October

Oct 29 Sunny here this morning and it did freeze, I can see the frost on the lawn.... Oh well ... My computer won't load my HTML editor again today so this will be short! I watched Kate Fowle's Video that I bought on an introduction to Beadmaking in 1995 when I first started last night, I still use rods for most decorating rather than stringers, I can see why after watching her video! It's her electroforming and frit ...class that I've signed up to take at TinCities in Connecticut in March, I've read reviews on similar weekend classes and they are always really positive, I'm thinking that I'll take the train from Bangor to New Haven, but can't get the Amtrak website to cooperate! Oh well I've still got 4 months to figure out how I'm getting there! Emmy wants me to point out that he didn't fall out of the tree, the BARK fell off the tree and he was attached to the bark!

Oct 28 Sunny here this morning but it did freeze ? last night on the thermometer but that is on the north side of the house.... Albert showed up in the mail yesterday (Albert is the Auto helm for the sail boat, 'money-pit', which has been parked for the winter...., so he won't be able to try it out until next spring.... I can just see it now, a toy sail boat in the bath tub with the autohelm plugged into the shaving outlet....)

Em was outside yesterday and when I suggested that he would like to come back in the house he thought climbing the ornamental crab was a better idea... well he went up about ten feet, and then turned around and looked at me with a what are you going to do now smirk on his face, at which point he fell out of the tree and landed at my feet, totally mortified! Actually that seems to be his normal method of getting out of trees..... Em also discovered toilet paper yesterday, but he only pulled off a few yards and it kept breaking so he abandonned it.... Duddies on the other hand used to unroll the entire roll then hide the unraveled toilet paper behind the toilet....

One of the new lauscha glass colours makes really pretty star fish, but about 50% of them are cracking, guess I'm letting them cool too much before I stick them in the kiln, it's a opalescent blue and really pretty, made 2 more yeserday (to replace the two that cracked!) see if they survive! Well there is no rain in the forcast through the weekend hope they are right, don't need rain on Hallowe'en, we get about 40 kids, they actually get driven around as the houses are too far apart, we don't get as many kids as the locals since we're from away, (and always will be! You have to be born here not to be from AWAY.....)

Oct 27 Well the World Series are over for another year and I didn't see a single second of a WS game.... They must have been on after my bed time, although from the sounds of things I could have watched the one two days ago at breakfast! The Sun is shining on me while I type this morning! Maybe the lawn will dry out enough to mow or we can trade Duddley in on a goat....

Other than walking to the mailbox and getting thoroughly soaked yesterday, there was no other excitement... I did have a bucket out to catch rain water for my plants outside the bead shop, and when I came out yesterday I noticed that my nice clean rain water has a dead mouse floating in it YUCK... I have been informed that it's my water therefore it's my mouse and I can dispose of it! Maybe Duddies took it?????

Oct 26 Was listening to the weather on the news last night and heard that what we have brewing here is another ' perfect storm ' that's where 3 storms all meet in one spot we have wilma and alpha and someone else that all want to play right here! Wish I knew how much rain we've had since Canadian Thanksgiving, actually it doesn't seem to be as windy as they forcast. What I found about winter storms in the prairies was if they forcast them and gave you two three days warning to batten down the hatches, they never happened, it was the ones where it was snowing for three hours before the weather guys even figured out there was a storm that you had to watch out for... like the 27 inches of wet snow we got Canadian Thanksgiving in about '98, I parked the car in the ditch about 2 miles from the house at 11pm and informed G that we were walking the rest of the way! I had open toed dress shoes.... Actually we got picked up after about half a mile, 36 hours later G couldn't get me out with chains on his truck he kept getting stuck..., so he went off to find a tractor and I shoveled the car out! We had already rescued the gold fish from the pond that morning, I think that was the year of the babies and there were about 30 fish! In case you haven't figured it out it's raining here, I think Friday is suppose to have some sun....

Oct 25 Late afternoon here and pouring rain, actually Wilma's track was headed straight for us, but now, 'they' are saying that Wilma has moved further East so will no longer be aiming straight for us, 'they' have dropped the expected/projected wind speeds but nearly doubled the amount of rain we are suppose to get????! Got lots done yesterday in Saint John, before the play which was funny. Stuart went straight from the theatre to work... his current job is from 11 pm to 7am YECK! He is having a hard time figuring out when to sleep and really enjoys Emmy bouncing off his head or chewing on any 'loose' apendages..... I'm doing a bunch of flower panels (Leaded glass) for a B&B in Saint John and showed them the drawings this morning, the catch is I'm suppose to use the original 190?'s diamond pane window glass as the background, said glass at the momment is still sort of attached to it's original window frames and has a century of dust coating it... would like to take the windows apart outside so hope we get a few days of NICE weather next week! Also discovered that the diamonds are not all the same width, they all appear to be the 'same' height but vary over half an inch in width, wouldn't want the project to be too easy though, now would I... Window number one is a Clematius.

Actually an update on the football game, the first half happened, supper was served at half time (I was a few minutes slow!) but then during the second half the good guys forgot how to play, or the ref's joined the opposition or you decide.... so it becomes another game that never happened!

Just thought you would all enjoy a picture of what hurricane Wilma looks like as she's approaching NB...........

Oct 24 So I was confused yesterday, Hallowe'en is a week from today... Not raining at the mmomment and the wind has died down. We're off to Saint John for the day and to the Theatre tonight, to see the play, 'The Flight Path" it's suppose to be a comedy and we've seen other plays that he's written and they've been very good.
It was The Spotlight on Silver that was sitting under the vent in the bead shop yesterday and sopped up all the water, last time it was a book of Gold Leaf, must have an attraction to precious metals! The little silver balls are all back where they belong, at least all the ones that I found! I lengthened a bracelet yesterday and thought it would make a nice collar for Em, he wasn't thrilled, but wandered off wearing it, half an hour later he had managed to get the bracelet into his mouth, there was no way it was coming off, so I cut the cable... G got one claw in his finger, while he was holding him, but from the noise he was making you'd have thought he'd chopped off the entire finger! Oh yes all of this was going on while he wasn't watching the football game, because once again it never happened!

Oct 24 One week to Hallowe'en, let's hope the weather is nicer next Sunday, this morning is another extremely windy and rainy day, just what we need more rain! Duddley has been in and had his breakfast and his morning hissy fit and has returned to his insulated cat house by the 'bead shop'
and Em is tearing round the house looking for something else to terrorize, anything moving will do! This afternoon there is another Canadian Football game, however by tomorrow it will probably be another game that never happened!

Think I'll hide out in the bead shop this afternoon although in really strong wind gusts it feels like I'm about to lift off, but at least the wind doesn't come through the walls, windows and ceiling there! The corner of the bedroom ceiling has started leaking again, must be the 'perfect' wind direction today.....one of the ceiling fans in the bead shop leaks under the same wind conditions....

10 minutes later, Em just dumped a container full of Sterling Silver balls (Maybe he thought he could find one that would fit?) half into a garbage can full of Sunflower seed shells and the rest all over the bedroom floor, the eater of the sunfflower seeds is not suppose to put them into that garbage can because Em plays in it, you think I should make him sort them, after all they have his germs all over them!

Oct 23 According to Gord there was frost on his truck yesterday morning, but none of my plants froze so it froze up by the highway, but no where else! Or else maybe his Saskatchewan truck is sending out signals that by the middle of October it expects to be cold.... and absorbing all the wayward frost particles... However all my plants were moved in last night until it warms up again.... (May?, June?...!)

Posted a picture of my prototype perfume bottles (hollow beads) on my home page yesterday, I showed the blue one and the gold one to a gallery owner and he wanted bigger, So I tried bigger, I don't like bigger ...I think bigger... the peach one sort of looks like someone wearing a pool toy round their middle! Spent most of yesterday afternoon setting up my water cooled diamond disk grinder, which has been in a box for two years, I knew that someday I would want/need one! The bottoms need about 20 seconds of grinding to sit flat.

Even though today is Saturday the gallery is open.... think this might be a good time to take a holiday next year!

Oct 21 Was suppose to freeze last night, but of course I forgot to bring in my potted plants, which should have been a guarantee that it would freeze, but it didn't... Some of my potted plants are two or three years old they live in my Bead Shop/Studio all winter and move outside again in the spring. It is sunny here now, and acording to the radio our leaves are at their peak, so now is the time to come visit!

This computer ate all my emaisl and all my bookmarks two nights ago I still can't receive email and I think it still sends emails but doesn't send a copy to sent mail....so I don't really trust it to have actually sent the email... so if anyone sent anything to the glassrod email address in the last three months that you think I need a copy of please resend it! When I commented in an email that my computer had eaten all my emails including an address that I needed yesterday, I was asked if I ever fed my computer?.... well I tried to feed it coffee once (through the keyboard) and half the letters on the keyboard quit working.... so I guess it didn't like coffee.... Sue figures it's obvious, we should be feeding our computers... CHIPS!

Emmy now has his own tab at the top of the page, think I should probably change the title to Cats though, so that Duddies doesn't get any more Phsychotic than he already is and add a few more picture of him!

Was on the mainland yesterday, the gas price is dropping, but there is still an 80 cent a gallon dif between St Stephen gas and Calais, I'm not sure when my car was last filled up with Canadian gas! (Calais gas is $2.73/gallon) Went in the grocery store and was looking at Turkey parts and noticed that legs and thighs were 69 cents a pound Breasts and half a turkey was $1.09/pound, not sure what it is here but that seems awfully cheap!

Oct 20 Posted Bambi's picture on my home page yesterday, the picture was taken through the kitchen window... ( had to line the lense up between bug splatters and nose prints time to wash the window again!) You are looking almost straight East and the tide is almost at High. We had a 3/8 inch sheet of plywood in the cove on Sunday morning after Sat nights winds, there was a little hole cut into it and it was painted white, so might have been part of a wheelhouse....stayed for 2 days then floated away again Tuesday morning it was too waterlogged for me to move, I thought it might have just floated round the corner, so we went for a walk in the intertidal zone yesterday morning but the plywood is gone!

I guess the vet also told Emmy that he has dirt in his ears, I guess his mommy never told him to wash his ears,G says it's Duddley throwing mud at him, more likely bits of Duddlies food spraying as he's choking and hissing at the same time while he is trying to eat with teeth in his tail!

Off to the mainland today.....

Oct 19 Em is home and tearing round the house like his tail is on fire! The poor little kitty is defective though he only has One Ball, I assured him that one of my three ball snowmen would probably give/lend him one though if he thought he needed it! Yesterday was just a normal day on a small island, made beads, got the mail (15 minute walk) ..... Glowered at a Deer through the kitchen window, she was standing there licking her chops looking longing at my flower bead, no doubt saying where's the tulips? Today is sunny so far, see if it stays that way!

Oct 18 Sunny today, but my web host decided today that my certificate had expired... but since it suggested that it might have expired because the dat on my computer was wrong I rolled my date back to Oct 18, 2004 and everything loaded just fine. Last time it did this we just send nasty emails to the web host! Wouldn't it be nice sometimes if you could just type in the date and start over from then.......

Spent yesterday arguing with my credit card provider, if you are Canadian and thinking about getting a POS terminal for credit and debit email me and I will give you the name of a company that you don't want to go near! Basically, they esentially absconded with $350 for a week, they say they atomatically deposit funds every 7 days if I don't do it.... when I pointed out that the only deposit she was admiting too was 12 days since the last recorded deposit and that I had records showing the money was gone 5 days earlier...she said it didn't matter it was all accounted for now....! Yes it does matter, sorry! They will be getting a present of their terminal between Christmas and New year!

Soldered my Purple Finch yesterday, he is a bit big, so I cut the pattern down by 5% for future birds, but I also changed a couple of pieces... Em & G are still in Saint John, G forgot to attach the tar paper to the wall, which was actually the reason he was going in in the first place... the plumbing and sewage just took over in importance, Em went to the vet yesterday and they fed him treats so he will be happy to go back there! Duddies still thinks the little demon is hiding around the corner, too bad he will be in another 8 hours!

Oct 17 Still cloudy, but brighter! Actually I had a couple of people tell me that there was no Canadian Football on Saturday, strange, I was sure I saw a bunch of weird shaped people running around on 'grass' clutching a funny shaped ball Saturday when I wanted to eat supper....

Spent yesterday designing and cutting out a stained glass Purple Finch, He's suppose to be the mate to a Chickadee that the woman bought last year.... Hope to solder him today, he might be a bit big to cohabitate with one of my Chickadees so may have to shrink the pattern with my scanner...

Em and the WM spent the night in Saint John, no purring or snoring wow what a peaceful sleep, and Duddley went out at 12:30 not his normal 5am! Em is now a certified Plumbers assistant .... but he's off to the vet for his rabies shot before he gets to come home.... another 6 weeks before he's going to be looking longingly at my 3 ball snowman... I asked someone what she thought my snowman was worth... the reply..... 'she guessed it depended on the woman!'

Oct 16 Still windy and cloudy, not raining right now....Yesterday was another saturday that there was no Candian football game on! This is according to my DH who is a Saskatchewan Roughriders fan, if they loose the game never happened.... There must be a name for that syndrome other than denial! Actually it was so windy here over supper last night that I could see the glass in the kichen window move in and out.....

Posted a picture of a Snowman with mitts on my home page yesterday, I think he might be a missing link in evolution, I discovered when I made him that a snowman needs three balls before he can have mitts.....

Oct 15 Another cloudy day, not rain yet, but windy. Further to my comments acouple of days ago aboout G not reading this, he said " I saw the stage show, I don't need to read the book!"
An interesting Newspaper headline from the local semiweekly paper 'LAWYER BLAMES GOD FOR CLIENT'S POT' 'A lawyer defending his client on a marijuana growing charge has suggested to the court that GOD should be put in jail because if He hadn't made the seed that grew the drug, his client wouldn't be in this predicament......It is unlikely that GOD will be charged in connection with the case since He wasn't named in the original information laid by the RCMP...." This looks to me like a defense that could be used in a lot of cases.....

Got my tumbler yesterday, had it set up and running within half an hour of getting home, (Yes, I know it's suppose to be Christmas present but so far it's my credit card that paid for it!!) I had stopped at the community mail box on my way to the post office/ general store yesterday, but since the mail wasn't sorted I carried on, the post man drove back to the store after he had sorted the mail, handed me my mail which included the COD(duty) notice on my tumbler, while I went accross the street to the bank to get the money to bail out the parcel he drove the parcel to the house for me! There are three or four sets of mail boxes on the Island, ours is just the first one he goes too.... (He often delivers parcels to me in the winter when it is COLD too, so that they don't freeze in the mail box!

Oct 14 Cloudy today, Duddley just arrived hissing and growling for breakfast...., Emmy was gone for the day yesterday, he went for a truck ride with Gord, guess he howled all the way into Saint John so part way G pulled the truck off the highway,and poured kitty litter into the litter box and placed Emmy into the box, Emmy performed.... I'd love the video of that domestic scene! and then Emmy continued to howl the rest of the way into Saint John. (little ingrate!) However, he didn't howl at all coming home, so maybe it was the thought of being pawned off on my son that was causing the howling and when he realized he was getting to come home again he curled up and purred, actually I believe he discovered the truck keys and batted them most of the way....

When we bought our house here there was an Inn almost accross the road which was open intermittantly for the next two years, since then it has sat empty and unloved, but I guess it has recenlty sold and someone else is going to try and make a go of it as a B&B, the original Inn had a dining room and was open to the public for meals, Having a restaurant accross the street was sort of convenient! I'm assuming they plan on being open by next summer....

Oct 13 My HTML editor works today so I can type without thinking! Was sunny earlier but the clouds seem to be rolling in. Added a couple of 'couples' of snowpeople to my home page yesterday, they have all been adopted but there are lots of lonely single snowpeople sitting on my kitchen table! Didn't make beads yesterday, I helped Emmy work on window designs, he's not very good at incorporating the background grid into the design! Finally photographed my sweater with the glass buttons should show up on my home page sometime today, right below the snowmen, I did too good a job of matching the buttons to the sweater, they're really quite hard to see! The sweater is black wool and one of those synthetic ribbons knitted together, my design.

Had an email discussion with Sue F a couple of days ago about having to edit Rants/Blogs etc for content especially coming up on Christmas, ie if I spend all day working on Christmas presents for my family in Alberta, I can't admit to having done anything.... But since neither of our husbands read them.... (evil thoughts!) Gord says he doesn't need to read it, because he lives it so why does he need to read it too!

Oct 12 Sun is trying to shine today, my computer won't load my HTML editor so this is all you get!

Oct 11 Looks like its quit raining for a few minutes, Augusta Maine had over 8 inches rain by yesterday afternoon and it rained all night again here,so I figure we got 6 or 7 inches, guess I won't need to water in all my trees/bushes for winter! Think we might have to change Emmy's name to Kato, seems to suit his current personality better he stalks poor Duddley whenever he is in the house.

Started working on the designs for 5 Stained Glass flower panels for a Saint John B&B of course I found the approved flower list after I had done the daisys, think I'll make them for myself/gallery. Approved flowers are tulips, wild roses, iris, clematis and morning glory, 2 horizontal and 3 vertical. The big problem is the small grey paw snaking around the pencil and pushing it where he thinks the line should go, the outcome doesn't look like any flowers I can find in the seed catalogues! Emmy was also helping Gord grout some floor tiles yesterday, in a new bathroom upstairs ( our construction zone!) The grout is navy blue, so now the floor outside the bathroom has little blue paw prints all over it, very cute, put since it is just the sub floor, it will hopefully SOON be covered over!

Oct 10 Thanksgiving Monday in Canada, we get a holiday today.... I guess only government employees get a holiday in the states for Columbus day... still raining here but at a much slower rate, the house didn't lift up yesterday and float into the cove. This is very dificult to write since I didn't do anything yesterday, except make beads and pester Emmy! and in case anyone is intersted I didn't bid on those shell beads, they got too expensive....(see Oct 4).

Oct 9 Rainy and windy Thanksgiving Sunday here 10 C or 50 F I know Mom that's a balmy Fall day in Alberta! Yesterday it was just rainy, I tried making beads just before supper yesterday, but was using fine silver wire and stuck my finger in the flame, so got mad and quit... sat in the corner for half an hour, sucking on my finger sulking! Haven't checked the kiln yet to see if the bead was worth it? Yes I finished the bead! Time out to go eat Thanksgiving Sunday pancakes!

Braved the deluge and got my beads too, the bead in question had a black base, with evil purple stringer, then the fine silver wire, however there is one spot on the bead where the evil purple has turned dried blood red! The WM thinks it's rather a neat effect and maybe I should sacrifice a few more fingers!

Almost time to put out the open flag, had people braving the downpour yesterday, one person even came back three times because she lost her glasses, unless Emmy stole them I don't have them, however I think she was wearing glasses when she came in originally, Actually the second time was dual purpose, she'd had to go check someones ears to see if they were pierced.... Emmy was seen yesterday with a watch hanging out of his mouth, (one of mine) but not glasses!

Oct 8 Raining here today, so I'm sitting here typing listening to the sound of raindrops on the roof and Duddley howling his morning serenade! He must have seen the evil Emmy! The Evil Emmy started sticking his face over the edge of the bed about 5:30 this morning, reminded me of that fairground game smashing gophers, the head would come up I'd push it down, only difference is at the carnival the gophers quit popping up when you run out of money/time.... Unfortunately in that respect Emmy is more like the Eveready Bunny, he keeps coming and coming and coming....! This is Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, crappyweather for a long weekend! Hope it's nicer where you are!

Oct 7 Emmy is home, Duddies is having hissy fits! Emmy was much better on the drive home than going so I guess we should take him for more drives, he spent most of the time clinging to the head rest! My snow men were received very well, will have to make another field full for me! Promise to photograph these ones! Just dull and gloomy out today, not really foggy. It's Friday so the gallery will be open so I'm stuck at home!

The Leafo meter was reading gorgeous on Wednesday when I went to Calais and Saint Andrews, of course no camera that day, yesterday I took my camera but it was too foggy to see the leaves even right beside the road, I have some nice pictures from last year..... I could have taken a movie of the boat trying to fall off the cradle if I'd had my camera! Memories Captain Bligh will be happy to forget, probably quite happy that I don't have that treasured on film!

Oct 6 Foggy again, yesterday was almost too exciting, I arrived at the haul out just in time to see Money-pit being slung/lifted out of the water, problems started when they tried to stick her in her 'cradle'. The boom truck was only 25 tons not the normal 35 ton truck they usually have, and M-P's cradle has to be moved around with a forklift , and there isn't room on the wharf to get the fork lift beside the boom truck and have the cradle pointed the right direction.... No problem stick the cradle on the back of the boom truck, tuck boat into cradle, lift boat and cradle off back of boom truck..... Oops M-P was not centered with respect to where the forks are inserted in the cradle and the 7000 pound boat started to slide back towards the water didn't actually move but it was sure teetering, guess the boat thought it was too early to get out of the water too!

I got lunch in St Andrews as my pick up fee, then went to check on my jewellery, I switched galleries last week, so wanted to see how it was displayed. Looks great and the owner is a jeweller, so is tumbling all the pieces, boy do the bracelets look nice! Captain Bligh is buying me a tumbler for Christmas (might arrive in time for my roll back birthday Oct 30!) I ordered it from Rio yesterday as soon as I got home!

Today I'm off to Saint John to visit Emmy and deliver my snowman earrings, I scanned them and the image isn't great so no photos of these guys will make some more that I will photograph! They didn't like being scanned, their noses were being 'crushed' and the wailing when I closed the lid on the scanner was unbeleivable!

Oct 5 Foggy again today... Captain Bligh has set off under power for Saint Andrews, with his battering ram stuck on top of the boat, in other words the mast was succesfully lowered yesterday afternoon.... and is now lashed onto the top of the boat! The last person who used that winch should be shot though, the cable was full of loops, I felt obliged to unwind it all the way and rewind it neatly! Think I can send a bill to the feds it's their warf so it should be their winch! Actually there was one small incident, when I turned the winch on to lower the mast it wasn't in neutral as I thoughtthe winch was in gear and lifting , so I was sitting there enjoying my sun beam waiting for instructions when I heard this screaching from Money-pit as the mast was slowly rising out of his reach..... I'm sure he needed the adreniline boost!

I'm the designated picker upper today, I have no clue when they will be done, thought I would start by getting gas in Calais ($2.89/gallon vs $5.65 in Canada/gallon) and checking out the end of season sales.... off to catch a ferry but need to scratch Duddies ears first!

Oct 4 OK that was fun, I just updated my Rant and then went to check and see what it looked like without saving it!!!! I also forgot to change the date on my homepage last time I updated so you probably haven't read Sunday's rant either! The curling hall was FULL of well wishers on Sunday afternoon, somebody commented that you have to live to 90 to get that many friends!

I was asked today why I answer emails and don't update my rant.... answering emails is easy getting into this site to edit it is a pain... also I do the same thing everyday.... Get up scratch Duddee's ears, answer emails, cuddle Duddley, eat breakfast, walk barefoot over the rocks to get yesterdays beads, force my DH to admire them, hold Duddies paw while he eats breakfast, clean beads, put out the open flag,.... make beads, invoice/inventory/ pack etc beads for shipping or delivery You get the idea.......

I spent part of yesterday afternoon , pairing up my snowpeople and turning them into earrings, it was pointed out to me that since no two snowflakes are the same, snowpeople can't (don't have to) match either! While I was at it I made a pair of Hallowe'en earrings, one earring is a Ghost with hands, and the other is a witches hat or (darth vader disguised as a black ghost...)

Check out this auction the shells look real! Diane Woodall Lampwork Beads - SHELLS OF LOVE A collaborative set by Diane Woodall and Becky Mason.

For excitement this afternoon I get to be a winch operator. I get to lift the mast off of money pit using the winch on the government warf, watch out world! I guess I better not drop it, but I never was very good with those little digger machines at the fair though and this seems pretty similar!

Oct 2 Update on En-Emmy Stuart says he's bored.... why is he bored?.... because my 20 year old son doesn't have enough energy to entertain him!!!! Duddly is very happy and does not want him back! We are off to a 90th Birthday party this afternoon so Captain Bligh is drywalling, not sailing! Snow man production is coming along, however yesterday's kiln load all turned out to be individuals so they will probably end up on my Beads for sale page sometime this week! I figure I need two similar snowpeople to flog them as earrings.... Made a ghost too yesterday , my husband took one look at the ghost at breakfast this morning and said he needs arms, I said ghost beads don't have arms.... WRONG, anyway without arms they can't steal my Hallowe'en Candy!

Oct 1 Another new month, only 29 days til my 'second' birthday! Found a piece of paper yesterday, something the WM had filled out on my behalf saying thay my birthday is October 30!!!! I guess that must be the birthday where I loose my year.... I turn 43 on August 30th every year and 42 on October 30, I think they are both worthy of dinners out etc etc..... Anyway Captain Bligh aka WM has already sailed off into the sunrise this morning as he was phoned yesterday and told that the boats are being pulled out of the water next Wednesday! He thinks this is much too early, so is going to spend the next 4 days sailing, way too cold out there for me! Actually the reason that they are being pulled this early is the man that organizes the boom truck etc., is going to Germany next week for 3 weeks and since he won't get to use his boat again this year, I guess he figured that nobody else should get to use theirs either!

While I was reading one of my 60 morning emails yesterday, I came across one with a sugestion for packing/shipping beads, the person suggested putting a wine cork in the envelope with the beads to prevent the Post Office rollers/crushers etc from mashing the beads, I thik it sounds like it should work, now all I have to do is figure out where the 1000 or so corks that we dragged across Canada 4 years ago ended up!

We have had a number of power outages this week I assume due to wind? One of them occured while I was making beads, as soon as the power went off the siren on my Oxygen concentrator went off, when the power came on again 2 or 3 minutes later (It was also off for about 2 hours at 6am) the siren on the kiln controller went off.... I figured the mandrel on my 'parked' bead wouldn't have had time to get hot... wrong, so I sizzled my finger..... When it gets really windy the ferries have walls of salt water breaking over their bows and soaking the cars at the front, actually even the cars at the stern get sprayed when it is as windy as it was on Thursday, but of course my car was in the front corner, they always put me there if it's windy!

Unloaded a kiln full of snowmen this morning, I was a bit worried they my melt overnight in the kiln, I thought snowmen might be too much for the kiln gods and they might demand a sacrifice..... But the little snow people are just fine, I have an order for ten pairs of earrings so another 10 or 12 little guys today.

Duddley is much happier with Emmy the Evil out of the way! Of course he got lobster for supper last night,... delivered to him under his tree,.. he is inside this morning, but all he has to do is meow and someone runs over to scratch his ears. I think that his disability may have a turn for the worse! My son says Emmy loves it in Saint John and does not want to come home, we'll see about that!!!! Actually went down to 3.5 degrees last night about 38 degrees F , we still have lots of flowers so I don't really want it to freeze!