Cable, Copper and Le Tour

I phoned ComCast yesterday.  One of my customers who has become a good friend over the years works in their customer service department.  She's my "ace in the hole" for me when I need to work with them.  So I phoned her and left her a phone message.  By the time the day was over, I had an appointment scheduled for installation of a different channel box than I had originally been shipped, and all of this will happen after I return from my end of the month workshops, enabling DH to have time to build the new stand that he says he needs to make for all of this to look appropriate in his eyes.  Oy veh!  The things I do for peace in my house - LOL. 

Captain Phil Harris

I have a day to get my charms made, fired and enameled for the PMC Conference.  A day is stretching it a bit - I can't work into the evening on Wednesday because I have to go to "Despicable Me" that evening with Chickie.  I got the image of my sigil done last night and printed out on the photo emulsion film this morning.  I'll make the PPP plate today (either within a half-hour now or as soon as I get to the shop) and I'll start working on the copper tonight while watching "Dangerous Catch".  It's Captain Phil's final episode.  He died earlier this year and was one of my favorite Captains on the show, so I don't want to miss this.  Hopefully I'll have at least one batch of copper ready to fire overnight. 

Stage 9 - Gotta Love the Alps!

And Le Tour de France resumes today in the Alps.  Stage 9 had the hors-cat Col de la Madeleine and that's a real nasty climb of 25km with a 2000 meter summit.  The major steep climbs are at the lower reaches, it mellows out a bit towards the top, but it's still nasty.  My favorites are the Pyrenees and we get to those at the end of the week.  But we have Tuesday and Wednesday in the Alps and mountain stages are always great! 

Chilly in the Hot Weather

Well, conversation is still not happening at home.  I'm supposed to care about this, but realistically this has happened so many times that I just don't care anymore.  I did have an opportunity to see Eleanor yesterday for a later breakfast.  It was such a joy to see her again.  It's been such an emotional rollercoaster that she's been on with Lee's heart attack and the other health issues that he has had over the past three weeks, that she almost burst into tears in the restaurant at least three times.  It was my job to steer her to the positive things and get her away from the brink.  After all - he is still living, is improving, and shows every indication of continuing to improve.  That's a very good thing. 

The Hotel that we stay in for Metal Clay World.

I took advantage of early registration for Metal Clay World 2011 yesterday also, and phoned in my early-bird registration on the first day they were accepting them.  Last year's conference was absolutely wonderful - one of the best times I've had in a long time.  I can't wait for next year's, I'm sure it will be an equally wonderful opportunity to share creativity with friends, both old and new.  The PMC Conference and Metal Clay World switch years, so the conference I'm attending at the end of this month is the PMC Conference.  If it is held in Purdue again in 2012, and if the pre-conference classes are still as boring, I might skip the PMC Conference 2013 completely (that's providing our world doesn't completely self-destruct in 2012 as has so often been discussed).  Creativity - my life preserver in stormy seas. 

The route for Le Tour de France 2011.  Wicked mountains!

Le Tour de France begins tomorrow.  Can't wait!!!!

Take the Time Needed

We were slow at the shop yesterday, and I had a lot of work that I needed to do at my home computer to get some beads scanned and up on my website for a customer.  So I pulled rank (something that usually doesn't work at all) and left the shop at 12:30 pm.  By 1:30 pm I was seated at the computer keyboard and finishing my work.  At 6:25 pm I was finally finished, the beads were scanned and added to the website and my customer was Emailed so that she can now begin to shop.  It was very intensive work, but I'm pleased that it is done.  I really need to continue this work - I have other beads that need to be put up, but right now I'll just be happy that I got this complete. 

But I was too tired to begin the outline work on my silk piece last night.  Because of the detail, and the fact that I have to be careful about exact placement of the resist material, I felt it was too dangerous and a possible serious waste of my time to attempt the outline last night. Any errors I might have could really mess things up.  I hope I'll be able to do it tonight, but certainly no later than Sunday. 

Floyd Landis is being an idiot again.  That he was taking performance enhancement drugs when he was cycling is not a surprise, nor is the fact that he wants to drag as many people into his personal cesspool as he can.  But really!  Blaming Armstrong, many other cyclists and Bruyneel as well as others who are tested regularly and extensively and who have never tested positive is beyond good manners.  Cycling has faced its' doping problem head-on for years and is doing a phenomenally good job of policing itself, unlike baseball, American football, and other sports where doping is often swept under the carpet.  Doping is annoying and not healthy, but at least cycling tests often and is not ashamed of pulling titles and banning perpetrators who get caught.  Landis got caught and still is upset about that. 

And Happy 30th Birthday to "The Empire Strikes Back" - usually acknowledged as the best of the six Star Wars movies.