I loved the old movie ‘Auntie Mame’! The 1950’s (original) version starred Rosalyn Russel in the black-and-white (non-musical) version. Auntie Mame was hilarious, and in my opinion better than the later remake version with Lucille Ball (her last picture). But it was the Lucille Ball version of ‘Mame‘ that was the musical version, and featured the song ‘Open a new Window . . . ‘. ‘Twas a catch phrase that I somehow kept singing in my head as I had new blinds installed in the house this weekend. More on the blinds in a moment.
I had a good trip back from my work-week in Wichita, Kansas, and the week went by quickly. I stayed at the Doubletree Wichita Airport on Thursday night, which is walking distance to the terminal, and very handy for my 8am flight to Dallas, connecting on to Orlando.
I’ve stayed at this Doubletree hotel several times, and always enjoy having dinner there the night before my flight. 
While I had access to the 5th floor Concierge Lounge, they no longer server a full breakfast there as in previous stays, although the hotel does provide complimentary breakfast vouchers for Diamond guests in the restaurant. Even though breakfast started at 6am, I skipped breakfast so I wouldn’t be rushed for my flight, although I did pick up a granola bar and coffee in the Concierge Lounge before heading out.
After walking the short distance from the Doubletree Hotel to the terminal, I was quickly checked in at 6:45am, and on to security and the gate. 
I did grab a quick bite to eat at the airport’s Chick Filet, before heading to the gate for my flight. The flight to DFW was right on schedule, and I would have had a nice hour and 15 minute nap, except for the blabber-mouth lady seated right behind me (in coach) who decided to talk about nothing but herself for the entire gate to gate flight. 
I was seated in the last row of First Class, and this woman behind me (behind the partition separating First and Coach) did not shut up the entire flight from Wichita to Dallas! I mean it’s 7:30am when we boarded and most people on the flight want to sleep, but she’s just yacking away loudly for all to hear. It was all talk about her, and I feel like I know her life history just from overhearing her blabber. I honestly don’t know how someone can talk so much about nothing to a complete stranger-seat mate, but some people (usually women, although not always) can’t seem to stop talking. Here she is in the terminal after deplaning in Dallas, the face transposed to protect the innocent family members that may be reading this. Rant over; another one of my travel pet peeves – loud people!
I had an hour layover in DFW, and made a brief stop by the ‘A’ concourse Admiral’s Club, admiring this woman walking her dog along the way. Any more going thru the airport terminal is little different than a walk in the park as many people feel the need to walk their pets along with everyone else; unlike the ‘old’ days when only seeing eye dogs were allowed to roam. Now $35 and an internet ‘service dog’ plaque is all that’s required to bypass carrier restrictions, but I digress.
American is renovating many of their lounges, and at least for a while there is limited seating in the lounges as they update them; the ‘A’ concourse lounge at DFW was one of those. Fortunately it was a quick layover, and I managed to find a seat in the crowded TV room.
My flight from DFW to MCO was very nice aboard a new Airbus 321 ‘Sharketts’ aircraft. All seats on this aircraft have individual TV screens with video on demand, and my First Class seat was quite comfortable. Shortly after boarding I starting browsing the inflight selections, and settle on the still in-theater movie, La La Land. 
I’m not a huge fan of most of the current Hollywood crop of trash, sex, and violent movies, but I must say I was totally impressed with La La Land! This musical/Drama, was quite a good and I would even say wholesome film with a good story line amongst the music. 
For those who haven’t seen it, I won’t give away any of the story-line, but here are a couple not so great photos of the TV screen showing the brilliant musical/dance scores from the movie. It’s one movie I would definitely recommend seeing, and as I watched the very first scene, 
I thought to myself – this should have won the Best Picture (instead of the controversial mixup of winners at the Academy Awards this year).
Now, back to the blinds. I got home on Friday afternoon, and Steve (DOS) and I went about taking down the old blinds at the house, as we were having a whole new set of blinds installed on Saturday morning. Here are some photos of the old blinds, many in not so great shape. 
I’m embarrassed to say I actually still have the one week temporary paper blinds hanging from 2014 in my bedroom and master bathroom I put up after Hurricane Charley! Here is DOS taking these down – I should have signed them and saved them for my memoirs! LOL!
We bought the full house set of custom-fit Bali Blinds from Lowe’s, and could not have been more pleased. We first had a couple measure each window a couple weeks ago, and then ordered the blinds based on their measurements. The same couple installed the blinds for us, including 16 windows, 3 of which were full size vertical sliders for the walk out patio doors. They installed in a little over four hours, in what would have taken DOS and I probably four years to do! They were so efficient and professional, and the beautiful faux-wood blinds offer color and texture to each room – we are so glad we bought some quality custom blinds from Lowe’s!
So now we can ‘open a new window’ and close an existing window with ease thanks to the new blinds coverings. Lucille Ball would be proud!
Welcome Home!