Say What?

Don't lean in too close on this post. I'm coming down with a head-cold and body aches and feeling more and more miserable by the hour. I don't want you to catch it. We had such a good day at Foci Wednesday afternoon. We came in behind Jan who was just finishing up at the bench we'd reserved. She said she'd like to hang out and see how we're doing. We had no idea that she was about to spend the next 3 hours working with us on our technique. She was so helpful! Jan has a background in pottery but left it behind a couple years ago when she changed her focus to glassblowing. She has advanced so quickly under the tutelage of some of the areas more notable glass artists. We're so grateful for her desire to 'send the elevator back down' and help us raise our abilities. We left Foci feeling so excited about how the afternoon went that we returned the next morning to reinforce what Jan had worked with us on. Rachel called while we were in the studio to s...

We're having more fun than ever with our weekly glassblowing sessions at Foci. Now that we're getting there more regularly I can see where we're both beginning to show some steady improvement. We know we've got so much more to learn but we're occasionally getting some nicer pieces to show for our time at the bench and that's rewarding. I'm still playing around with my tealight candle holders in various colors, trying to make them of similar shape and size. They're fun. I have an idea for a more cylindrically shaped style with thick sides and bottom but I'm not sure I have the skills to pull off the look I have in my mind's eye. I'll play around with the design this coming week. We took a class at Foci last Wednesday night instructing us in the art of making punties. Punties are what we use to transfer a glass piece from the blowpipe to another metal rod for working the piece from the other end. They serve more functions than that but that...

I got a little too ambitious on the elliptical machine Tuesday night while going for a PR (personal record) and seriously aggravated my right knee, so much so that I had to abort a ride on my indoor trainer a couple days later. Saturday was the first day that I could push it on my CompuTrainer but still, I had to hold back some because I didn't want to risk developing any sort of recurring injury. Moderation has never been something I've been very good at. The metal men still got the best of me on my ride Saturday but I'll be back! Tammy took her paints out last week and got busy making cards for my mom for a Valentine's Day gift. They're smallish 3" x 5" cards that she can use to send "thank you" notes to friends. She made at least 15 of them, each unique. I think she did a great job. I cropped a few and stitched them together to show an example of her work (photo to the right) on my blog. It's clickable for a more detailed look. I had ...

Philip Seymour Hoffman died of a drug overdose a few days ago. I must be one of the few people on the planet who had absolutely zero name or face recognition of this actor. Movies obviously aren't my thing. Toby is doing much better and appears to be back to his normal self, chillin' on the ottoman in the sunporch or curled up by my feet when he's not nestled in my lap. It's nice to have my friend back to his normal self again. Charlie and Toby don't play together but neither do they fight as they once did. Toby has accepted the little mischief-maker who can often be found pulling up a spot next to his big brother. Allie and Charlie will play together but that's usually a result of me giving Allie the high-sign to go after Charlie and "give him a beating he won't soon forget!" She loves that and so does he. He can't get enough of being chased through the house. That little guy brings a lot of fun to our home. Tammy spent much of the last f...

I made a deposit into Rachel's bank account Friday afternoon to cover her spring semester and the final installment of 4 years of college tuition. We're feeling very grateful to have been able to help her as we have. So many of her friends haven't been so fortunate and will graduate with a sizeable amount of debt to overcome. Up until now, she's been our priority but I think she's in a position where we can begin to pull back and shift our focus toward shoring up our savings accounts before we exit the working world. Plus, I get a sense that she's ready to take over.  I was telling her a few weeks ago that once we get our arms around our finances in our retirement, we'll see what we can do to continue to help her. She said she'd rather we didn't, that she wants to take it from here. I get that. She's off to a good start. Her plans are to take the next year off from school after graduation and continue working to add to her total of hours in the...

My special little guy Toby had a seizure Friday afternoon. He was slow to get up when I went to let him out and I thought that maybe he had pulled a muscle in his leg or had a cramp. He made his way outside but was struggling. After coming back inside a few minutes later it was obvious that something wasn't right. I called Tammy over and she said he was having a seizure. He was trembling and his eyes were fixed straight ahead. I held him and whispered softly to him telling him how much he's loved. This has never happened to him that we're aware of. He wasn't himself the rest of the day and night but he was content to sit in my lap or by my side. It's ridiculous how much I love that little guy! He looked to be his normal self Saturday morning, jumping up on me and giving me kisses, excited to eat. The only lasting effects from the day before being a little hesitancy coming down the stairs. He did fine but was just a little slower than usual. I spoke with the vet...

I was on a cycling forum last week and the title of one of the threads was "42 degrees, went for a ride, how do you guys do it?" Hah! I think we were down as low -23º f (-31º c) in Lakeville at one point during last week's bout with frigid temps. I'd loved to have taken Ralph from Florida out for a ride with me so he could see that his 42º was easily very doable. I had some use-or-lose vacation time I needed to burn up so I took last Monday off and headed for the river to spend a couple hours on the trails in the coldest air I've ever ridden in: -15º f (-26º c). It isn't often we get temps that cold during daylight hours and I wanted to take advantage of the conditions to improve on my personal all-time low riding temp, substantially improving on my old record of -4º f. I had to smile a little watching a guy on the news later that day with his dire warning to not go out unless absolutely necessary because of the dangerously cold temperature. If he'd only...