April 29
Pouring here again today... poor little ZZ doesn't like the rain he doesn't understand why it isn't nice outside.... The weekend in Rockland was great! Even the weather co-operated, the rain didn't start until last night.
I took a class from Leah in 2002 in Red Deer too, the first bead we made was a duplicate of one we did in 2002 ... I wish I knew where I have those beads stashed It would be fun to compare them! See if I've improved in the last 6 years! I actually remember screwing up the violet bead in 2002 so I know this one is better! Here are most of the first days beads... we only made one bead the second day as we decided we'd rather watch Leah demo and wait until we got home to try and duplicate her demos!
April 24
Poured Rain here last night... G made the mistake of locking ZZ in the house last night... he announced his displeasure by bouncing off our heads at 4am... so he got to go out and play in the rain! I'm off to Rockland Maine for the weekend to take a class with Leah Fairbanks at the Playing with Fire studio.
April 20
Sunday morning..... Thursday night we spent in Charlottetown on PEI... Thursday was a lovely day.... We discovered that there is still a lot of snow in places on PEI... G's GPS wanted us to cut cross country to get from Miscouche to Charlottetown... all was going well until we came to the 2 foot high snowbank that went right across the road.... The section that was covered in snow was listed as a scenic heritage road.....I'll have to take their word on that since you couldn't see the road!
Friday morning in Charlottetown it was threatening rain... We picked up a bunch of gallery stock while we were coming and going.... When I unpacked some of the pottery yesterday ... there were a bunch of broken pieces... thanks to the lovely roads.... this winter we got way more potholes than usual!
I was happily making beads yesterday afternoon when G ran in and said we're suppose to be going to the curling banquet tonight... That was 5:03... by 5:19 I was elegantly attired and sitting in the car ready to go to the ferry! Since we won first prize in mixed it was lucky that we went! Yes we're winners!
April 16
Well as far as I can tell no one notice my major error yesterday... It's fixed now.. I always did have problems with the number of zero's in a number..... why settle for 100,000 when you can have a million!? Other than still being sunny... not much different from yesterday! Made another paper weight, my mandrel was way too big (due to another brain freeze) so the edges didn't crisp and the bead release all released...
April 15
The sun is back.... Rained on Saturday.. was very cool on Sunday, No record breaking temps for us! I got a new lentil press in the mail yesterday... It's 2.5 inches by .79 in thick... Well my brain obviously did not translate that into glass... I could press Zoom Zoom's head in it and do very little damage! (of course G would say that there was very little to damage there anyway.....). I did try to make a bead yesterday think my about 60% of the press and it weighs 53 gms (454 gms is a pound!)... I got tired of holding the bead... and I ran out of pale transparent blue glass.... maybe I should use a 16 inch mandrel and make the bead in the middle so I can use both hands to hold it up?
My income tax is ready to file... maybe this weekend... no point getting it in too early, now that it's done!
G spent the weekend repainting my gallery sign... When we painted it we used acrylic for the sunset (background)... and everything else was oil.... Think the original B&B sign was oil too... anyway it had peeled horribly... you could read the address but not what it was an address for.... wonder how many years it will last this time... Need to get the sign back up before someone else slaps a sign up on our frame! Last fall when we got home someone had put a sign up over top of ours... think it was a case of one of the other signs got taken down and the people taking down the frame didn't know what to do with the second sign so they parked it on top of mine...... I noticed it not sure if anyone else did!
April 12
Well Spring is over... it's raining here... Zoom Zoom puts his paw outside and it gets wet so he pulls it back in and goes and sits at the window and howls... he wants the sun back! So do I!
Yesterday I spent doing Income Tax... we don't have to file until May 1 here... but I don't handle deadlines well... I really like to have things done 2 or 3 weeks early....
Yep I used to do assignments as soon as I got them SICK SICK SICK!... Almost finished round one of the number plugging... now for the tweeking... Then I'll file them online and G should get back a cheque.... I'll just get more paper to file with years of previous bits of paper! Plus I have to send them a cheque for all the HST (Horribly Stupid Tax) I've collected for free all year for the government!
Think I'll make beads today before I do round two... Yesterday I spent so many hours sitting on the stool in the gallery inputting business numbers that I almost couldn't move when I stood up... my butt is still sore!
A couple of new glass 'BEADS" that will end up on etsy soon... Actually the thimble is already there... If you wanted to wear it I could drill a small hole in the top and make it into a miniature bell.... And a large holed Bluebird of Happiness to fit on a Biagi style bracelet....
And this is whay I have so many mistakes when I'm typeing emails these days.....
April 10
Today is cloudy.... we had two lovely sunny days... now back to typical gloomy cool spring maritime weather... But I did manage to get most of the leaves and dead 'crap' out of my garden... and found a bunch of croci and miniature irises blooming happily....
Actually made a few beads yesterday... I was playing around with reduction frit... I actually liked the beads I didn't reduce a lot more than the ones I reduced!
I meant to comment on one of the dinners at the Hotel in Alta.... I had squash Ravioli... It has to rate as some of the strangest food I have ever got in a restaurant! The Raviolis were huge 4 * 2 inches.. filling was OK but the pasta alternated between mecurichrome pink and processed cheeze orange stripes..... I almost had to close my eyes to eat it! Actually the rest of the meals were very good. Breakfast and Dinner and afternoon tea were included in the Room Rate.
Zoom Zoom has now been introduced to the great outdoors.. as soon as he's brought back in he sits at the window and wails..... to go back out....
April 8
We're home! Got home last night about 6:30 as we had to go into SJ to pick up Zoom Zoom! Stuart claimed Zoom Zoom wanted to stay in SJ that he didn't like me anymore... ZZ promptly climbed onto my lap stood up and gave me a big kitty kiss on my cheek... He stayed in the cat carrier while I was in SJ then escaped and sat on the boxes and suitcases surveying the world... Much more peaceful than the howls and wails ... G picked up his truck so was 30 minutes behind me.
The snow conditions at Alta in Utah were great we had fresh snow a couple of mornings... Although it did get warm enough on Thursday & Friday to melt the south facing slopes... we tried one of those slopes on Saturday.. There was a 2 -3 inch dusting of snow covering blocks of white icy concrete.... What fun!
Saturday all the ski companies had free demo skis for people to try, (they are next years skis) we didn't get started early enough so only got to try out 4 different sets of skis... I really liked the straight wide skis, G liked the shaped ones. We actually did the same runs with all the skis so were somewhat scientific in our trials... I would happily buy the Head or 4frnt skis (they were very similar skis in shape) the Blizzards were OK and the fischers that I tried..... should be cut up and used as kindling! However G loved his fischers, and was ambivalent about the Heads and the 4FRNT skis..... I really think for the price of skis and the hassle it is to haul them around... renting demos might be the way to go! Especially since after f May 1 a number of American airlines are starting to charge for the second piece of luggage... while we're on that subject of luggage and weight....I think that passengers should be allowed a certain amount of weight total... including carry on and passenger weight.... Say 300 pounds... then I could have 185 pounds of luggage!!!!!@ ZZ keeps running across the keyboard!
AND.... if you can't/don't fit in a seat in economy with the armrest down you should have to upgrade to first class or pay for two seats.... I paid for my seat too! I'm not sure why I shouldn't be entitled to ALL OF IT!