Kilns cooled, unloaded and now I am home, sore, and very very tired

Ok, Here we go. As you could see from my last post, I was away this past weekend firing the salt and soda kilns out at the Shaw Centre at Medalta in the Historic Clay District of Medicine Hat.
We (Me, Lorraine, Kathy, Claire, Keli, & Sumaya and her little guy and husband) left Calgary early Thursday morning, and we arrived at the centre just after noon, and began glazing etc at around 1 ish. I made waaaayyyy too many pots, but I had lots to choose from. We ended up loading just after 6 and then the kilns were turned on low over night to help dry out the wads so they wouldn't freeze and then explode in the firing. Thursday and Friday were the COLDEST to date this year. I believe we got down to -28 over night on Thursday. In fact, when we left the centre, my car's power steering froze and I had to drive to the hotel without any power steering and that is quite a feat when the roads are all rutted with snow and ice, and it's dark and in a city I'm not familiar with.
Friday was firing day, and we were at the centre by 9am turning on the kilns, but as salting would not happen until cone 9 or 10, we had a few hours to kill and Aaron, the artistic director, took us on a tour of the Medalta museum, and some other areas that have not been restored/preserved yet, and some parts that are under construction for the new museum. The Medalta factory had been in operation since the very early 1900's, where they fired beehive kilns and produced functional stoneware items for everyday use, and then began making semi vitreous white ware etc. At 2:30 or so we charged the soda kiln with 2 pounds of soda, and then sprayed 1 pound of soda and then added another 4 or 5 pounds of soda over then next 45 minutes. Salting began around 4 pm in the salt kiln, and I believe we were all done and buttoned up around 5:45.
On Saturday, while the kilns were cooling, we toured the Hicroft factory with Aaron. Hicroft was another pottery in Medicine had that was in operation up into the 80's. The factory is in an as is condition. When it closed down, nothing was moved, or sold off, so all the old machinery is still there, the slip pits still have dried slip in them, there are aprons on the hooks and time cards still by the time clock.

The bag wall on the right hand side of the salt kiln fell over and will need to be rebuilt, but that was expected. I had a pot on that bag wall, so it was pushed against the kiln wall and was blocking one of the salting ports, even though I had to chip it off, it still looks great.

Inside the soda kiln before unloading

Inside the salt kiln before unloading

close up of the ware carts after unloading

Keli and Sumaya's salt pots

My salt pots

Kathy and Lorraine's salt pots

Lorraine and Claire's salt pots

My soda pots

Sumaya and Keli's soda pots

Lorraine and Kathy's soda pots

Close up of the back side of the salt kiln. Very crusty...

The same for the soda kiln, but not quite as bad

interior of the salt kiln

Interior of the soda kiln

To tired to say anything...so here are some pictures

vacuuming shmackuuming....gotta make pots!

TGIF! What  a week. I have been super busy at work, and my personal life, such as it is, has been suffering. Not that I’m complaining, gotta work to pay the bills.  

On a good note, the 2 days I requested at the end of the month were approved, and I can now go to Medalta to fire up the salt & soda kilns. I will be making up a flashing slip, a few stains, a terra sig, and a nice opalescent liner glaze, and a couple of stains to augment what Medalta will already have down there for us to use. I am very excited, and it is only 2 weeks away! I am keeping my fingers crossed that the weather will remain mild. It can snow all it wants on the 28^th, just please stay dry until then.

The Studio had a pot luck a couple of weeks ago, and apparently I was nominated in absentia to provide the entertainment and comic relief. A few people brought their spouses, and many of the attendees were students from nights that I don’t teach so Dave asked me to throw a demo. He then had me do another demo of his choice. The only proviso was that I had to be blindfolded. The sighted pot I threw never made it, I got too cocky and it collapsed after throwing a rather dramatic spiral into it that the thin walls, and rather bulbous form could not support. On to the blind pot...no issues, was able to get a rather well made bowl off (nothing complicated). Just goes to show you, throwing on the wheel has very little to do with the eyes, and a whole lot to do with touch. The food was fantastic too, it always is.

If I can, I will be firing a glaze load or 2 this weekend. I need to get stocked up for the spring. I have a couple of sales this April, and wouldn’t you know it, it is already almost half way through Feb and that means I only have 2 months to make sure I have everything I need, plus keep the galleries stocked up. Tonight I will wash my bisque, wax my feet, and let the pots dry overnight before I get at the glazing (sounds like a very strange spa experience to those that don’t know what I’m talking about)

 

Bloated ... And not from beer

I fired a glaze load on the weekend and I finally got a look at the results on Tuesday. It appears that I have a case of bloating. Most, but not all of the pots look like they have small pox. This has never happened to me before. The only change that I made was to hold at top temp for 15 minutes, and the elements had just been replaced. I will fire again shortly and eliminate the hold and see if that solves the problem. I am not really impressed.

random reminiscences

My sister and I were often subjected to really long boring road trips with my parents when we were younger. These road trips were made even more agonizing than most children would have been/are subjected to. Kids today have the option of watching a DVD in the back with wireless headphones, MP3 players, portable video games etc. In the 70’s and 80’s, we did not have these feats of technology.  We usually drove to Vancouver in the summer to visit both sets of Grandparents and we would all pile in the Ford Fairmont Station Wagon and take off. These trips would take upwards of 13-15 hours. My Dad was also not one for stopping for anything unless it was gas. The only entertainment was a pitiful collection of 8 track cassettes (Cher, Commodores, The Muppets, The Carpenters, Carol King, etc...). The pain actually increased when we would drive out in a car with a cassette tape player (I think that was the Cadillac). Anyway, my parents would pop in a Phoenix Seminar tape and listen to selling/listing techniques for Real Estate agents (I think there were a total of 12 tapes?) To anyone that is not a real estate agent, this would have been enough to make you want to poke your tympanic membranes just so that you could listen to the ringing in your ears instead. Imagine what it would have been like for small children. My parents should have been reported to child services. Anyway, as you can tell, we were severely lacking in fun road trip stuff. So, as most children will do, they will invent their own fun. Here are a couple of the games we invented during these times of trial.

Disco Lights: When the sun is setting just right and you are driving through areas with a lot of trees on the side of the road, you can close your eyes, face in the direction of the sun and watch it make “disco lights” behind your closed eye lids.

Flying house: My sister says she does not remember this, but I do. We imagined what it would be like to go wherever you wanted to go without having to leave your house because it flew. We imagined all kinds of thing that the flying house would be able to do and have. Like a special separate house that flew with the big house but was just for my sister and me and we could take it out on our own etc...

My sister played her own games too, and they usually involved things like “see how fast you can embarrass an older sister”. This would take the form of sticking your tongue out and staring at the car behind you out the back window.

To add insult to injury, my Mother would stock up the car with road trip food, like sandwiches, juice& snacks. The snacks would be along the lines of Scotch Mints, Eat more candy bars, and All Sorts. That is the most revolting assortment of road trip snack food that you could give a child.

 

Left overs for another load

Just a few large bowls

Kiln all loaded on Sunday

Great Goblets Batman!

This is a few days old, but just to give u an idea about how crazy Calgary weather is, it is now -25is outside...

Looks like Calgary is Canada’s hot spot again today. We are sitting at 13 ^oC (55.4^oF) right now and it’s still January. Sure beats the -29 we had a few weeks ago.

Fairview Studios is having a pot luck dinner tomorrow night. Kind of a “Throw Your Winter Blues Away” party. Apparently I will be doing a demo of my choice and then a demo of Dave’s choice, but he is not telling me what it is. All he would say is that it didn’t involve naked throwing (nobody needs to see that).

I have been working on 1 piece goblets lately. I don’t normally make them, but for some reason, I have been making a lot of them. I have always made them in 2 parts in the past, and I think that is why I never make them. Too hard to make them all the same, and they are a pain in the neck to put together. These however are relatively easy to throw, and then the final shape is revealed in the trimming,. I have been trimming really slender stems on them, so that is the next step – see if they make it through the firing without bending over and kissing the pot next to them.

Long Day

I am sitting here in the YYC (Calgary) airport (terminal 49 to be exact) waiting for my 49 minute flight to Edmonton(YYG airport). It is rather hilarious that it took me longer to drive to the airport than it will to fly to Edmonton (it was rush hour and the roads were jam packed), and that I have now been waiting in the airport since 6:15 and it is now 7:32, and I have been waiting longer that it will take to fly. 
I am not driving to Edmonton because I would have had to leave after work, and it takes 3 hours to get there blah blah blah. Oh well, at least I get to catch up on my blog reading/writing.
I will be staying in the Holiday Inn, and I need to be at my training session by 8am tomorrow morning. This training runs until 5pm, and then my flight leaves at 9 pm tomorrow night. What the heck am I going to do for 4 hours in Edmonton? Nothing, just sit in the airport and maybe eat dinner, read a book, read all the blogs that have been piling up.
Anyway, I plan on going into the studio after work at Ceramics Canada on Saturday, and then again first thing in the morning. I have to do this whole airport waiting thing again Sunday evening though, so I wont be playing in the mud all day.

Did not get a chance to post this before the plane boarded, so this is part 2:

We boarded at 7:40 pm, and we took off at something like 8:15, and then we circled the airport for a few minutes, so we were late landing (9pm). The Airport in Edmonton is so far away from ANYTHING. I wouldn't even say it is in Edmonton. Add to that that the roads here are so sloppy with at least 5 inches of melting snow and slush, the cab ride took about 45 minutes and so I did not get to the hotel until about 10 pm.
I requested a wake up call for 6am (yuck!!), and I have absolutely no idea how long it will take me to get to were I need to go tomorrow morning. Oh well, I will get a cab for 7ish and and if I get there early, then I get there early.
Anyway, it is now late, and I need to get up very early, so I'm going to hit the sack.

too busy to blog

It's been a while, I know. I have been getting used to working in a new office, on the other side of the city. It actually takes me less time to get there in the morning, I think. The weather has been really cold and snowy here, so traffic is always stupid. The drive home however is horrible no matter what the weather is like, so it takes me longer to get home after work. The studio is on the opposite side of town from the new office, so I have to fight even more traffic to get there after work. I also used to be able to log into blogger on my iPhone and write my blog entries that way at work as I could use the wireless connection without needing to use the cell network. Now however, the new office blocks blog sites and that includes their wireless network. So, now I am forced to write my blogs at home as well as read all the blogs I subscribe to. Don't know about anyone else out there, but when you spend all day looking at a computer screen, the last thing you really want to do is look at a computer when you get home. So, it seems that my blogging with be greatly curtailed, but I am sure that is no loss, it's not like I am writing the next great masterpiece or anything :)
I also just found out that I will need to travel to Edmonton a couple of times in the next week and half for some training sessions for work, and it will seriously impinge on my time in the studio. I will need to fly out Thursday night, spend the day there, fly back Friday night, and then fly up again on Sunday, spend the day there on Monday and fly back that night. so, the only full day I will have at the studio will be on Saturday (maybe some time on Sunday, but not much). I have lived in Calgary for the past 36 years, and even though Edmonton is only approximately a 3 hour drive north, I have never been to Edmonton. I have passed through on a Greyhound bus, but that's it. I've been to Australia, Ireland, New York, Montreal, etc, but never Edmonton.
I finally managed to get some pots down to the Galleria in Inglewood today at lunch. I needed to get some more stock down there before their annual pottery sale. I didn't have much (Christmas pretty much cleaned me out), but I did have some new stuff, and I have some more on the way, I just need to glaze it, and then I can take it down.
Other than that, I have returned to my regular schedule at the studio, and have been working on some new things. I have begun to exaggerate the rims on a few teapots by forming a really recessed gallery and then further pulling up the rim, flaring it out and making it undulate around the pot. I have also begun the make goblets. I don't normally make them, but I have begun to make them in one part, whereas in the past, I had always made them in 2 parts, and I hated making them cause they never really worked well. These ones have so far proven to be relatively simple to throw, and time will tell if the shape and construction fires well.
Anyway, that's what I've been up to and I will try to set more regular blogging time, I actually found that I missed being able to put my thoughts and activities down "on paper". It's late, I'm tired, and I'm going to sleep.

What I did on my Christmas holidays

I spent the holiday with my parents, my sister and her fiance, our great Aunt and our Cousin Wayne. The dinner was excellent. But after that I was pretty much always at the studio. I opened and closed mon thru fri and got a lot of work done. I fired a glaze load with some pretty great results. Here are a few pics of what I got up to

 

And then I was struck down on New Years eve. I came home from the studio, had dinner, and then almost instantly, I had a fever, with chills and everything but my teeth hurt. The weird thing is that it began at 6pm and ended at 9:30. I have not developed any other symptoms, so whatever I had, it was not too serious. 

This is what I was up to on the weekend. I have begun working on my submissions for the AB in a Box show and so far, this is what I came up with.
This first pic shows the piece just after I threw it.

The next couple of pics show 2 different bowls that have been carved. I will go back and refine them with a green scrubby to remove any rough spots and blend in the carving marks.

The Weather Outside is Frightful...

Well, maybe not frightful, but it is a bit chilly (-13 C with light snow). I was walking the pooper again last night, and we walked and walked until my fingers were about frozen off. Then this morning, she decided that she wanted to go for a long walk. I said NO to that idea. My hair was still wet or rather frozen, and I was not having any of that foolishness, plus I had to go to work, and if I am not out that door by 7:30, then I am late. It doesn't matter what rout I take, it is always the slowest one. It's like picking which line up to get into at the grocery store. You could pick the shortest one there, but then it will screech to a halt as the cashier needs a price check and the 15 yr old kid that comes to see what they need a price on doesn't know where to look and so it goes...the long line up has put twice as many people through as the line you are now in, but you dare not move, 'cause as soon as you do, the line you were just in will fly on through and the one you moved to will stop. My fingers are itchin to get back at some serious studio time. I will probably be in the studio on Christmas eve, Boxing day, and then every day after that right up to and including Jan 3^rd. I think I am going to need to get some clay though. I'm thinking 200lbs or so should just about cover my needs, maybe 250.

Did you just take what I thought I saw you take?

I was teaching my usual class last night, and the class was moving along and one student was perusing the ware shelves looking for their recently glazed pieces.  They picked up a small cup that out of the corner of my eye, looked suspiciously like one of my glaze samples. As I am not one to jump to conclusions, I try not to jump into accusation mode right away. I tend to suffer from the dreaded foot in mouth disease, so I keep said mouth shut when I feel an attack coming on. Admittedly, I had left it on the shelf for quite a while, as I didn't like the result, and was never going to sell/use it as a functional cup, and I had not signed it, it’s a test. I didn’t think anything of it, but by the end of class, after everyone had pretty much left, I remembered what I thought I had seen, and went to investigate. I was right, that test bowl was gone. So...why would you take something that clearly is not yours? I don’t mind that this student took it, but I do mind that this student (avoiding gender here so as not to single them out, just in case I am wrong) did not ask.
The funny thing is that the glaze was way too dry and rough feeling and was not pleasant to hold. It had a somewhat appealing colour (straw yellow?) but that was it’s only redeeming quality.

Plus, if you are going to steal something, why not go for the good stuff? That reminds me of when I used to work for a little liquor store about 14 years ago. It was attached to the restaurant right beside it (same owners) and I ate way too many french fries and chicken fingers that summer. Anyway, I came to work one day and the boss was telling me about how the liquor store had been robbed over night. Whoever it was broke into the store, looked for the safe, decided that a safe that was concreted into the floor was probably not the easiest thing to take and proceeded to steal liquor and beer. Here’s the funny bit....they stole all the cheap liquor....Grant’s Scotch Whiskey and the really cheap vodka that comes in a large plastic bottle, not the Glenlivet, or Glenfiddich (one shelf up dummies) or the good vodka, and then, they stole beer, but again, bypassed the micro brew stuff and went for Labbatt Black Label and Lucky Lager Strong. I learned a lot that summer working at the liquor store. Lesson numero uno....never become a regular at a liquor store, and the other lesson....don’t spray beer in the eye, it stings, a lot. Oh ya, one other lesson learned, when you come weaving your way into the store and buy 2 mickeys of vodka, it doesn't mean that you are not an alcoholic because you didn't by the 26er. That is like saying I'm only going to drink half now and half later....when I wake up and peel my face off the toilet seat. I could expound more on the joys of plying liquor as a trade, but it really never got much better than that. My sister is a bar tender at one of the best pubs in town, and I am sure that she has way better stories to tell.

dog crack

I mentioned before that I am dog sitting for the next little bit while my parents are in Toronto. Well, this is the pooper. Here she is sniffing every molecule in and around that lamp post,

This is Ginger eating a cookie, cause she ate all her crack

And this is the Crack! Dehydrated Duck breast. She would do anything for this stuff.

My 1st Etsy purchase....

...And Ron Philbeck's 100th sale. I did some last minut online Christmas shopping yesterday and this morning I discovered that it was a milestone transaction for Ron. I can't say anymore as my family reads this blog and I don't want them to see what they are getting for Christmas (unless I just love them so much I need to keep them for myself!)

Whew!

I found my legs! I have installed my whisper in the studio to replace the wheel we were using that had a mysterious palsy when on the slowest speeds. I didn’t know how much I missed my whisper until I used it yesterday. Not a sound, not a shake, just pure throwing bliss.

I didn’t get much thrown, just a large plate and a few mugs and then I had to go make sure that Ginger had not peed on the carpet while I was gone.

I can't find my legs!

Sounds pretty serious! I have been storing my Shimpo VL Whisper in my parent’s garage for the last few years (tiny condo does not = pottery studio). Anyway, I am going to take it over to the studio so that it can get some use, and so that those of us who demonstrate are not trying to do it on a spastic wheel. The wheel we are using now starts shuddering at slow speeds (not sure how to describe it). It is as if the belt is slipping, but it isn’t. Anyway, it makes us raise at relatively unsafe speeds and things can tend to go awry if you are not dead centered the whole time.

So the wheel is in their garage, but I can’t seem to find the legs. I kept them in a tool box that was just the right size for them, along with the t wrench for removing the wheel head and the Allen key for attaching the legs. So, long story short, I can’t find my legs!

Good News and some random micro/macro economic ramblings etc

I have just been in contact with a potential new gallery to show/sell my work. I won’t divulge too many details until I have it all worked out, but they want to buy them outright instead of on consignment which is how the other two galleries I am in operate. They will take a few pieces at a time and order more as needed, so hopefully this works out. The only minor glitch is that they are located in the Crowsnest Pass (about an hour and a half drive South from Calgary). As I work during the week, delivery on a week day is impossible. I could ship all the orders, but that eats into my profits. They do drive to Calgary every so often and could pick up, and that would be a good option. If they take delivery on a weekend (Saturday), then I would not mind driving it down myself. I love the drive down the 22. If this works out then I will have been accepted into my 3^rd gallery without having to really work for it. So far it has been via introductions from 3^rd parties. Galleria took me on when my teacher recommended me and Centennial invited me to join after I took part in a group show there (I was invited into the show by a friend who is a member). This time I was introduced to the gallery via one of Dave’s students that no longer attends Fairview, but she works in the Crowsnest and joined the Pass pottery club down there for convenience. She thought of me when her friend who owns this gallery approached her about new potters to get into their shop. I like not having to work too hard to get representation. One of my biggest faults is that I do NOT like to toot my own horn, and as a result, have never approached a gallery cold. It could also be that I am too busy (lazy? scared of rejection?) to do the legwork...

Anyway, on a somewhat related tangent, it has become apparent that pottery sales, at least as far as craft sales go, have been fantastic this year. Not only did Fairview Studios break a sales record this year, apparently so did the Northmount Pleasant sale and many of the potters that get supplies at CC were saying that the large shows they have been in have been fantastic as well. So...my hope is that this demand for handmade pottery will trickle down to the galleries. I have to say that for the past few years, I have not relied on galleries for any sort of reliable source of money. Perhaps the pendulum is swinging back towards the handmade side of things and people are starting to realize that just because it is cheap doesn’t mean it’s a good deal. I think that consumers these days are very conscious of where their money is going, who is reaping the benefits, was it ethically manufactured, safety etc. It seems these days that every time you turn around there is another story in the news about toxic/tainted food, manufacturer recalls, lead in your plastic toys, mercury in your fish etc...Also, if you buy the cheap mass produced product from an overseas company, your money goes over seas too...and eventually we are out of a job. Not that if all potters in N.America went out of business the economy would collapse, but it would be a very sad day indeed. Not to mention that when we make money, that money is then spent in the community (for the most part anyway). So, I am hoping that this buying handmade is a trend, and not an outlying blip.

On a less boring and slightly humorous note...I got an e-mail from one of my Mum’s friend’s that reads this blog (one of the few that do I am sure). She had read my blog about perhaps getting an Etsy store up and running and she wanted to warn me to not get my stuff posted on regretsy.com I had never heard of this before and it is hilarious. So, if you have a warped sense of taste, check it out. I guess it is mostly stuff that people have purchased from Etsy, but this stuff falls into the realm of failed crafts.

out of the kiln

Emptied the glaze load last night, and for the most part I was happy. All of the pitchers and utensil holders that I had on order were all successful. No glaze drips, crawling, pinholes, spalling, cracks. I had some issues with a new glaze I am testing out. It is a commercial stoneware glaze that Ceramics Canada brings in. It comes in a 5lb bag and all you have to do is add water and stir, sounds easy. Well, for the most part yes, but as with any commercial glaze, you never know what you are going to get, as their test tiles in the store usually don’t look anything like what it does on an actual piece. I have  discovered that this cinnabar needs to be on really thick to get a nice rich red, instead of a thin ketchup look. Ketchup is nice in your burger, but not on your teapot. So, I will have to fire that one again to get it to look a little less like ketchup. I pulled a total rookie move too. Apparently I should not be allowed to glaze when tired or rushed. I had a tall canister in there that looked like it fired pretty well, but the lid was stuck. I usually just have to give it a tap and Bob’s your uncle. This time, no such luck. I peered in the space betwixt the lid and the rim, and I could see the faint glimmer of a bit of glaze in there. How the heck did that happen, I always clean that area really well after glazing to avoid just this problem. So, knowing it was a lost cause, I stuck a slot head screwdriver in there and popped the lid off (and part of the rim). What did I see? I had totally forgotten to wipe this lid clean. I must have put it on the jar and said “I’ll get to that in a moment” and then promptly forgot and loaded it that way. What a moron. Oh well, such is life. I didn’t really like the glaze that much anyway.

Here are some pics of some of what came out of the kiln.

Just some pitchers all lined up

Tea pot using Kanthal wire as my knob (not sure I like it, but I have never done that before, so what they hey) I might try using a thinner gague high temp wire next time.

Here's the ketchup teapot. Looks ok from this angle, but the glaze on the lid is a little thin, and you can see that same thin looking glaze on the top side of the spout.

Hand built butter dish

Cider jug with stopper. Although, I am sure you could put other potent potables in there too.

Where did the weekend go?

I got the bisque loaded on Friday night. I worked at CC on Saturday but went into the studio for a bit to trim some pots and attach handles to a couple of teapots etc. I spent the day on Sunday glazing pots and loading them in the kiln.  I went to my parent’s house for dinner (roast beef, boiled baby potatoes, carrots, green beans, pickled beets. Then I got schooled on how to make the dogs dinner, what pills and powders and drops she gets and how often, etc. I begin dog sitting on Wednesday, and I have a ton of stuff to do between now and then. I think I might skip Jazzercise tonight. I need to find a Christmas ornament for my gift exchange at CC, I have to buy some food for the pot luck at work tomorrow and I need to pack my clothes and other essential for my dog sitting stint. I am teaching on Tuesday night, and will not have time to do it tomorrow.

 

Further adventures in dreamland

I got my new computer home last night, and I love it. It is much more functional than my 17 inch paper weight. The screen is fantastic, and everything is so crisp and clean. Now the transfer begins. It’s going to be a bear though. My pc laptop has power cord issues, so I have to use battery power. I use an old laptop that has screen issues to charge a spare battery while I am using the laptop with power cord issues. I only get about 1.5 hours of working time per charge, and then it is less if I am doing things like copying files, burning cd's, etc...so, I see a lot of hair pulling in my future as I attempt to get all my files off of it and onto my new one, especially the media files like pictures, and music.

Didn’t say too much in my dreams last night, I saved up 1 sentence for the very end around 6am, and again, I have no recollection of the dream but here’s a transcript...”I’m not sure what the hourly rate is...I’m not going down to that...thing....jfkldaj” Not too sure what that was about...

It was obviously somewhere I really did not want to go, and I said “thing” with a bit of derision in my voice, like it was totally beneath me, and why would I ever go there. I find it funny that even in my sleep, I sound totally coherent. I sound as if I am completely aware of what I am saying.

Loading bisque load tonight. I am not sure if I have a full load, but I need to fire this weekend regardless, as I need to load a glaze on Sunday if I am going to get my orders out in time.

This is the sky last night as I was driving home

Guess what!!!

I am writing this post from my new puter...now I just gotta stop with all the PC habits. I think I am going to need a right click mouse though.d

Christmas crunch and other stuff

I had something really super intelligent to say today. At least that is what I thought when I went to sleep last night. However, it appears to have leaked out of my brain while I was sleeping. I’m still using the sleep tracker app on my iphone in an attempt to record my dreams. Apparently we won 831 to 2. I’m not sure what we were playing, but man did we cream the other guys.

I will be loading a bisque tomorrow evening, as I need to get some orders finished before Christmas and this will be my last opportunity to get everything done in time.  I will be dog/house sitting for my parents while they go off to the Centre of the Universe (Toronto) next week, and I am foreseeing that I will not be able to get much studio time in there. Ginger is a 14 yr old German shepherd cross (what she was crossed with, we are not sure, perhaps a pig). She came from ARF (Animal Rescue Foundation), and so her pedigree is a bit uncertain. Anyway, as you can imagine, she is old, somewhat blind, mostly deaf, and very arthritic. She does still think she is a puppy though. She has Cushings disease and is prone to incontinence. Oh yeah, she is on heart medication for this disease that is a diuretic. I am imagining a lot of carpet cleaning in my future, especially because I work days and will have to pee her early in the morning when I wake up, then again before I leave, and then I will have to rush home to pee her at lunch, and then again when I get home, and then again after dinner and then again before bed, and then again just before bed, and I am sure again in the middle of the night. But I love her, and what can you do?

And look what just came!!!