[Mike McCarty]

Longtime friends of the forum: Linda Tracey Brandon of Arizona and Carlos Ygoa of Madrid, Spain were recently spotted in a coffee shop at the famed Prado museum in Madrid - so much talent sitting at one table.

For years we here on the forum have talked among ourselves never getting the opportunity to meet.

I had the good fortune to meet Linda and others in 2003 at a portrait competition in Laguna Beach, CA. And even though I consider Carlos a good friend, we have never met.

Good that our friends could meet like this even as I understand the lines to the museum were hideously long - a small price to pay to see the works of Velazquez. I would gladly have stood in line with my two friends.