Happy Saturday - It'll Be a Great Weekend If All Goes As Planned

It's Saturday, and I managed my two miles on the treadmill, went into the bathroom, and prepared to weigh myself before my shower. But ... the screen on the scale remained black and it wasn't connecting to the Bluetooth. "Well," thought I. "Perhaps it's a battery issue. It's still the original batteries I installed when I purchased the scale almost two years ago. Let's change them." So I went to my battery stash and switched them out for fresh ones, then returned to the bathroom. 

I purchased my Wyze scale in March, 2021 for 
approximately $40. It's worked OK for me, 
although it has its' glitches. But this time it 
just isn't working. Time for a new scale. 

This time, the scale said it was connecting, but the brilliant blue LED numerals on the faceplate never lit up. "Le sigh." The scale itself was less than $40 when I bought it, so I took today's weight on my old digital scale that pulls four pounds off my actual weight (I mentally adjust upward because I know the scale is off by that much) and headed to my computer where I went onto Amazon. Ten minutes later I had a new digital scale ordered for $16.99 and free shipping. I won't have it until Thursday, but I'll survive. 

This time I've ordered a Vont scale. With the extra 
$10 discount they were offering me, the total came 
to $16.99. I can certainly live with that cost. It 
will arrive at the shop on Thursday - free shipping. 
Gotta love it - LOL. 

Yesterday's appointment with my podiatrist was "fun." Actually, it was. He remembered me from my broken ankle/foot of almost two years ago, and as usual he was cheerful, upbeat, and clear about my choices. We're starting low - daily soaks in Epson salts with an antibiotic ointment afterward and a new appointment set for the afternoon of Friday the 7th. We'll reassess at that time. There is an in-office surgical procedure that can be done - basically local anesthetic followed by the removal of 1/3 of the nail's width, taking that ingrowing nail completely away. Although the nail will continue to grow downward towards the pad of my toe if we don't remove it, I'm not sure it's bad enough at this point for such drastic measures.  I'm willing to try the less invasive stuff first. Toes hurt though, and I'm on my feet a lot during every day. I'd also be banned from the pool for a couple of weeks for healing before the chlorine hits it. A lot to consider. 

I don't think my toenail is painful enough to 
merit the surgery (and I'm not fond of the 
thought of it at all either), but I have a 
followup appointment in two weeks, and I'll 
see what he's got to say about it. It's painful, 
but not so much that I can't walk on it. I have 
a feeling that the cure might be worse than the 
actual illness right now. 

DH has been in a mood over the past few weeks. His mouse has been dying, and that's tough when you need it for computer work. He wanted one identical to the one he had, and I found and ordered that, but the computer refused to recognize it and after spending too much time dealing unsuccessfully with the communication aspect, I said "No, I'm returning this one and we're buying something off the shelf." Since I had a bit of time yesterday, I dropped by the office supply store near my grocer and took a look. There was only one wired mouse available, but it was $10, so I made sure I could return it even with the opened package, and purchased it. Taking it home, I powered his computer up, plugged in the new mouse, and voila! Success. 

It may not be exactly what DH wanted, but it's 
a wired mouse and it works with his computer. 
He's just going to have to "suck it up, Buttercup!" 

He grumped about how the new mouse felt in his hand, but shut up when I told him there was a choice of one for a wired mouse, that his new computer will probably be wireless so less of an issue, and that he could just live with it until he found something better on his own. He's using the new mouse - LOL. I'm tossing the old one today. 

For decades the annual show was held in a National Guard 
building far south of the Twin Cities. It was a lovely 
drive out and back in the autumn, but it was a long drive 
too. Now, for the second year, it's being held at the State 
Fairgrounds - a mere 10 minutes from my house and 
a straight shot down the main road between my home 
and my store. SOOO much easier to and from. We're 
skipping Renaissance Festival and doing the show 
instead. (We'll go to Ren next week to purchase next 
year's Season Tickets, but we may buy them and have 
a short day at Fest for the final day of the 2022 season.)

Have an excellent Saturday and weekend. My foot is soaked and has antiseptic ointment on it as required, my tea is made and next to me, my new scale will be delivered on Thursday so I can get it set up on the Bluetooth on Friday, and basically, all well be well with the world again. Tomorrow we go to the Gem and Mineral Show, and then have grilled steaks for dinner. Hopefully it will be a beautiful Fall day to spend some time on the patio, and there's always football to watch, so I won't be bored. Enjoy your weekend - Slava Ukraini. 

We Went For Stone and Bought Equipment

DH and I went to the annual Minnesota Mineral Club show and sale yesterday. We've been there in the rain, in the snow and in the heat in prior years, but this year turned out just about perfect. It was cold when we got there, but had warmed up to shirt-sleeve weather by the time we left, and there was bright sunshine which brought out the people. All of the vendors we spoke to said they had a dynamite Saturday and Sunday was looking to be just as busy. 

We wanted to clean "The Machine" thoroughly before
bringing it into the house, so we set it onto the patio
table and started work. Here it is from the front. The
right side houses either a blade or a grinding wheel, and
a polishing pad or sanding wheel is housed across the
left side. 

I hadn't intended to buy any rocks (I have drawers and drawers full of them), but did end up with some Blue Lace Agate, several pieces of Selenite and two stunning pieces of Calcite which I'm hoping will cleave into windowpane slices without difficulty. I didn't spend a lot, so if it doesn't work, I'll live with it. DH bought quite a lot of varied stone, and bought some things for me as well. 

Here's the left side showing the polishing pad disk. This side needs
a bushing and we need to figure out what we would like to put onto
the pad, but we're thinking some fine-grip polishing papers for the
disc, for final shaping. 

The best find was the last one of the day. While we were looking at some Picasso Jasper and settling up with the vendor, I looked over his shelving unit of old tools, finding one of interest. I called DH over and he was intrigued also. It's small, it uses a 4-inch wheel, but what really attracted us is that it also accommodates a trim saw - it has a blade guard that gets attached for sawing - and it's a water-cooled blade. The owner fired up his generator and we plugged it in. It worked. We bought it. We figured we couldn't go too wrong for $25. 

The right side houses the blade or grinder. It came with a grinding
stone, but we're looking for a good 4" trim saw to use
instead. It's a water-lube, getting the water for cooling and
lubricating the blade from the pan at the bottom. It was
worth the $25 gamble. Small trim saws cost $400 new. 

We brought our findings home to bag and label the stone and clean "The Machine" as we're currently calling it. We spent a while getting everything cleaned up using water, WD-40 and a few tools. It's now free of built-up mud and dirt and we're searching for a trim saw for a 1/2" arbor. The Skil-craft Gem Maker Model 940 dates from the 1950's-1960's and is typical of the higher-end children's toys of that era. I remember chemistry sets that would set the house on fire or send caustic smoke through a house, and rock tumblers that did what they still do today. Toys of that era taught adult skills, sized down for small hands. This is one more example of what children were allowed to play with. I assume there were some cut or abraded fingers because of this equipment, but for us it's a nice addition to our workroom. It will be able to handle small pieces of stone without having to fire up the bigger trim saw. We're looking forward to using our $25 bargain. 

On that note, I'm out of here. It's a busy day today and I can't laze around - LOL. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. 

Photos and Bits of News

I'm having a lazy morning (only because I woke early and decided to stay up). I'm actually not rushing for a change, and that's a rarity. I'm sure that won't last long. I was looking through my emails and other notifications and came across some really wonderful photos and news and this and that. Since my mind is focused on tomorrow's trip to the annual Minnesota Mineral Show (rocks, rocks and more rocks - yippee!), I think I'm just going to share photos and bits of news for today's blog. Here we go. 

Here's a great photo taken on the final day of the 2019 Le Tour
de France in Paris. After the crazy days in the Alps. I think the
riders were grateful to see the cobblestones of Paris at all. I and others,
however, felt a bit cheated at having the final day in the Alps
cancelled completely. 

First off - earlier this week the route and stages for the 2020 Le Tour de France were revealed/announced. If you follow the link here, you'll see all of the stages in profile. The important thing to remember this time is Le Tour is earlier this coming year, beginning in late June (June 27) and ending a week earlier than usual (Sunday, July 19, 2020) to accommodate the riders planning to do the road race on July 25th at the Tokyo Olympics, 

As you can see, the route for the 2020 Le Tour takes
place almost exclusively in the central and
southern portions of France, only pulling into the
northern section for the final day in Paris. 

Although the route is varied, I'm not super happy with it and complaints are rolling in. There doesn't seem to be a lot of sprint stages, and the route almost completely ignores the northern part of France. The article I linked to above also has details of each stage. I'm getting the feeling I should begin my 2020 Blog photo file already, since the stages are pictured so nicely for me. I'd be a step ahead. 

I was also looking through some rather amazing photographs this morning, and thought I'd share a few with you to start your weekend off in a good way. So, here are a few photos I found nice enough to archive. 

I adored this double rainbow over golden fields. The second
rainbow is faint, but you can see it clearly on the left side, closer
to the edge of the picture. Really beautiful. 

I've shown this photo from 2004 before, and it's still
one of the most stunning mixes of rainbow and tornado
I've ever seen. 

Anyone who knows me well knows I'm extremely fond of waterfalls. Here,
the photographer caught the sunlight reflected in this Yosemite waterfall
just right to make a photo with a "rainbow waterfall" effect. Yosemite
National Park is known for its waterfalls, and this photo is an excellent
example of why. 

So, on that note, I'm off to the gym and then heading out to work. I hope all of you have a great weekend and I'll be back for a rather rushed Monday - it's looking like it'll be a VERY busy week ahead. Be safe, be happy, and spread joy. 

Project Runway - And Then There Were Five - SPOILERS

Thursday's Project Runway episode featured a challenge designed by Lexus. The six remaining designers would create garments using safety equipment - another unconventional materials challenge. The range of materials supplied ranged from "Caution" plastic barrier tape to inflatable rubber boars, safety harnesses to plastic reflectors, and fire hoses to bungee cords. Yesterday's post reviewed the workshop experience, today's post picks up where it left off and brings you each of the outfits.

The judges for this episode were the usual - Zac Posen, Nina Garcia and Heidi Klum. They were joined by the usual relatively unknown entertainment judge, this time it was Carly Chaikin, star of Mr. Robot and Project Sammy's Way. The designers struggled with this challenge and tensions were higher in the workshop. The clock to Fashion Week was ticking down almost audibly for the contestants and they were head-bound, not sharing as much as in the previous challenge. Let's take a look at the outfits - good, bad, and ugly.

SPOILERS EXIST BELOW - YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!

Ayana made a stunner. Using broken reflectors to
make a faux-mosaic for the top and adding a bouffant
bottom of portable perforated safety fencing, she
embodied "go big or go home". 

The judges loved Ayana's unique look with the touch of blue at the collar catching the eye. I thought the headscarf topped by the hardhat was brilliant. Ayana managed to design within her focus of "modest" clothing, yet made a dress that caught the eye and was brilliantly conceived. Zac did comment that the top was a bit "dated", but also said that it was "superb" work.

Brandon's looks are so recognizable. Realizing that
his original design of a foil space blanket top wouldn't work
because it was too fragile, he did a major revision of
the top, constructing a totally new one. The yellow
and black worked beautifully, echoing the short skirt. 

Brandon keeps getting pegged as a "one horse pony" by his fellow designers, yet comes up with design after design that have street cred and edgy styling. The dangling straps are his hallmark, I don't think he's designed a single garment that didn't have them since he first started showing on the Runway. Zac told the other judges that he really wants to see a Runway collection by Brandon and his sentiment was echoed by the other judges, including Heidi. I've felt he has a chance to pull out the win this season since Week 1. If he doesn't win it all, he'll give his competition a serious run for the money.

Kentaro seemed to lose his way this week. His major
choice of materials was using fire hoses that he cut
apart. He added some color details, and styled
Liris in a Native American mold. It was a poor
design decision. 

Kentaro had Liris for his model, but even she was flabbergasted by this look. She called it "Pocahontas about to play football", and obviously wasn't a fan. The fire hose fabric was stiff, and a scratchy fiberglass fabric which she poked her underarms. Not comfortable! The skirt with the pleats was rather cute, but the top was a disaster. Zac felt Kentaro had been on the right path but had overloaded the design, turning it from fashion into kitsch. I thought it was horrid.

Kenya had her own problems this week, having a
very limited number of the seat belts to use for her
fabric. To bring uniformity, she had a seat belt buckle
acting as a belt, and painted her fabric to smooth
it out and make it look sleek. 

Kenya had a rough time this week, and the crowning touch was the bodice zipper breaking mere moments before the designers and models had to leave for the Runway. Despite the broken zipper, her design was still popular with the judges. Zac loved that she painted the seat belts, making them more uniform and giving them a satin finish. Nina loved the drama of the design, although it included "everything and the kitchen sink", and Carly felt it was classic, simple and great. The judges were divided on the fascinator, which I thought Kenya could have left behind in the workshop.

Margarita put together a colorful form-fitting
outfit that featured hard shoulder pad sleeves cut
from hard hats, and breast covers made from
plastic cones. 

Margarita wove a variety of "Caution", "Danger", and other plastic tapes into an abstract, colorful fabric for her dress. She put a harness strategically underneath the bodice, allowing for a hint of blue coloring that pulled the eye toward the cut of the bodice and the waist. Nina, Carly and Zac all loved the design, but Zac did mention that after all this time, he still doesn't have a good sense of what Margarita's style is. I have to agree, she seems like a chameleon designer, changing her look to match the challenge. That's not the way to win this competition. She constructs beautifully, but they aren't looking for a seamstress or dressmaker, they are looking for a designer.

Michael wanted to use twisted and intertwined
bungee cords to create a bondage-inspired dress.
Initially, for the first fitting, he had the bandeau top,
but nothing on the bottom except the cording.
His model wasn't a fan of that idea. 

Michael said he wanted to design a bondage-inspired garment for the show, using the bungee cords he had focused on when collecting his materials. He said that it was something he had used in menswear before with success. If he was relying on his past positives for this outfit, he was sorely disappointed. The judges didn't like this at all. Carly called it "hooker-ish, tacky and cheap," and Zac said that he liked the blue color - but that was about it. Heidi appreciated the fact that his model looked sexy, but she also thought that he hadn't done as much work as other designers had.

So - who won and who went home? Can you guess?

The winner was Ayana with that really spectacular gown featuring mosaic from reflectors and the safety-fencing bouffant skirt.

The loser was Michael, and no, Tim Gunn did NOT use his save. As Heidi always says: "One day you're in, the next you're out." Michael went from the high of being the winner last week to the low of being the loser and going home this week.

Next week's teasers seemed to indicate that the designs will be inspired by superheroes. That might be quite interesting since the ability to move easily and physically against villains is essential to that type of outfit.

Have a great weekend. We have the annual Minnesota Mineral Club show and sale on Sunday. I'm looking forward to looking at some beautiful rocks. Be safe, be happy, and spread some love.

Rocks - So Pretty

Sunday was a perfect day - sunshine, warm temperatures, and the Minnesota Mineral Club's annual show and sale south of the Twin Cities in Cottage Grove. We attend this show every year, it's one of the high points of our fall. Often DH brings home buckets of rocks, but this time he only brought home a couple of good sized bags. He was restrained! I was so proud of him - LOL.

Ed Opatz has some of the nicer stones for sale. We look at
everyone's booths, of course, but we always seem to leave
with some of his rocks. All of the photos in the blog today
are stones from his selection. 

I fell victim to the desire for rocks also, as I always do. I have several larger wall projects in the works waiting for enameling time or additional items to add to them before I'm ready to begin the physical work on them. One of these, "Evolution", is almost ready for me to start cutting copper and working with the kiln, except for time (I don't have any) and the fact that I found two other pieces yesterday that might be perfect to add to the piece. I'll pull my original concept sketches on Wednesday and check out whether my new additions will actually work or not.

I'm going to show a lot of photos of pretty stones interspersed with a few paragraphs, but more photos than words today, so I'm putting the rest below a cut (on LJ) for people who aren't interested in looking at pretty rocks. What - you aren't interested???? Of course you are! They're beautiful!

This was a large piece of Crazy Lace Agate. DH and I aren't great fans
of agate in general, but this piece was lovely with great layering
and color banding. 

I'm much more of a jasper fan. Here, this large slab of Picasso Jasper
looked like the skeletons of trees as seen through a window pane
in the early morning light. 

Here's another slab of Picasso Jasper. Just look at the different
colors coming out here and the landscape that it's suggesting.
Picasso is an author's and artist's dream stone. 

I bought some things to play with on my lapidary wheels - rough Larimar slabs from the Dominican Republic to shape and polish and a narrow banded piece that I can see working into "Evolution" as an end point. I also bought a highly polished piece of Labradorite that might work it's way into the ocean portion of "Evolution", or not. If not, it's an easy set or bead bezel to wear it or sell it There are many things I can use these stones for, but I bought them specifically for this project so I'm hoping to fit in a little time on Wednesday to see if they will work out conceptually or not.

I don't know if you can really see the colors in the photo, but
just below the center of this beige and maroon stone, is
a splash of turquoise and forest green. It totally enchanted
me. I don't really have a project in mind for this, so it may
become part of the lid of one of my boxes. 

The other polished slab that I couldn't resist was a companion
to the piece above. In this one, along the larger maroon lines,
small bright pieces of copper ore can be seen in some lighting.
I totally fell in love! 

I also bought two polished beige slabs (pictured above) from Ed Opatz. I always seem to find something at his booth. They weren't expensive - only $8 each - but I fell in love with the colors of the smaller one and a hidden splash of shining copper along the red pathways of the larger one. I kept trying to put one or the other one down to only buy one, but then I would pick them both up again. After more than 20 minutes of trying to leave one or the other behind, I recognized a lost cause and paid for both of them.

DH bought some rough of this green stone. I'm forgetting
the exact name of the stone right now, but it's a wonderful
color and I look forward to seeing what he'll do with it. 

Rocks aren't always smooth and polished. This one reminded
me of some of the heavily textured storm clouds we can
sometimes get in our summer months. 

A person buying this nubby stone would be buying it as a
specimen for a collection, not to rework into art or
jewelry. There is something for everyone at the rock show! 

Finally, one more look at one of my two slabs (on the left). That
splash of green shows up a bit better in this photo which
it shares with another lovely piece of Picasso Jasper. 

So this post is filled with photos of rocks I was looking at yesterday, mostly from Ed's place because he always has such lovely stone. We had a great time, then went home, discussed alignment of the steps of our castle, had a light dinner and called it an early night. All in all, it was just about a perfect Sunday and how often can we get that in mid-late October? I hope your Monday is wonderful - I'll be starting out in the pool, as usual, so I know it's going to be a great day!

Rocks - Jewelry and Building

Tomorrow we'll fight the single-lane traffic to get south of the cities and attend the Minnesota Mineral Club's annual rock show and sale. We look forward to this every year. If the weather is good and temps aren't too cold, DH can spend more than an hour looking through rough and choosing rocks to buy. Eventually, after retirement, he'll settle down with his rock saw and cabbing machine to make pretty finished stones for me to use.

Slabs of agate and jasper varieties are the foundation of
many jewelry projects. We love working with stone. 

I also enjoy looking at the rocks. The various colors and combinations of the jaspers and agates that are sold there enchant me. As long as I'm bundled up, I'll also happily look through the rocks sold in the rough or in slab form from the outside dealers. Indoors, the vendors tend to sell more finished jewelry or polished rocks. Although we'll look around there too, it's the outside that really pulls us in.

The weather will be good, but the traffic won't be. Every road we
need to travel down will be single lane as construction pushes to
days when the snows stop the work. 

Unfortunately we'll have to deal with road construction. Up here, road construction goes from March through November, as long as the snow doesn't fall heavily. We haven't had our first snowfall yet, but we're closer to that than to 80 degree heat. This weekend, however, will actually be quite pleasant in the afternoons, reaching temps in the mid to upper 60's.

Next year we'll do the next stage of the project - stripping,
leveling and resetting the patio. We have a few different paving
stones that we're checking out while we figure out what we
want the new patio to look like. The patio is 60+ years old, so
it's about time to replace it. 

That's making DH quite happy because he's almost finished with this year's work on my castle. The walls are completely laid and he's been working on resetting the steps and adding another one, increasing the run to help control erosion. He has two more steps to set and then he can start gluing the capstones onto them and getting small rocks set behind each tread. With luck and if everything working smoothly, that should be almost complete by the end of today. We're winding down, which is good, because our temps are more often in the 30's to 50's than higher. Have a great weekend, I know I will.

Back To the Salt Mines

I'm not sure where the saying "Back to the salt mines" comes from. My mother said it often, so I guess I picked it up from her. Maybe it was a European saying that she grew up hearing? It's an odd thing to say when it just means that you're returning to the daily grind once again, but today is Monday and I'm back to my personal salt mines.

Why would anyone want to return to this? Here's a photo from 1893 in a salt
mine from the Library of Congress archives. 

The rock show yesterday was great fun. The weather was warm and sunny - jacket comfortable - so DH spent a lot of time (and some serious money) with the outdoor vendors. I spent my funds there too, as well as some that he lent to me. We met up with Chickie and Chickie Mama for a little bit while working through the interior vendor spaces, but the outdoors called our names once again and back out we went for another group of stones. DH found some real beauties. My search had a different focus because I use stone in much smaller projects, but I found some lovely smaller pieces that were perfect.

Here's a nice photo of a variety of Jaspers from around the world. I've seen
most of these at one time or another. I adore Jaspers, even though my state
is more famous for its Agates. 

After returning home and watching his football game, we began cutting down some very large sheets of wood into the widths and lengths he needed for his latest project. This entailed a lot more work than we had originally thought - requiring a total reset of his fancy saw. Pulling it away from the wall to adjust it required a major clean, so we were working on this project for more than three hours between six cuts on the wood and cleaning that portion of the garage before returning the equipment back to position. It really needed it, but what a job!

Our pile of sawdust wasn't this huge, but it was still quite a large pile that
we cleaned up. We use sawdust for traction in the winter as well as in
my jewelry work, so we didn't throw all of it away, but we boxed up
what we'll keep and tossed the rest. Good mulch! 

The Bead Shops Hop is over - our numbers were down, but we had a chance to meet some new customers and we had a good time, so I guess it was a win. It will be nice to award the door prizes and get my cabinet display back to normal. Time to return my focus to my holiday cards. Oh happy me!

Have a great Monday! I'm off to the pool.

Rocks - Because They're Beautiful

DH and I are going to the Minnesota Mineral Club annual show tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it. I'll have to dress warmly because it'll be cold, but know that an October show can range from temps in the upper 70's to snow. This year it will be beautiful weather, just on the cooler side. I can live with that.

Picture Jasper is one of my favorite stones. Every stone
is different and all of them have scenes that hint at
stories and other lands. 

The drive out should showcase the last of our autumn colors - driving along the floodplain for the Mississippi River and south. It's usually a really nice drive out and back with lots of color and shades of fall.

Here's another example of Picture Jasper. Each stone can
be different, and each slice from a larger stone will have
different scenes. It's always stunning and polishes up
beautifully. 

Once there, we'll be looking at hundreds of rocks - slabbed, tumbled, and rough. We're looking for materials to use in crafts, hoping that we can shape and polish them to stunning centerpieces. Such fun! Here's hoping each of you has a wonderful weekend of beauty - back on Monday.

Another One Bites the Dust

The week is almost over. We've gone from temps in the low 70's on Tuesday afternoon, to what promises to be below freezing tomorrow morning while I await the unlocking of the gym doors for my morning workout. This is the time of year when people are sniffling and snorting and coming down with head colds because their bodies aren't adjusting well to the changes in temperatures. It's been a busy week, but the weekend is looming and it'll be a fun one this time.

This isn't altogether wrong. I usually end up having to be very
patient while DH looks through buckets of rough stone
for the perfect ones to bring home with us. 

Our annual Minnesota Lapidary Show takes place this weekend. Of course, we work on Saturday, but we always go there on Sunday to spend several enjoyable hours looking at stone, buying this and that for our own lapidary work, and dreaming of the time when we can just work on our equipment instead of having to go into the shop to work. I know we'll have a great Sunday (even if we might be cold) and it will also be a joy seeing the colors of autumn trees as we drive out there and back.

Lake Superior agates are popular stones in this area. I must
admit, though, that I prefer jaspers to agates. Still, they are
quite lovely in their banding and colors. 

Saturday will be the final day of the Bead Shops Hop and I, for one, will be happy to see it come to an end. It's been good, no question, but if our numbers will come close to the prior two years, then we'll be inundated with Hoppers over these next two days. We're running about 20 below where we should be and my vote will be saying that the short extension of time didn't do anything at all to increase the numbers of Hoppers coming through my door.

Eighteen stores throughout the state participated in this
year's Bead Shops Hop. As you can tell, most are
centered around the Twin Cities. But there are some
far away such as the northernmost shop in Grand Rapids. 

Of course, I should also look at the Hop as having provided an opportunity for new beaders to find us and fall in love. Several new people have come by and shopped, and of course we've also had some nice sales from the Hoppers. We're always happy to have new customers find us, especially when we're sometimes a bit harder to get to as we have been during this construction season. On balance, the Hop was probably successful, but I'm not sure if the extended time frame was a positive or negative thing.

Going from June (upper left) through July 2016 on
the lower right, this is the Minneapolis School Calendar.
Look at all of those light blue days. Those are days
when the students are not in school. Wow! Even
pulling the summer out of there, that's a lot of
vacation time. 

Today is an MEA day - (Minnesota Educational Association or something similar to that) - when the teachers are encouraged to attend a variety of workshops put on by their union and the kids are out of school. In fact, this actually started yesterday. So the kids were out of school on Monday, Thursday and Friday of this week. Tell me - how the heck are kids expected to learn if they are in and out of the classroom so often? School has only been in session for five weeks, and here we had almost an entire week off. Crazy! I don't remember so many days off when I was a student in the Dark Ages.

Have a fabulous and fantastic Friday and congrats to two friends with new dogs in their households - Dawn with a new Golden Retriever, and Helen with a new Afghan. Such lovely dogs!

It Was A Relaxed Sunday

We had a "no plans" day yesterday, which meant DH was working on figuring out the next item he needs to build to help us get organized, while I cleaned and vacuumed. What a wonderful thing! The house needed a good vacuuming, and I was really happy to get going on it. We took a quick trip to one of the lumber supply stores, but only as a scouting mission. DH then went down and redesigned what he wanted to make. Hopefully it will be even better now. I, in the meantime, went ahead and 'Swiffered' and mopped the kitchen floor. Heaven for a clean house!

Vacuuming finished, now to clean the kitchen floor. 

Around 3:30 pm DH came and asked if I would rather celebrate our anniversary with dinner out instead of waiting until next Sunday as we had originally planned. Next week has turned into a problem because I have a colonoscopy exam scheduled for Wednesday and my food restrictions begin on Sunday. We had originally planned on a nice day at our favorite small rock show, followed by a meal out to celebrate, but if I was going to have food restrictions, it made ... well, it kind of ruined that idea. So he thought having dinner a week earlier might be better. He was right.

The Garlic Shrimp Scampi is always one of our favorites. Because we only
had shrimp, no lobster or crab, the meal was very affordable too. 

So I changed clothing and we went to Red Lobster for their "Endless Shrimp" promotion. It was quite yummy, and we both ate too much. The weight I gained will be off by mid-week, and it was very worth it. It was a wonderful and relaxed meal and we both enjoyed the many flavors of shrimps that we ate. We both think that their garlic shrimp scampi is still their best variety, but others that we tried were quite tasty too.

So today it's back to the pool and a quick trip to the Chiropractor for my every two weeks adjustment. We'll enter the final week of the Beads Shops Hop today, and it's been a great experience. I think the number of "Hoppers" will ramp up this week, and that Saturday, the final day of the Hop, will be quite busy. Have a wonderful Monday!

Thoughts For My Weekend

It was really hard to return to work yesterday after two days off, but I gritted my teeth, dove in, and accomplished a task that had been sitting undone for months. Yeah me! LOL But, on the negative, my eyes were so blurry by the time I had time to sit and bead last night that I didn't even bother pulling out my work. I have a deadline for this project in November, where it will conflict with my writing time for NaNo as well as our basic holiday preparations for the shop. My time will be compressed and the fact that I couldn't get anything at all done last night wasn't a good thing. Maybe tonight...

This is my friend Margie Deebs beading in her studio. She's wearing a
set of Craft-Optic magnifying glasses, very similar to what I wear. I might
look like an alien, but I can at least see what I'm doing with my aging eyes. 

Sunday we'll head south for the annual Minnesota Mineral Club's rock and mineral show and sale. It's just a little show, but we always have a fabulous time attending it. Chickie and Chickie Mama will also be going, as well my nephew who never misses a chance to play with rocks. Several of my customers are often there too, so it usually ends up being a rather social day instead of the solitary Sundays that I am more accustomed to.

Here's a lovely specimen of agate for those of you who
love rocks. 

Our autumn weather has been quite spectacular and it promises to be a sunny and warmer weekend, so I'm totally stoked for a great time. I hope all of you, my readers and friends, have a great weekend too. See you again Monday morning...

Back to the Grind and Ouch!

Sunday was really nice. I took DH out for breakfast then we dropped by the hardware store to pick up light bulbs for the shop. It was the first time that Minion had to carry these eight-foot-long bulbs, but it was accomplished with a minimum of fuss. Once again Minion was a trooper and a success. Yes - I chose the right car for me (dancing the happy dance).

I've had Minion now for 3-1/2 months and I'm still really happy with the car.
It has turned into the perfect car for me. 

After dropping the light bulbs off at the shop, we returned home and DH settled down to watch his football game. My team was also playing, but it wasn't broadcast in my area, so I had to keep track of the score via my phone while working on other things such as dinner. End result ... DH's team lost resoundingly, and my team won resoundingly. San Diego also won their game so they lead their division, but my Broncos are 2nd with a 4-1 record. His Vikings, however, are at the bottom of the NFC North with a 2-4 record. Really pathetic.

The Vikings game was really pathetic. We don't have a good
quarterback and our top running back is also out. Pathetic. 

I had four little lobster tails defrosting for dinner. (A sale on lobster is a wonderful thing.) I prefer to grill my lobsters on the outdoor charcoal grill and since it's October, it was probably the last time I'd grill this year. I wanted a bit more to go with the lobster, though, so a quick run to the store resulted in green beans, pasta and two small sirloin steaks to go with the tails. I couldn't get the coals quite as hot as I needed, and since I had DH doing the side dishes and he was impatient, I didn't cook everything the additional 2-3 minutes that I should have. They were still tasty, though, although DH did microwave his for an additional small amount to make sure everything was cooked properly. Time to clean out the grill and start with new coals next year (and a hotter fire). It was all very tasty, though.

Except for pasta instead of the potato, this could have been last
night's meal. So good! 

I've got some kind of eye infection that just isn't going away. On Saturday morning I noticed that the corner of my eye was in pain, and it's badly swollen now, although it doesn't hurt and the actual eye doesn't seem affected. I'll drop by my eye doctor's on Wednesday and see if they can squeeze me in for a quick look-see and maybe a prescription. I'd like to stop looking like a witch before Halloween - LOL.

I'm sure we'll be looking at a lot of Lake Superior Agates. They are quite
beautiful, but I love the jaspers - so many varieties and so colorful. 

This weekend we have our annual small Gem and Mineral Show to go to. I hope the weather holds, it would be wonderful to not freeze while looking at the outdoor exhibits. I usually run into friends and relations at the show, and always have a good time. I guess I'm already looking forward to it even though a lot of week has to come between here and there.

Sometimes things happen. Hopefully they'll happen to other people today
and your day will be smooth and untroubled. 

Have a good Monday and a productive one. May everything go smoothly for you today.