Framing Continues, and a Super Glue Saga

Yesterday was one of those semi-frustrating days - a lot of wasted mats while trying to frame several pieces, and a few tossed razor blades which were causing the wasted mats. But, I also had myself to blame - sometimes my measuring skills just aren't up to the job. I did finally get a smaller piece done to my satisfaction, only two mats instead of the three I had wanted, but I'm happy with the piece. I also wanted to get the mats cut for a very expensive original artwork by an old friend - King Kuka. 

King Kuka was a Blackfoot artist working in watercolors 
and acrylics, as well as handmade paper. His wife, Sandra, 
was from the Twin Cities, so he was familiar with my area 
of the Cities. We always got along really well. I love this 
larger piece of his and want to frame it properly so that 
it really sparks the love. 

King was a Blackfoot artist, who actually lived in the Twin Cities for quite a while. His wife, Sandra, was from the Cities. I loved his smaller works of softly colored pressed paper pieces, but I have a large gouache of his that retails for $1200, and I want to get it properly matted and framed. That didn't turn out well - I couldn't seem to cut a straight cut, or measure properly, for anything. I finally gave up for the day, took a quick run to Michael's for a frame for the smaller piece, stopped by Chipotle to pick up our dinner, and called it a day. One of those "OK Great/Not OK Ick" days. 

King's bread and butter items were these smaller 
pressed paper, hand painted pieces, just flat matted, 
or framed. I sold a BUNCH of these, as did other 
dealers I knew. They were priced right, really attractive, 
and very distinct. King used heavy watercolor paper 
for the base on these. They were marvelous. 

Between everything in the framing area, DH came up to me mid-afternoon with his tube of super glue attached to his finger. We hunted for a small can of acetone, but only had half-gallon tins. So, off we went to the garden with a huge amount of acetone to get the glue and DH separated. Fortunately the acetone did exactly what was needed, and the tube of glue was separated from his finger quite quickly. He's been working on a lot of small repairs for various items that we sell at the shop. It's already the end of March, and it's not very much longer before we start our official Going Out of Business Sale. I'm petrified. 

Super Glue is great stuff, but it can be touchy to use on 
very small items. I guess DH was working on gluing at 
his workbench yesterday afternoon, with an almost empty 
tube of glue. He managed to glue his finger to the tube. 
NOT good. Acetone removed the two, but a new tube 
of glue was purchased while I was getting a picture frame 
at Michael's. After all of that stress, we decided on 
Chipotle's for dinner. 

On that note, I'm wrapping this up. My largest challenge over the next months will be keeping my stress levels under control. I just need to reach the finish line and close the door behind me. But until I can get there, there is SO much that still needs to fall into place. I just keep reminding myself to stay positive and trust in the system and the people that I've hired to help us. Our signs should arrive this week, and we'll be one step closer to removing my wrought iron gratings and locking the doors behind me. Scary! 

I'm Glued to the Olympics

The Winter Olympics are my favorite Olympics, even though I dislike the cold and snow in real life. Nonetheless, the sports are far more interesting for me. I was an ice skater, and a horrible skier - most definitely NOT my sport. I suspect if I had better equipment, I would have enjoyed the experience much more. But, at least I learned how to ski on decent mountains - the mountains around the Aspen/Snowmass area - some of the best slopes in the world. 

Aspen Highlands Mountain actually is the 
Southern border of the town. At the very 
bottom of this image, you can see a speckled 
semi-circle - that's houses. That's Aspen, at 
least the Southern edge.  

I'd rather have a sheet of solid ice, however, and a set of blades strapped to my feet. I've always enjoyed ice skating, and with DH and my larger family all being ice hockey people, it's a good thing I was on skates from the time I was a small child. Most people spending the summer in Aspen, Colorado would be hiking the mountains or kayaking down the rivers. I went to the ice arena on the Western side of the town and learned how to skate for ice dancing while one of the professional ice show tours summered over in the town. 

The Ice Capades summered over in Aspen for 
several years in the late 1960's and early 1970's. 
I took skating lessons in ice dancing from a lovely 
man who had a Great Pyrenees dog named 
Charlie. It's typical of me that I remember the dog 
and forget the teacher's name - LOL. This was in 
the day of school figures too, so I spent a lot of 
hours going around circles on one edge or another. 

But, I'm totally addicted to the Olympics in general, and to the Winter Olympics specifically. I remember watching the broadcast of Jean Claude Killy ski down the slopes at the Grenoble games in 1968. No color broadcasting at that time, and the TV my parents had at the time wasn't the greatest, but I was totally glued to it for those Olympic games. I've been a fan ever since, and the Winter games really appeal to me. I suppose growing up in an area with skiing, skating and other winter sports available every winter didn't hurt, but I wasn't a super athletic person as a kid, so I didn't actually participate in any winter sports. LOL 

Jean Claude Killy was my first crush as a kid. He 
was a very good looking young man, and he won 
three gold medals in the Grenoble games - for 
Downhill, Slalom and Giant Slalom. A wonderful 
skier throughout his life. 

But, I'm getting ready to head off to the shop. We have SO much to do before we close. I spent several hours working on the latest items to pass onward to Travis and got that taken care of while watching speed skating yesterday, so I've done the next step, and I'm onward to the next one now. One step at a time - that's the only way to make it these days. Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

It's Thursday Already! Time is Flying By

It's Thursday, my final day in the swimming pool for this week. The week itself has been a good one - a few fits and starts, but all in all, a good one. I ended up yesterday with a lovely chat with Aearwen. We've been chatting on Wednesday afternoons for more than a decade now, it's an anchorpoint of my week and a friendship that I cherish. What I find most amusing and amazing is that we've never actually met in person. Although she was raised in Minnesota, it was in the Southwestern part of the state, and her parents moved to California when she was quite young. She remembers Minnesota snow (not with a friendly thought, but with thoughts of how grateful she is to NOT be living up here any more - LOL). But she's in love with the temperate climate of California and the sound of the ocean. 

Aearwen's beach is a city beach, not this rocky expanse, 
but this was the picture that appealed to me - LOL. 

For me, it's the mountains that call to me. Although I love living up here in Minnesota, I'd seriously consider moving back to either Colorado or New Mexico just to get back to the mountains. They were my anchor as I was growing up, and they still call to me, decades after I left them behind to move to the many waters of Minnesota. I love the water we have up here - water rationing and periodic drought simply don't happen in Minnesota. But we do get the snow, and even though we had an almost snowless winter this past year (for which I'm VERY grateful since I was driving back and forth from the various cancer treatments for most of it), I doubt we'll be that lucky two years in a row. We'll get snow this winter, no doubt. 

There is NO WAY we'll escape snow for a second year 
in a row. I'm 100% guaranteeing we'll get more than the 
four light storms we had this past winter. However, since 
I was driving back and forth from cancer treatment for 
months, having minimal snow was a true blessing for me. 

Why bring up the weather when it's a beautiful, relatively warm Autumn day outside? I have no idea. My subconscious runs this blog. I sit down at the keyboard, and I let myself begin to write. I never, or very rarely, have any idea what will actually come through onto the page, but I've been posting this daily blog for more than a decade and don't think I'll be stopping anytime soon. 

I don't write my daily blog for any other reason 
except to get my thoughts organized and to reach 
out to my friends throughout the world. Many of 
those friends read the blog every day, others just 
drop in every now and again. It's all good. I need to 
write, and others can read, or not, as they please. 
Comments are always appreciated, and usually 
responded to (although not always as timely as 
I might want - LOL). 

Why write a daily blog? First, I only write six days a week. I sleep in on Sundays when possible. Second, it's a way of putting my very random thoughts into a semblance of order so that I can start the day with something productive. Third, as mentioned various times over the years, it's my way of reaching out to you - my readers - my friends throughout the world. Some of you read my postings every day and comment back and forth with me on this or that point. Others merely glance at it, and still others only read it randomly. All of that is fine. I write the blog because I feel compelled to write and this format is as good as any other. I touch base with all of you - dear friends, cyber friends, and acquaintances. And I touch base with my inner muse and keep it satisfied for one more day - LOL. So have an excellent Thursday, I'm off to the pool for my final swim of the week. I plan on being here again tomorrow and hope you will be reading, and maybe commenting, on my post. Slava Ukraini. 

Memories

It's September 11th. Where were you when the Twin Towers were attacked and collapsed? What were you thinking as you, and the rest of the USA were glued to their television sets watching the scene unfolding in front of us, and barely able to believe the horror. I was in Minnesota, in the back room of my shop, on the phone with my "sister" Maja, as we watched history change in front of our eyes.

This is one of a few new images of the Twin Towers 
as they collapsed after the attack. It sent shock 
waves through the nation, and bonded us together 
as a cohesive force for a while. 

So many things have changed since the Twin Towers collapsed, but so many things haven't changed at all. We're still a world at war — conflicts simmer to the surface here and there. We're still a nation together — despite our very real differences. And we're still a people who held their collective breaths while the Twin Towers and Pentagon were attacked and the third plane was deliberately crashed in Pennsylvania, to avoid a third strike.

This is part of some previously unseen footage of 
the attack and collapse. It was released in June, 
2024. If you're interested in seeing more of this 
new video, here's the link. 
https://www.unilad.com/news/us-news/9-11-world-trade-centre-terror-attack-new-footage-731589-20240726

Today, think on how your life changed back in 2001. I'm quite sure you're not the same person you were back then. Maybe you're a bit more jaded and suspicious, maybe you're a bit more fearful or aware of your surroundings. Maybe you work harder to help others, or maybe you have closed yourself away more. Whatever ways you're the same or different, take some time today to remember and to say NEVER AGAIN. Slava Ukraini.

I Had a Great Birthday - Flowers, Cards and a Trip to the Garden Center

Yesterday was a lovely day. We started the day out by going to the large garden center to buy plants. Of course, it being Mother's Day in the USA, everyone was out there as well, but we were plenty early and got a great parking spot. We even had open space for the first half-hour or so. But Mother's Day is their busiest day of the year, and this year was no exception. After filling our cart with multitudes of blooms, we headed for checkout and there were only two people ahead of us. Score! (They did have EVERY checkout station manned - they're not fools). 

This is one very small portion of Gerten's Garden Center. It's 
about a half-hour drive to get here, so we only come out once 
or twice a year. I was here to get a gift card for DH in December 
and was able to walk right in. Mother's Day, however, is a 
completely different story with hundreds of shoppers, all the parking 
lots filled, and the street parking also filled. I was glad we 
were there early. 

Too much money spent later, we had the plants in the back of my car and were heading back home to get everything into the garden. Now ... I've stated before that I am NOT a gardener. I appreciate the flowers and plants, but it's really not my thing. DH, on the other hand, loves to garden. His back, however, has been giving him a lot of trouble. So, instead of having both sides of the garden planted by the end of the day, he only had one side planted. The rest will have to be done tomorrow. The plants will be fine - he'll water everything as he always does every morning. But there's still a LOT of work that needs to be done - the second half of the actual garden and the many separate buckets and hangers for my tomatoes and herbs. 

Lantana flowers are my favorite flowers. I adore 
the colors and tiny blossoms they have, and they 
always brighten my day whenever I see them. 

Yesterday was also my birthday, and I received a beautiful card featuring a photo of lupine flowers from my dear friend Chickie Mama (Claire), and a much more light-hearted card from Chickie along with a Barnes & Noble gift card. They know me well - LOL. I also got a killer long-sleeved t-shirt from Sharon in Denver featuring an image of Titanic with the following words from the "Unsinkable" Molly Brown - "After being brined, salted, and pickled in mid ocean, I am now high and dry .... - Margaret Brown, 1912". I adore it!!! Molly Brown, of course, was a Colorado native and became, eventually, a renowned Denver socialite, but she always made her own rules and didn't tolerate fools. Her house is still standing in Denver and they offer tours. 

The Molly Brown House is still in Denver. It's a museum, and 
it's absolutely splendid. Look it up online to see interior 
photos. I thought about becoming one of their tour guides 
when I was in High School, but decided against it. Still, 
it's a great place and she was a truly strong woman. 

So, I'm off and running today. Mondays are always a bit hectic and I have to drop by the grocery store on my way in - I have NO lettuce! I need my nightly salad - it's an important part of my daily meals. I managed without yesterday (I made crockpot ribs for our dinner - no muss, no fuss), but I have no intention of going without salad two days in a row! LOL

Have an excellent Monday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini. 

Our Newest YMCA Member - A Photo to Share and Memories of Kent State

I caught up with our lifeguard, Beth, in the early morning before the pool got busy and she sent me her photo of the beaver at our outdoor YMCA pool. She also tried to send me the video of it swimming (which was REALLY funny), but it was too much bandwidth and wouldn't take. Still, take a peek at our newest member of the Shoreview YMCA. 

I'm not sure exactly what he's sitting on - the 
pool doesn't open to the public for another 22 
days. But here's our beaver - our newest member 
of the Shoreview YMCA. I hope "Bucky" had a 
lovely swim. He's welcome to return, but it'll be 
a loud mess of people in about three weeks. 

On the recommendation of a variety of sources, I've started adding MCT oil to my morning tea. I have always put MCT oil into my Ogre Juice batches, but have never used it in any other way. It is a light oil - not like a cooking oil, but I'm not sure I like it in my tea. It's tasteless, but it does leave that oil slick behind, and that's annoying. I'll try it for a week or two though, and see if I notice any difference in my general health. It's important to try things, but every body is different, and blanket statements like "Add this", "try using this", or "my recommendation is...", aren't always going to be right for my particular body. 

MCT Oil. I just purchased this brand 
at my local store earlier this week, since 
my stock of MCT oil was quite low. It's not 
my usual brand, but I'm sure it will be fine. 

One of the major things I learned during the 90-day program on WildFit, was that what works for most people, won't necessarily work for everyone. One of the big things in WildFit is "Return to Spring", where you do a serious limitation of types of foods for a period of up to a week, often having a  24-72 hour fast as well. I, on the other hand, had a VERY difficult time with Spring in general, and after private consultation with my Coach and the Nutritionist, it was decided to keep to what we called "Mild Spring" and skip "Deep Spring" completely. That seemed to get me right back on track, and I've stuck with that ever since. I don't fast, and I don't do "Deep Spring", but I also don't skip my Alkagizers every week, and I keep up with my supplements. My physician is delighted, my weight is right where I want it to be, and I feel great. Lesson learned - sometimes what's right for a group isn't right for everyone. 

They've changed their logo within the past two years, which 
I think is a shame. This is the old logo, and it's absolutely 
perfect. Of course, I'm an archaeologist by training, so going 
back to the roots of humanity is kind of my thing. LOL

So, for those of you in my general age group, I have a question. "How many of you were thinking, "I hope this doesn't turn into another Kent State" over this past week's college encampments and police incursions to break them up. I remember Kent State - this was my generation. I was in High School, and it wasn't very long ago in my memory. May 4, 1970 - for some of you it will sound impossibly distant, for others it will be an easy memory. And here we are again, The wheel keeps turning and the "establishment" keeps trying to keep everything under control. That's actually never going to happen, but it's a nice dream, I suppose. But, the unrest over Palestine and Israel right now, are just like our protests against the Vietnam War, and the protests are probably just about as useful as ours were - which is to say ... not very useful at all. 

The last time we had civil unrest like what we've been 
having this past week, was in 1970 when college students 
around the nation protested the Vietnam War. This is the 
image of the Kent State Massacre that many of us 
remember when we think of that day and that time in 
history. Four students were killed, and nine others injured, 
when the Ohio National Guard fired on students 
protesting the expansion of the Vietnam War into 
neighboring Cambodia. The Vietnam War ended in 
1975, but peace negotiations, etc and a formal treaty 
didn't come about until almost 20 years after that! 

DH went plant shopping yesterday. I'll try to remember to talk about his many purchases for my garden in tomorrow's post. He got me some wonderful plants, and some more pots. I'll have lots of great things to cook and eat and dehydrate at the end of Summer. How wonderful! Have an excellent Friday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל. 

Pork and the Theatre and Cooking - Hmmmmm ... I Guess I'm Channeling Mom

Yesterday was a lazy day, and I was all in favor of it. I waved good-bye to March and today I am welcoming in April. DH was so exhausted that he took an afternoon nap, I worked on this and that, put the pork roast into the oven, pulled it out when my probe thermometer said it was done, and it was just about perfect. We returned it to the oven for five more minutes to get a bit more cook, but yum! We'll finish it off tonight - sometimes I just ADORE left overs - LOL. 

We both love our local grocery store's marinated 
pork roast. In fact, there's another one in the 
freezer already. I'm looking forward to another 
meal from this one for dinner tonight. 

With March ending, I shift my thoughts from my Dad to my Mom, whose birthday is early April. Mom was dynamic, ever-moving, with lots of friends and acquaintances, and lots of interests. She was a gourmet cook, absolutely worshiped Julia Child, and made friends easily. Dad just came along for the ride - LOL. Just like Dad, she loved opera, but her true love was musical theatre. I think "The Fantasticks" was her favorite musical. She traveled to the East Coast to visit her cousins and always went to at least one Broadway show while she was there. When I went to London with her, we saw two shows while there - Anthony Hopkins in "M Butterfly" (absolutely fabulous), and "Les Miserables" which I was less impressed with. 

I loved seeing Anthony Hopkins in "M 
Butterfly" on London's West End. It was a 
fabulous production and he was amazing 
in it. Mom adored the theatre, so I went 
along with her when she needed a partner. 
It wasn't a sacrifice to head to London with 
her for a week of museums, tours and theatres. 

Mom was very much a get-up-and-go person. When she was bored, she joined the local senior center, adding a new circle of friends from her other organizations like the Jewish Community Center. She had a definite sense of style, was a talented dress designer and seamstress, and just had a real ability to reach out to other people and make them feel like they were important. She had great expectations for me, and I fear I failed in most of them. But, I hope that she knew she was loved and cherished and appreciated. All of those things would have been important to her. 

Mom had (and now I have) the original 
publication of Julia Child's "The French 
Chef Cookbook". Mom watched every 
episode of hers on Public Broadcasting, 
and the cookbook was well thumbed and 
well used. 

So, as I get ready to jump into another week of this, that, and never enough time, I'll be grateful for the woman whose photo is above my desk at all times. Through the dark times and the light, she swam and floated, teaching me how to keep my balance when everything was crashing in around me. April is a good month. Have an excellent day, I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים עבור ישראל.

It's a Kitchen Day and the Final Friday Before Easter

So, it's the end of Lent - almost. It's been a joy having my salmon on Friday nights for the past weeks, but I will be happy to make the final piece of it tonight and then not make it again for a year. It's easy to make, it's very tasty, but eating any single thing weekly for such a long time (and on a required schedule) is a bit of a PITA to my freewheeling "I feel like cooking this" attitude towards my meals. I'm very conscious of how I cook - my ingredients, my recipes, and my WildFit guidelines - but with the exception of my Wednesday night chicken breasts, I don't like having the same meal on specific days every week. So, I will happily send my salmon recipe back into my stack of recipes, and watch the fish swim away, probably not to be used again until next year's Lent. 

I do love my broiled salmon recipe. It's easy and quick 
and tastes fabulous. But, enough is enough. By the time 
Lent ends, I'm quite ready to put the recipe back into 
the stack and not pull it out again until next Lent. 

Dad's been on my mind a lot over the past few days - probably because of that small royalty check I received from his publisher. I remember the days when we'd get monthly checks and they would actually amount to several thousand dollars every year. His royalty checks helped pay for Mom's care facility bills, and then helped me establish my brokerage account. They might be next-to-nothing in amounts now, but at that time they were substantial and very helpful. I imagine any best-selling author gets a lot more in royalties than Dad ever did - language books have a limited audience, after all. But those checks were very nice to receive. I'll get this one deposited either today or next Wednesday. I'm sure I can manage without the less than $13 in my account for a few more days if I get pinched for time today - LOL. 

This Spinoza Therapy Bear is the same coloring as the 
one I bought for Dad. The photo gives you a good idea 
of the bear's size - it's perfect for a good cuddle, and 
very soft. See the red button on his chest? That's the 
on/off and volume control. There's a cassette player 
accessible from the back. It's rather ingenious and was 
developed to help asthmatic kids with their breathing.  

I still remember the Spinoza Therapy Bear I purchased for Dad while he was in his final stay at the hospital suffering from kidney cancer. I was poor - and the bear was very expensive. It was (and still is) a bear that's large and cuddly and amazingly helpful to help with breath and pain management. At the time, it worked with a cassette player inside of it, which would allow the person hugging the bear to practice the breathing exercises on the included cassette tape for asthmatic children. I figured it was such a comfort to cuddle the bear that I was determined to get one for Dad, despite the $80 or so price tag and my total lack of funds. I did manage it (barely), and cuddled it on the flight to Denver later that week. 

Here is a photo from a production of "The Magic Flute" at 
the Metropolitan Opera, in Lincoln Square. It's quite an 
elaborate opera, and over-the-top as most of them are (which 
is part of their fun). I was surprised Dad didn't request 
Wagner - he was totally in love with the entire Ring 
Cycle. But I guess he wanted something a bit more 
light-hearted. For me? I'd go with the "Flying Dutchman". 
Love that music! 

Once in Denver, I gave it to Dad and explained how it would play whatever he would want to listen to. He requested Mozart's "Magic Flute", so I purchased a set of tapes for that - a good performance with well-known and respected voices and a solid orchestra. Dad was in a lot of pain, but the nurses told me later that he clutched that bear to him, listening to the music, and that it seemed to help him quite a bit with pain management. At that time, doctors were very stingy with narcotics, not wanting to create addictions, so Dad got morphine first thing in the morning. But it was already wearing off by early afternoon, and evening/night were agony. I hated his doctor for not increasing Dad's dosage - the man was dying, let him die with comfort! I got nowhere with the doctor, who despised me and referred to me as "pushy". Well yes ... I was. 

I'm pushy. When it comes to caring for my loved 
ones, I can be VERY pushy. Sometimes it's necessary 
to be that squeaky wheel. 

Mom was all flustered about trying to find a good care facility for Dad once he got released from the hospital. She knew she was incapable of caring for him, and that he would need much more intensive care from professionals. She and he had finally determined on one, and then Dad was visited by a palliative care specialist who suggested a hospice program - the first time hospice had been mentioned. She also told Dad that HE was in charge of his care. She told him everything was up to him - that he didn't need to accept the feeding tube if he didn't want it (he hated it), and that hospice would allow him to live with dignity for the time he had left. He was an immediate convert and had that feeding tube removed immediately. He was so relieved that there were possibilities out there for him. His current book-in-progress had been given to a fellow professor who said he would finish it for him. The loose ends were tied up. He died in the early hours of the morning within 12 hours of seeing the Palliative Care Specialist. I don't know if he was listening to Mozart, but I brought the Spinoza back home with me, and it's been one of my favorite stuffed bears ever since. 

Bees don't go straight from one flower to the next, 
they meander, do a few loop-de-loops, change 
their minds, switch directions, and generally, straight 
lines are NOT in a bees' wheelhouse. 

So, that's the way my convoluted mind works. I started off talking about food, and ended up talking about mental food, memories and a very important bear. My pathway was as straight as a bee's path through a flower garden - LOL. Have an excellent Friday and I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.

Thinking About an Old Friend, Long Gone

My on-line friend and fellow author, Fiondil, died on this date in 2015. Arthur and I chatted on-line, he was a good friend who allowed me to play in his playground occasionally. He was a deeply religious man who was well traveled (he taught school in China for several years and traveled elsewhere as well). He was a writer with a passion in Tolkien's broader universe, and his Namo is the vision of that character that I'll carry with me forever. His tales are collected on the "Stories of Arda" website. I highly recommend them. He had a deep knowledge of Tolkien's universe, but put his own stamp on it. RIP Arthur. 

My Canada Hat, Oven Cleaning and An Owl

I was mentioning our massive cold snap to on-line friends yesterday and talked about my "Canada hat: - a gift from a fellow ice hockey lover and internet friend. It was an "Out of the Blue" gift - no special occasion at all. Totally welcomed, with so many wonderful hockey items in it. My friend had gone to Montreal and we share a deep love for ice hockey, so she picked me up a few things. Among which was my "Canada hat" - warm, cozy and my new favorite winter hat. 

My "Canada Hat" looks just like this - a double 
layer of knit fabric that snugs my ears and 
keeps the back of my neck warm too. It's a 
wonderful hat, and I'm absolutely delighted 
with it. I should have added my balaclava 
yesterday when I was shoveling - my face was 
getting frozen. But my head was quite comfy! 

I'm thinking about winter hats because it's FRIGID outside today. Just COLD. It's currently -6F, with minimal wind. If the wind picks up at all, that temp will drop even more. I'll be very happy to wear my "Canada hat" today, along with my long parka and my snow boots. We just skated by this latest storm. It hit south of us, but missed the Twin Cities almost entirely. So LUCKY! I was out shoveling the driveway yesterday in the late afternoon and was VERY grateful that we had minimal wind and that it wasn't coming down with buckets of snow instead of the light dusting we were getting. 

We really haven't had much snow yet. In some places, 
there's still bits of grass poking up. But the majority of 
our landscape is finally white, after a green Halloween, 
a green Thanksgiving and a green Christmas. We actually 
need the snow - the water that we get when it melts 
feeds the might Mississippi. But, after the disaster of 
last year's extra long, heavy winter, I'll happily take 
a light one this year. 

But it's cold. Even inside the house, it's cold. We have the various cupboard doors open that need to be so that we don't get frozen pipes, but that lets cold air into the kitchen from beneath the sink. Yesterday I was finished cooking by noon or so, and I was cold, so I decided to do an automatic clean on my oven. I'll only do this in the winter - it heats the house up too much for summer (I use a faster, cooler steam clean method on my oven in the summer months). I took advantage of the cold, though, and the five hour cycle of self-clean that the oven did heated up the kitchen to be nice and cozy. I now have a clean oven, and I had a cozy one too for several hours late yesterday. Win/Win. 

I do the self-clean cycle on my wall oven about once 
a year or so. It has to be on a cold day because it 
produces a LOT of heat, but it's really nice to get 
the bit of grime that comes on, despite my steam 
cleaning the oven during the hot months. As a side 
benefit, it makes the kitchen toasty warm for several 
hours. 

So I'm bracing for the cold today. I'm wearing several layers of clothing (absolutely necessary since the shop isn't super warm with our 12-foot ceiling height), and I have my heater at the shop too. I'll be using it - guaranteed. I'm also wearing a lovely jade-set gold-plated owl that my parents bought me on their one and only cruise to the Bahamas. They weren't that thrilled with cruising, so never took ship again. But they knew I loved owls, and saw this one, purchased it, and sent it to me. It was my second year of college and came as a welcome "thinking of you" gift during finals week. Well timed, Mom! LOL 

This is NOT my photo, I take much better pictures 
than this. However, this is IDENTICAL to the 
pendant that I currently am wearing which was a 
gift from my parents from a cruise they took in 
1974. I rather like the piece, although I don't wear 
it often. It brings back good memories. 

Think happy and comfortable thoughts today, and stay warm if you're in a cold climate. I'm almost ready to face the reality of a cold morning, so I think I'm going to have my breakfast, another cup of hot tea, and then gather up my things and head out. Have an excellent weekend, Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל. I'll be back on Monday.

Thoughts Of An Old Friend Brings Back Many Memories

Have you ever "run into" an old friend in dreams? I "ran into" one last night, and I'm so very pleased that I did. My friend Marilee was an old friend, probably from the late 1990's to early 2000's. We shared a love of beads, and were on a chat board of similarly-minded people from across the nation. I don't think we had any international people with us at that time - it was the early days of the internet. 

Do you remember the days of dial-up modems 
and the sounds that accompanied getting connected 
to your internet provider of choice? I can still 
hear that electronic sound today when I think of 
those days. 

When I first learned to bead in the very early 1960's, it was with the old "Indian" Bead Loom that I still sell in the store today, and a small booklet that my Mother bought for me that had some patterns in it. I'm quite sure my first attempt was horrid - poor bead choices and lots of tension problems, but that's to be expected, I was somewhere between 6-8 years old and not known for my patience. My mother knew beading, but only as an adjunct to her sewing - as an embellishment on fabric, not self-supporting ornamentation. 

This is more the style of beading that 
Mom would do - a lot of embellishment 
on clothing of various types. Of course 
I wanted to do what she did, so she taught 
me some basics and bought me my first 
bead loom. 

I beaded on and off for many years - it wasn't an obsession, but I enjoyed the process. I made my own looms from 2 x 4 or 2 x 6 boards, and I learned beading as applique, which is how my Mom used beads. Many years later, when we had opened Stormcloud as a store for Native American art and items, we kept being asked about beads, whether we carried them mostly, and my interest was piqued once again. 

I was happy with AOL, we had a strong beading community 
on there and we interacted daily, sharing patterns and just 
getting to know each other. I'm still in touch with some of 
those people today, more than 20 years afterward. 

Then the internet hit. It was the early days - there were three main carriers or chatting areas, and after trying a couple, I settled on AOL (which I still use to this day, quite happily). This was also the early days of chat boards, laptop computers, and the heated war between Apple and IBM. There were chatboards for beading, and I joined those. I clearly recall Emily's List - she would put a new pattern up once a week,  (in words, there weren't photos or were minimal diagrams at that time), and the rest of us would exchange questions/answers and try out the pattern if it interested us. I still have reams of papers from that era - patterns and discussions. I even ran a short-lived beading chat board of my own for a while. 

In the early days of Bead & Button Magazine, 
self-published by Alice, we kept developing 
a community. When she sold the magazine to 
Kalmbach publications, it exploded on the 
crafting world, and they started holding 
annual get-togethers of classes and vendors. 
Those early days were heady - so much fun! 

Then things exploded - the internet hit with full force. Suddenly there were web sites, competitions, exhibitions and challenges - our little group of AOL beaders expanded, then exploded into the greater internet. My greatest joy was meeting some of the people from these boards in person, exchanging information, showing projects off back and forth. These were the very beginning days of the Bead & Button Show, and the magazine of the same title was just getting started too. 

I knew Marilee had passed, but hadn't thought 
of her for years. We were quite close, and I 
was shocked when I heard she had died. I looked 
up her obituary and memorial today. She was 
a year younger than I am, but she had some 
serious health issues, so it wasn't unexpected. 
Still, I'm finding that I'm missing her today, and 
I have marked her death date into my calendar 
so that her memory won't be forgotten. 

So why go through all of this ancient history? Because I met an old internet friend in my dreams last night. Marilee Layman was a good friend who lived out East, but she came to the Twin Cities several times to attend a particular "Con" that was held annually. She would sing at the Con, and she had an amazing voice. We would try to get together for a meal when she was in town. She passed, many years ago, but I had a chance to see her in my dreams last night and give her a good hug. Sometimes dreams can be a very good thing. Have a great Monday - enjoy your day. 

It's Almost the End of the Year - A Very Busy Time and A Time for Retrospection

I actually slept until my alarm went off - rather rare for me, especially at this time of the year. I glanced outdoors quickly, hoping I wouldn't have to build shoveling the driveway into the morning, but it looks clear. Hopefully we won't have icy roads, I don't know if we misted or rained overnight. If we did, it's damned COLD out this morning, so it could be an icy and slippery ride to the swimming pool. 

I graduated from George Washington High School in 
Denver, Colorado, more than 50 years ago. It's a large 
school. The section on the far left with the set-back 
windows is the olympic-sized swimming pool. The 
three-story section closest to the bottom are all 
classrooms. I remember having Geometry on the 
3rd floor here, and having to get down to the basement 
level in a different wing for my next class. Almost 
impossible in the time allocated and the crowded 
hallways. 

Thanks go out to Pamela La Vasseur and "Alex" for their holiday cards which I received yesterday. They're lovely, and look marvelous along my mantlepiece. Pamela is another old high school friend. We never talk, haven't even met since high school, but we exchange holiday cards every year. I doubt we'd recognize each other at all if we happened to meet, but I love the fact that we still have a connection, after more than 50 years. She still lives in the same house (just as Sharon does). With property values in Denver where they are, I can't blame either of them for staying put. 

While I check and double-check our Year-end Sale 
email, I'm also focused on finding some time to 
wrap DH's holiday and birthday gifts. I also need 
to get groceries. I'll let DH figure out the holiday 
stuff - I think he'll buy some shrimp for us to share. 
Always a treat. 

I've been working on finalizing our 4-day sale email. I want that out within 48 hours, and I still have to get DH to review it and see if I missed anything. (Since I've been sending the "same" email - just slight variations and date corrections - for several years. I suspect it'll be fine.) Next week will be a bit hellish, - we'll be off on Monday and Tuesday, and then I'm on for Wednesday through Saturday for the final sale of the year. We lock the doors on Saturday night, and have another three days off before starting our New Year. We have end of the year reports that have to be printed out, but except for that, we won't see the inside of the shop for a few days. I'm TOTALLY fine with that. But it does mean that the chat with Aearwen which would normally take place on the 27th, is cancelled. Tomorrow will be our final chat of the year! 

I love reaching out to my friends and acquaintances 
with my annual holiday cards. They're all on their 
way to the respective new homes now, and I'm getting 
some cards in return which is always a blessing. 

So, as I get ready to head out to the pool, I'm reflecting a bit over the past year - highs and lows. It was a serious disappointment on several levels, but I don't live in the past. I live for my future, and it's looking a bit brighter than it had even six months ago. I'll be doing some retrospecting over the next weeks, 2023 was a year of changes, and I expect 2024 will have even more changed in store for me and DH. So, have an excellent Tuesday, I'm off to the swimming pool. I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.