03.09.10
Posted in Daily Musings at 9:26 am by Administrator
My Next Level Jewelry class at Arlington Adult Ed did not run because not enough people signed up. So I have the next five Monday nights free. I do wish some of the old gang would come back. We did have fun and they were together for so long.
At work we are getting ready for the Government Summit which runs Saturday through Tuesday. Lots of copying and putting together of handouts plus doing our regular day work. We are going to load the van and use that to haul stuff to hotel, usually costs around $200 to get everything delivered. I am hoping there is a good gym at the hotel, should be. Also will be good to see NRA folks that I met last fall at Annual Training Conference.
Busy tonight finishing up the window repair. I did find some old glass to put in it and had to buy new glass to replace others. It is getting harder to find old glass. Yes I have put it off till the very last night. What is new? I keep kicking myself for not working on it on my days off but things would come up and nights off I just wanted to sit with the kids and be a family. I overestimated repair time because I know myself so well. I have to make this change for sure. I need to remember to take pictures of this one after, last repair I forgot to and only have before and during of.
I do like doing repairs. It is like a puzzle, how can I take it apart without taking it all apart? I do not like to do a total take apart because it takes the original stained glass artist’s work away, if I can I leave as much intact as possible. If it is a newer piece and they do not know artist then it is not as important to me top keep it together. Matching glass is sometimes so hard. If it is an old piece it can be really hard or impossible. Since we have lost some of the old time manufacturers it is even harder. When I find someone sells old glass I try to pick up as much as I can. Working with no paper pattern is a challenge sometimes. You have to take apart the piece, lay it back together to trace around the hole to get a pattern or fit the broken piece back together and trace around it. And then when it is ready to be put back to together you have raise the new piece up so it is flush with the old pieces and not a step down. The whole time I am wondering about the story of the piece…. Who made it? Who was it for? Was it in a store or a custom piece? How were the colors chosen? How old is it?
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03.08.10
Posted in Daily Musings at 7:44 am by Administrator
March 7, 2010
Sunday was good. I set the clocks ahead last night thinking it was Daylight Savings Time, oh well it is next weekend. I did get to sleep in a little and then took a great walk with Nanook. He sure does love to go for walks. He could and does go potty in the yard but this is what he looks forward to doing every morning. He is just so happy to be out and about. We looked for Alley Cat but could not find her. She has not been seen since before the last big snow storm. Hope she is ok and just in someone’s house of moved to a warmer place to live. She was living in storm drain in never built subdivision. We check for her every day. Nanook knows when I say her name and looks around.
A lady came to look at Michelle’s bedroom set she is selling and picked up half of it and will come back later this week for rest. We are waiting on call backs on shelves, tv and cabinet, 2 PS2s and other odd stuff. We will have a yard sale later this month to clear out shed of piles to go.
I started soldering back of window repair. It looks good. I hope to finish up the back soldering to night, if not then tomorrow night after work.
In the afternoon I was at Ellipse. It was a quiet afternoon. I did get to go through the piles from my desk and read some articles I have been wanting to read. I cleaned the counter tops and window faces, they were covered with fingerprints. Thought about doing a big clean but decided against that to do things for myself. That is a change,
Happy International Women’s Day in the US and Russia March 8th
Wouldn’t be nice if every day was Women’s Day? It should be that way. No woman should be left behind, whether it be in school, at work, at home, at play or anywhere.
When we are little we are taught that we should play with certain toys and behave a certain way. Be a good little girl. Little girls don’t do that. Girls can’t do that. You cry like a girl. Quit acting like a little girl. Girls are steered away from technical classes and pushed to home economics classes. When we grow up we can go to colleges for girls to excel or we can got to co-ed and fight for the good classes with the males. Female students are even out casts in college classes. Women have been trained to wear makeup to be pretty, men never do their face for a date. Millions of dollars of industry would die if women stopped wearing makeup. Just think of all the ads we see every day, every magazine we pick up.
At work women are generally paid less for the same job than a man would be paid. They do enjoy the fast paced corporate ladder climb as men. If a working mother breastfeeds and asks for a pumping place she will probably be directed to the ladies room. Would you want your meals prepared in the bathroom?
At home the woman is expected to cook, clean, take care of the children, take care of the husband, take care of the house. Many times she will give up her career to stay home and take care of the children. When you walk away from your career it is sometimes impossible to go back and you have to start all over.
At play female athletes are paid less than their male counterparts. The US values its male teams more than the female teams, shown by number of teams, fan support and pay.
Elsewhere… men are never grabbed and raped in parks or parking garages. Purse snatchers don’t rip the pants of men to get there wallet. Service stations don’t lie to men about what needs to be repaired on their cars, they assume men know about cars and women don’t. And being a woman she trusts that the mechanic really did the work. She gets crude comments flung at her, wolf whistled at, men pinch her butt but no one pinches his butt. Men look at her chest, do women look at his crotch? If women have facial hair they are made fun of. Fat women are made to feel worse than fat men.
So where am I going with this? Be sure to treat women as equals not less than equal. Take some time to think about how you have been treating women or other women. Yes some women treat their “sisters” horribly, as if they don’t get enough crap from men, you have to add to the torment.
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03.02.10
Posted in Daily Musings, Uncategorized at 12:09 am by Administrator
Nanook guarding the driveway
Meagan and I both finished our federal and state taxes and filed for FAFSA. TGID! Now I can breathe and work on the window repair again. I still need to kit for the Basics class also for session 2. My honey do list is so long and I need to knock things off the list.
Artfire Listings…..send jpgs to Artful Gifts….Amazon account to move books I don’t need….solder the pendants….list the excess furniture on Craigslist….the list goes on.
I have been stretching designs for a new line in PMC, Copper clay and Bronze clay. I can not wait to get it going. I have the vision and think I know where to take. I am waiting to finish up the other stuff so I can invest the time and energy it needs.
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03.01.10
Posted in Daily Musings at 12:29 am by Administrator
OK I hate tax time. I gathered all the paperwork in a file early in January and put W-2s in as they came in, the instructions books to go with the 4 forms I need to fill out, had the calculator near by and have done them 4 times and get different numbers each time. Turbo Tax would not do page 2 of Schedule C, what is up with that? I think I have now, because I got these answers twice. I think I might need to go to H&R Block for their $29 recheck. I also think I over paid last year. I owed $5200 last year, this year it figures out to $1900 refund. I did have the NRA keep an extra amount each pay check to help take some pressure off. My head is killing me and my stomach is a wreck.
This has been an off week for me, no email for part of the week at work for me and I still can not get on weblink. It is not fun to be battling computer issues. And we have a conference coming up with loads of work to do. As always they put it off till the last two weeks. OMG!
Creativity… what is that? I want to work in the studio but keep getting road blocks put up in front of me. The window repair needed another piece cut and that glass is all gone so now I need to recut out of a different piece of glass. I was only short a piece 15″ x 2″! Tuesday I will recut and wrap and even start soldering. Saturday I can finish up and then get this window back to owners. I need to solder the pendants I have cut out for 2 months and get them on Artfire.
I need to find a accountibility partner so I can set up goals and have someone hound me to keep them. Anyone want the job?
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02.20.10
Posted in Daily Musings at 1:23 am by Administrator
Last night was the PMC Guild meeting at which Gordon Uyehara ( www.honudream.com )and Jeanette LeBlanc, founder and editor of Metal Clay Artist Magazine (www.metalclayartistmag.com ). It was a very nice meeting with dinner before. Good to see old friends and fellow artists. It was a rough night as the furnace was noisy as all get out. We had the TV cranked to 50 to hear the Olympics and at 3:30am the noise was so bad I woke up to hear ” the largest rock tumbler in the world” and it sounded like rocks and marbles were rolling down the ductwork. It was hell and I never fell back to sleep. I did turn the heat down to 60* to keep furnace from turning on.
Today was Day 1 of 3 at the Workhouse in Lorton with PMC artist Gordon Uyehara from Hawaii. We got to play with Art Clay Copper and Bronze clay. It was so much fun, at our table was Terresa, Kelly, Denise and myself. We did laugh a lot and everyone had fun making pieces. I finished 2 clay pendants and started my challenge a thistle pendant. Though I do think I will start another one because it does not feel right. While I was at class Terresa’s husband Cory was at my house looking at furnace and found it was the bracket that holds the motor had broken and fan was fallen and that was making the vibration and noise. He took it to see if it can be fixed or if needs to be replaced. So…. no heat in the house tonight luckily it is in the low 40’s tonight and witha fire in the woodstove it is not too bad. We’ll see how we feel in the am! Luck me I get to go back to the Workhouse. I will set Patrick up with a fire that he can keep going. I will take pictures tomorrow, Jeanette was taking lots for the magazine. It will be cool see the workshop in print.
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02.12.10
Posted in Daily Musings at 12:31 am by Administrator
Window on bench to be repaired
After trying to shovel out and reinjuried my rotators I am finally back amongst the living. My shoulders are still killing me but modern medicine is wonderful. I never did get the driveway shoveled. I was on 5 plowing lists and finally two brother from NY snowed blowed me out yesterday. The long driveway was very costly for this job. It is nice to have it cleared.
Meagan and I went out to DeWittArmy Medical Center today for an appointment for me. The roads outside our development are fine, in here no way. It is one lane and a mess. You have use the right of way rules which some people do not seem to know or if they do then they are care less. We did so restocking shopping while we were out. On way back in I slid too far to right in driveway and am now in snow bank. 5 guys tried to push me out but no go. It is too icy and being in the bank does not help. I have work tomorrow but if I can not get car out then I can not go. I will have so many emails to wade through, most days I have 100-170 to go through so 4 or 5 days of mail will keep me very busy. I was working with IT last Thursday because my email account keeps shutting down- too many emails. I keep some sent ones and received ones for a ?papertrail” in case of problems but will need to archive or save them on company drive to free up space. Ramble ramble.
This weekend I hope to knock out a lot the window repair. I have it taken apart and new pieces cut. I need to grind, wrap and solder. It is a long piece so the whole workbench is covered.
Window to be repaired
More broken pieces
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02.06.10
Posted in Daily Musings at 8:00 pm by Administrator
Looking out front window
Tree blocking driveway- took out cable, internet and phone
Woods behind house
Pull mup a chair and sit awhile!
It finally stopped snowing at 4:30pm. Patrick measured in a couple of places and it varied from 24 to 28 inches. Since the plow left yesterday we have not been plowed out yet, hopefully tomorrow. I do not have to work tomorrow as the City of Arlington closed for the weekend. Crazy but I am thankful not to have to try to drive tomorrow.
Backyard 9am
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Posted in Daily Musings at 12:51 am by Administrator
Center Road
Nanook running down to meet me
It has not stopped snowing since 9:30 am. There is 9″ on the ground in the backyard. I had to clean off gazebo because the uprights are bowing under the weight of the snow. We got plowed this morning when Dennis came to get his plow but now we need it again. I love the snow. The trees look beautiful and everything has a white blanket over it.
Snow draped trees
I finished taking the window repair job apart today. Also cleaned up the studio some. Went through old magazines that can go. Watched TV with Meagan. The wood stove is going and keeping us toasty. I do love the heat it puts out.
I have to find the camera cord so I can load photos so that is where ai am off to…. hunting the cord!
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02.03.10
Posted in Daily Musings at 9:46 pm by Administrator
Today the schools were closed due to the snow we got last night, about 5 inches. Add that to the snow we had from before and we have 8 inches in backyard. Work was liberal leave, I had planned on going in but I hurt my back shoveling this am so I stayed home. Meagan had class even though everyone did not. Patrick now has school on President’s Day.
We are supposed to get more snow Friday and throughout the weekend. If it snows like they say it will be a crazy winter so far. It will give me down time to work on the Charter window, no chance of making excuses like I just need to run to Joanns or Borders. I actually love snow days. It is a chance to get work done and to watch movies that I missed at the theater.
The car lot, our yard is as deep as the three houses to the left of us.
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Posted in Daily Musings at 12:58 am by Administrator
Can you believe the little varment saw his shadow. Actually I like the little chuck.
And what is it doing outside right now? SNOWING! We are supposed to get snow for the next three days…. what is up with that. Everyone is hoping for a snow day tomorrow and that includes me. We have two house guests who came over just for the storm, one was here for the last big one before Christmas. They went out grocery shopping and everything. Guests like that are always welcome.
Today I did get to go grocery shopping for the month. I hate to grocery shop so I do a big shop, fill the cabinets, freezer and fridge. Yes I go out for fresh fruit and things we run out of but I am not a let’s run to the grocery store girl. It takes so long and then there is the unloading and putting away. I usually have an overflowing cart and people ask how long that will last or you must have a big family. I am so tempted to say this is one week’s worth at our house.
Midnight snow
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