Time for more Paris pics. This time it's our day at Versailles. Here is a view of the gigantic mansion from waaaay down in the gardens. I'd hate to be the one that has to clean those windows...
This is a very interesting sculpture that is outside the back of the shack. If you look closely you may be able to see the horns/sirens in the animals' mouths. Dad figured it must have been to signal setting out for a hunt. Or perhaps it was to signal danger. You know, like if an entire city is in search of someone in the building and is looking to ransack the place and behead someone.
This is a side garden (to the right as looking at the first pic above). Notice the palm trees and extremely manicured and decorative grassy areas? What a dump, huh?
I thought this was an interesting planter (which was on the giant patio area outside the back, near the fountain). Is that a naked elf pooping on a goat's head? I think the elf may be crowning. I'm not sure. What I am sure of is I NEED one of these.
This is just a cool shot of one of the walkways leading to the gardens. The trees are actually trimmed into rectangular shapes, like a hedge.
This would be the doorway to the hall of mirrors.
One of the many ceiling frescos.
A view of more ceiling frescos, ornate columns, many architectural details in the chapel. That's right, they had their very own chapel!
More of the chapel.
Some of the stained glass as well as more architectural details. Could you imaging living in a place like this? It was completely massive. They also had their own opera house, but unfortunately that was not part of the tour.
Close-up of the building. It looked like the entire building was lined with the statues visible on the upper level, which all appeared to be of different people.
Here is one of the beds (and some annoying person who was in my way). All the beds had the high canopy with the gold leaf detailing and the feathers. Again, what a dump!
I have some more b&w pics too that I'll have to post but this is all I have time for at the moment. If you want to see more pictures of our trip, check out this site my dad made - http://www.ce-h.us/paris/paris.html. Be sure to go into Paris life > art everywhere. Look at the second pic of the sculpture that was in a shop around the corner from out hotel. Dad was fascinated with this piece. He kept talking about it and pointing it out when we walked by it. He was also fascinated with the scooters that were all over the place and the dogs that were also all over the place, and pooping on the sidewalks. He took pictures of both. Yeah, he's a goofy guy. I guess that's where I get it from...
We hopped on the metro to get to the scenic lookout for the Eiffel Tower. This is during the light display which apparently happens every hour on the hour for about 10 minutes. Its flashing and glittering looks kind of like a giant christmas tree. Kind of hard to see in this pic, but there it is. Oh, the little woman in the lower left corner is Mme. Inge Martin (pronounced like Inga).
This thing is pretty cool. And I was originally going to settle with a measly flaming skull paint job! Silly Me!
Next is me at 19 with my friend Marcel. Back to bleaching, which was pretty cool because it glowed under the black lights at First Ave. Yes, GLOWED! This was from the fun old days of frequenting First Avenue, The Saloon and other dance clubs around town with my predominantly gay group of friends. I suppose roughly half were straight but unfortunately for me at the time, very few of the men.
Some other random pics from that time… 
and riding the giant bunny at the mini golf course next to the State Fair grounds. Is that even still there??
Wow, I used to be skinny. Oh, to be young again...
Got sick of the bleaching thing and went to a burgundy/red color again. The coordination with my pj’s for x-mas was a total coincidence.
Then I entered the corporate world and had to look normal – well, somewhat anyway. Oh well…
I am determined to once again bleach my hair out white and get the purple dread extensions I once had (when I had black hair) so that my hair will glow white and purple under the black lights at First Ave! I’ll probably do that around the same time as my next tattoos. Which won’t be until after babies since there’s nothing sexy about tattoos riddled with stretch marks. Yikes!
This is where it all began with the coloring. I thought I’d dye my hair auburn for fun since my naturally blond hair seemed to be darkening and I didn’t like that. Thus began the approximately 15 year span in which I never had a head of my natural hair, and so wasn’t quite sure what exactly the color was at that point. It’s a pretty dorky pic but it’s all I had.
I’m missing a pic with my light blond hair with the black fringe bang. That was my homage to the chick (Teri something?) of Berlin – the band. Remember them? I had a good pic but a boyfriend in high school thought it was hot and wanted it. So, like an idiot I gave it to him. Stupid boyfriend!
This next one is from right after graduation (from h.s.), after I had decided at work one day that I wanted to try the other end of the goth-type spectrum and go black. That is my friend Jennie on the left (and her new kitty). I had chopped my hair off and shaved the underside of my head between this time and the last photo, but did not find any decent pic from then. Maybe my mom has one…
I had to stick this one in too just because it’s kind of funny. I call it my Pink Floyd, The Wall pic. It was taken at Jennie’s graduation open house. I was eating cake, which featured icing roses in our school colors – silver and black. 
