL, tried to get me into a corset to be a prostitute but I thought I seemed a little more like a Madam -- don't you?

So, here's how I'd look as a Madam in the 1880s with what the camera lady said was my "Mona Lisa smile." Now, you know why I smile all the time for pictures, as I think my face looks twice the size (see...now look above for my proof). I did take shots with me smiling, but it somehow didn't seem to fit the image.







One last glory shot. Aren't my two nieces just so adorable in their Christmas PJs? Allison is 21 months now and Brittany will be four in March. Brit requested a "jumperline" for Christmas, so that was my mom's gift to them, and I was quite proud to have actually helped Allie get over her fear of bouncing by herself. Damn, was that actually something mother-like? hehe.