May 26 ... Finally have access to a computer that lets me open my HTML editor!  Got to Edmonton last Sunday after driving from Deer Island to Ottawa on Saturday... Took 40 minutes to cross the border, since they were checking ID's at Calais  for the first time since fall 2002!  The Ottawa airport was an experience, the luggage conveyors were all broken down and about half the security had phoned in sick!  The plane was starting to taxi when the pilot announced we would wait another 10 minutes as they had found another luggage cart for us!  I was a bit worried about my  20 minute connection in Calgary but both my luggage and I made it!  My smoked salmon is cooling his heels in the fridge until Sunday.  The weather here sucks, but was nice for the first two days...  Yesterday I was suppose to demo at Bedrock with Sue F from California but she missed her flight in Sacremento, so I was all by myself... My puffin ended up with a green stripe on his beak... I was sure that it was a rod of yellow glass... but I've been having problems with yellow recently...  I went for lunch at Tara's after the demo  so that she could assure her family that  I wasn't an axe murderer..... I got voted normal... my husband snorted and said they didn't spend enough time with you did they!  Mom and Anne and I had pedicures and manicures this morning... mine was done by  a Polish lady who took one look at my feet and said 'these are disgusting they are so dry... don't you know what cream is for.... you must use cream and a paddle every day!"  In Canada they can use a razor tool to shave dead skin... I had a pile that was big enough to fill a good size snow cone from my heels!  Tomorrow we get to decorate... and Sunday is the big anniversary party!

 

Still May 19... The winner is Tara from Edmonton....  But since she gets to pick the beads (within reason)  unless I get a reply in the next hour they will be mailed the end of June.....   Weather update monsoon style rains started about 3 pm we need to pack the truck... are you listening up there????

 

May 19 Foggy today....   Money-Pit is back home, launched late Wednesday afternoon, came home under engine power as it was to rough to put up the mast...  water pump quit half way home... he took it apart and since the teeth on the impeller weren't broken this time... put it back together and it worked again......!?  I had visions of  having to send out rescue boats...We got our cheque from the insurance company yesterday, It took me about 30 minutes to start spending it.... I replace my corded drill  (It's not that easy to find one with a cord!)   Now I need to go sort the piles that have been forming all over the house and pack them!  And I will be drawing for winners choice beads sometime later today!

 

May 17  Just overcast so far...  The launch is still on for late afternoon... money pit jr was moved out to her mooring this morning at 7 all my fault that poor G had to get up that early...  low tide is at 9:30 we're leaving at 10:45  so he pointed out that he was going to have to haul the kayak accross a lot of shale etc... I said get up at 7 and do it then...,then you'll be 150 minutes from low tide instead of 60..... Now he's going to be grumpy all day because he missed his beauty sleep!  I'm going to a chamber of Commerce mixer in St Andrew's tonight...  for the free appetizers  from all the luxo hotels there....  Since I would be home alone I might as well take advantage of the free food!

 

May 16  Raining here today, the new England floods have moved north! But yesterday was a gorgeous day!  Was trying to make some beads for a simple bracelet yesterday... and grabbed a yellow rod that looked exactly like the 2 inch bit I had left... So I have 9 gorgeous Canary Yellow beads, that don't look even vaguely look like the lemon yellow dots on the original beads....that they are suppose to match... Need to start getting organized for the trip west as I won't be here tomorrow or Thursday!

 

May 15  New game, two words....  Should be easy????  Still sunny here, we stayed home for supper last night....and Duddies didn't bring me a gift!  Our lovely crop of dandylions got mowed yesterday....and a I didn't even get a boquet of those first!  The lawn looked so pretty... I have a second batch of daffodils out now too, amd a bunch of tulips with buds... will they bloom before Bambi eats them???  Bambi was cruising the yard in SJ last time we were there too!  One of the parcels I sent last week was sent to Portland OR the postman delivered it to the door and told Jill that it was the smallest parcel that he had ever delivered  (It started life as a halogen light bulb box ... approx  2 inch square box...) I must admit it was a challenge getting both addresses and the stamps onto it!

 

May 14  Happy Mother's Day to all the Mother's out there... Maybe Duddies will bring me a dead mouse or something equally thoughtful today! We have blue sky again, and it's suppose to be warm! By this time next week I'll be getting on a plane in Ottawa... One thing that came out of the email fiasco was an email from Calvin Orr's wife (He is one of the better known Hawaiian Bead Artists), the email had come in sometime last October and got lost unread/unseen during one of the many previous email burps.... I replied yesterday... She thought it was extremely funny that her email took 7 months to arrive (almost better than the real postal system!) and says that she will surely remember me the NEXT time I come to Hawaii.... (Time out for Breakfast...)
We watched the original Mad Max movie last night (the low buget Australian one) I was doing something and G was suppose to be setting it up... I walked in and said what are we watching... He said I wanted to watch Mad Max but the VCR won't open.... He is so used to DVD's etc... shooting out a little tray to place something on... that he sort of forgot that VCR's only spit out things if there is a tape already loaded..... Boy does Mel Gibson look young!

May 13  We have blue sky today, but it's still windy...  Finished my morning glory panel yesterday! But the highlight of the day was when G deleted the last 6 months of my emails he was trying to clean up the computer and deleted them instead of moving them, (and he deletes by using shift delete it avoids the trash and is gone immediately...) this included 12 that had come in yesterday that I hadn't even seen! So I'm not really ignoring you, I might never have got it! I also spend two hours on the phone trying to figure out why the email on this computer doesn't work on high speed... we've gone through Netscape, Thunderbird and Outlook Express, they all get the same error! Still works fine on dial up though, and none of the online computer techs got anywhere!

May 12  Still Ucky weather...  I felt like I was sleeping in a washing machine last night, with the sheets of rain hitting the house and the wind, G was saying today was suppose to be nice.... but he listenes to a Canadian radio station and I think they only have weather stations in Canada in Saint Johns Nfld and Winnipeg...  so Canadian weather forcasts are highly suspect!  Spent quite awhile yesterday afternoon selling some of my orphan beads, they have taken up residence on the dining room table... She moved enough of them that I felt obliged to dust the table after she had left....  Unfortunately the orphan population is always increasing as 30-70% of all my beads end up in the orphanage!

 

May 11... The weather is now UCKY!!!!   Rocky wasn't in residence when we got there on Tuesday so his ladder (a trelis) was removed and his hole was boarded over, so no excitement in the rain at 11pm Tuesday night!  However,  I'm sure Rocky is currently plotting revenge!  We went to the Willie Nelson concert om Tuesday night, The Dirt Band was the intro, they were good.... Willie didn't wake up until he'd been playing for an hour a lot of people had left by then!  The last 40 minutes of his show was good ... Yesterday we went to Calais and Eastport, in the rain and wind! 

 

May 9 Still sunny....   Off to SJ today... G thinks Rocky is being evicted tonight, Rocky may not agree!  I got an email yesterday from an art appraiser.... she's appraising an art collection wich includes a 3 panel folding screen of mine "Agony in three Parts"  It's about the 4th item from the top on that page, not a very good image sorry.  The screen was called agony in 3 parts... the real story on the name G did the wood work with his leg in a cast from ankle to hip  (he fell on the ice and split his knee cap Valentine's Day), I did most of the glass with my left arm in a cast from finger tip (including my thumb... skiing accident!)  to elbow.. the only way I could cut large sheets of glass was to kneel on the concrete floor, and  hold the glass down with my left elbow...   Anyway the apraiser wants to know how much I would charge to remake the screen if it was stolen.(I didn't realize that that was how appraisers worked!)  I pointed out to G last night that  in order to remake it properly I would have to resmash his knee cap and break my scaffoid bone... (He's declining!) Still haven't decided on a number to send her! 

 

May 8  Still sunny.. actually thought the forcast was for rain...  G is depressed Money-Pit isn't being launched this week, now they are saying next Wednesday, the tides aren't going to be at the right times next week to get the boat home .....  Didn't do anything exciting yesterday except putty my window, needs more cleaning, (so that will be today's excitement!)  actually I have started using one of those battery operated tooth brushes for the corners and small  areas.. it works really well....   Discovered when I was playing around yesterday that  if you  clicked on  any of the  links for more info  or  to buy on  my site you got a page not found error... It's fixed now, so I guess I'm going to have to start  letting my beads go to new homes.....

 

May 7... The sun is back out...  I puttied my window this morning,  now just hours of cleaning left.... (I wanted to do the puttying when there was someone else in the house....) G wants to take the sails etc out to Money-Pit today and make sure the engined works when the boat is launched next wed... might be a long paddle home otherwise!  Not sure when the mast is getting put back on... I believe I might have been fired as winch operator  last fall.... I guess it depends on how desperate he is for help!  I made a bunch more shells and  beach glass  yesterday...   The high-speed  connection has completly screwed up my email on the gallery computer... even the computer geeks on the help line couldn't figure out why it wouldn't work, it works on dial up but not high-speed  I did discover that if you type aliant (The Maritime Phone Co) with an 'e' (ie alient)  you get an oriental electronics company, I couldn't figure out why I was getting the bit about installing the Japanese Characters when I opened the aliant site! Remember  Rocky the racoon on my home page... well he acted on his threat... He has moved into the roof above the bathroom in the main house!  G woke up Friday night at 5  and heard someone walking around... turned out it was Rocky inching along the edge of the roof  to the hole that G had conveniently  left for him...  G also moved a trelis into place for him to use as a ladder to get onto the roof....  I have heard that the poor Racoon is going to be getting his eviction notice Tuesday night... Wonder who really will win round two?

 

May 6 Very foggy here this morning....  I did get a right answer yesterday...  The phone didn't exactly ring off the hook, but...  I tried my first glass bead dog bone yesterday, they are the current hot item on ebay... Not sure why... Mine actually started life as a bunny, but I mucked up the leaf on the flower .... so the poor bunny became a dog bone!  Speaking of ebay....I'm not sure about all the multi thousand $$$ sets of beads that keep being sold on ebay  now... What would you do with beads that you paid $1800- $3400???  The current set is pretty but $1600 ++ $ pretty ...  OK I admit I'm jealous..., but will it cause me to  start selling on ebay, doubt it.... I just checked,  there is currently 13,413 listings on ebay under handmade lampworked....  (wonder if the Japanese motorcycles are still there???)...... G used to have dreams about seeing my fused pieces in antique stores being sold for lots of money....
 

 

May 5 Since I am extremly Considerate  and Beneficient!!!  I have given you an entire word this morning!  Only because a bunch of people got it!  It's clouded over here since I got up ....  and I didn't putty my window yesterday  because I couldn't wash my hair for 24 hours... I had it cut and  turned myself back into a red head. stay tuned for tomorrows excuse! Why couldn't I wash it....I had it cut and  turned myself back into a red head. Today hopefully the phone will be ringing off the hook as  it is open house day at the college in SJ and we're trying to rent the apartment there for next fall!  G is there to  show it... 

 

May 4  Yesterday turned into a really nice day and today looks great...  sorry about the snow in Alberta and SK.... ... I actually didn't putty my window yesterday as the weeds were calling. I tried  using a bigger mandrel for the implosion beads yesterday 4,5mm or something and don't like them at all! (NO picture to follow!)  Also made some bunny heads, needed two but made 4.... After all you can't just have one rabbit, if I leave two together for the summer will I have a whole flock by next Easter????  Speaking of rabbits, Canmore AB which is sort of an out of the National Park bedroom community to Banff has been overrun with rabbits.. Someone let some tame ones loose and the rabbits have taken over the town.... I suppose the tourists think that they are cute and feed them... One of the last times we were there it was overrun with ducks... they had taken over the entire sidewalk beside the pond and weren't moving!

 

May 3 Gloomy and warm....  Yesterday's excitement...  I soldered my window, so today is puttying day, so my hands and fingers will look like  your basic mechanic's, so much for my work to get them presentable for their manicure, oh well they'll have almost three weeks to recover...  I've been trying to make implosion beads again.... a tutorial for them showed up last Sept  and I tried them then... didn't really like what I was getting,  but decided it was time to try again, this weeks version are much nicer!  Picture later..   (basic method is a large disc of glass, which you put dots on... then heat the bead so that the heat  collapses the disc with the dots on the inside of the bead... You end up with pseudo petals radiating from the base... the base  of the bead is the outside ring of dots.....)  When they work they are really pretty! (These are much nicer than the scan would indicate!)  I also tried to make a bunch of tiny beads to fit some rings that I bought  (... and don't have yet!!!)  The rings hold 9.8 mm beads... man are those tiny, I had an aluminium knitting needle gauge sitting beside the torch and was stucking  the beads  through the 10mm needle hold.... as a size test...
 

 

May 2.. Rainy and gloomy here today!  The lawn mower got as far as the driveway yesterday but  G couldn't get it started so it got put back, I know I always had a really hard time starting it every spring!  The Morning Glory panel is done.. (this is the second of 5)  well all the glass and lead is done... today I solder tomorrow I putty, and then I clean for 10 days....!  NHL Hockey,  my husband is a Montreal Canadians fan.. (he's sort of alone out here... anyway at the rate they are going looks like they will be on the golf course tomorrow!)  My family live in Edmonton so they  are Oiler's fans, well the Oiler's  won last night so they move on to round two,... but in order for them to still be live and background noise for the 60th anniversary party  at the end of the month they will have to win round two as well...  My  bead and jewellery links are all upgrade on my home page, due to the missing  originals some of the pictures do not look very good in the enlarged formate! 

 

May 1 New month.... It's cloudy this morning, looks like it might rain...?  G spent yesterday working on Money-pit trying to get it seaworthy... the tentative launch date is May10... I made beads and dug weeds... After supper last night I was playing with a telescoping magnet.... and there was a necklace sitting beside me on the table, that I'd taken to show a store... sterling Silver, Onyx and black & white scribble beads.... The magnet passed over it and bam the necklace was attached to the magnet... G said 'humph all those beads your buying must be plate'.... me 'they better not be'... But just to check I went and got my almost sorted container of silver balls, (I no sooner get it sorted and it gets dumped on the floor again... so new logic if I don't sort it I won't dump it!) Balls show no interest in the magnet.... Next thought maybe I used the links from a toggle set.... maybe those aren't silver (I find that they are so soft that I usually pitch them into my silver scrap bucket, but maybe I actually did use a couple????)... After 10 minutes of what ifs etc... It finally dawns on me that the cable that most jewellery is strung on is steel and the magnet was picking up the knots on the two ends.... (I was contemplating having to check all my silver suppliers drawers with my magnet next time I bought silver....