Happy New Year!

In spite of the freezing fog, frigid temperatures and semi-crazed drivers, I made it home safely. Yay!

Christmas was good. I drove straight to mom and dad's and arrived about 11:30 am. My brother came over around 12:00 and mom got up around 12:30. We sat and chatted and ate until around 5, then tore into the presents. I ended up falling asleep on the couch so my Christmas ham dinner was at around midnight.

My treasure this year is the cobalt blue kitchen aid mixer. Oh, I loves it! I've been asking for one for ages and was about to break down and get it myself when Santa Mom decided that I'd been good this year. Mom also sponsored a draft horse in my name at a shelter here so we get to go on a tour and maul the animals at some point. That'll be nice too. I miss spending time with horses. It's ironic that I found a shelter to volunteer at outside of Chicago, but can't find anything in rural North Carolina. They exist, but people (as usual there) don't follow up worth a hoot and I haven't managed to connect with them. Grr. I'll try again shortly. Anywho, I used to volunteer at the place we'll be touring so it'll be good to see some familar faces and also what they've changed since I was there last.

This week has been a whirl of social activities and catching up with friends and family - something every day. Yesterday was particularly great - I went to breakfast with a group of friends from college. Around noon we freed up the table and moved to my friend T's house. I ended up leaving there around 4:30 in the afternoon. It's the first time we've all been together in probably 10 years and I'd forgotten how much fun we all had together. My sides hurt from laughing and it felt really good to realize that we can pick up right where we left off, in spite of marriages, divorces, moves, children... you know, life. We will not let so much time go by before our next gathering.

I have a bunch more stuff on the agenda for my visit, and some things that I know aren't going to happen - the time always goes faster than I think it should.

Special bonus - my aunt and uncle got a wireless router for Christmas, so my iphone is already set up for it and my laptop will be as soon as I retrieve it from mom and dad's. Yay for having use of my own computer! (My uncle is a solitaire JUNKIE and spends HOURS on their computer playing. I expect my aunt to acquire her own computer shortly.)

Anywho, whatever you end up doing, be safe this New Year's Eve and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

All Is Bright

Nothing is calm. I'm running around here like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get ready to leave for home. Cards? Mailed. Shopping? Done, as of about 2 hours ago. Laundry? Last load's in the dryer now. Kitchen? Clean, except for sweeping the floor. Cats? Box scooped, water fountain cleaned, food out, more litter and food purchses. Check. Wrapping? In progress now. Packing? Um. That's next. Loading? After packing. So much for leaving before dark.


I set the alarm in my iphone last night. The one thing I really don't like about the iphone is the alarm. If someone calls and you miss the call, or texts, or if you have an app that sends alerts, that supersedes the alarm. So, I missed a call since I was asleep and therefore my alarm didn't go off until I woke up and looked at the phone and cleared the missed call out. Very helpful. So I'm running about 5 hours behind. I've decided that I probably needed the sleep.


I picked up 11 things that were glazed and finished yesterday at the studio. So, one of these days I'll manage to post all of my finished stuff. One day... It's going to be after the fourth 'cause that's when I'll return here.

The lights are someone's house a few miles from here. I was on my way to work on Christmas shopping and stopped for a quick look. My pictures don't do it justice - they have several acres of decorations. I think my favorite is the cannon that "fires" an explosion of lights. Very cool.

Well, I'm off to run around in circles some more before heading out. Have a wonderful Christmas! (And any other holiday you may be celebrating!)

Science Geeks Unite!

Um. Okay.

Am I the only one weirded out by this ad?

His eyes, they follow me...

Maybe It's A Communication Problem...

Like one of you is an idiot.

I read this post by Jenny, the Bloggess - which made me laugh so hard I nearly snorted an oyster cracker out of my nose. I don't recommend it - it burns. So, then I went thru the comments and one of them referenced this article about some spy flap 'cause of a pretty flower on a coin.

And that made me think about a coworker's HILARIOUS story (we'll call him P) about being lost in Poland during a recent business trip. He went, by himself, to Poland from Germany to visit a supplier without a cell phone. Also without speaking the language. In a rental car that needed gas... fuel... petrol... whatever they call it over there. Without a map. Or the address of the company he was going to visit. Because he'd decided that Poland was small - smaller than Rhode Island - so of course he could just drive right up to the company 'cause they only have one road or something. (Truly, this man is the testosterone version of me sometimes.) And he got REALLY lost and couldn't find anyone who spoke English and he wandered in circles in Poland for hours. He went on to say something about finding a McDonald's that was attached to a Shell station and it was like a Heavenly light bathed the gas station and the angels sang because of course they would totally speak English there 'cause that was like American soil except in Poland 'cause we have fast food places attached to gas stations everywhere - that is OURS so if they have one, they must be us. Well, except that they aren't and they didn't (speak English, that is) and he nearly added something NOT gas to the car but was thwarted by the weird non-dispensing pump, which they apparently put on there to stop ignorant American tourists from ruining all of their cars with the wrong flameable liquid. Then he saw the sign on another pump with Pb in the ghostbusters no-ghosts circle thing and somehow made the leap (that I probably wound't have in a million years) that is was no Pb, no lead, UNLEADED so at least he had gas to wander around in circles some more. Somehow he made it back over the border to Germany, called another visiting American coworker (we'll say "R.") and went out for a beer. What he did not do was let the company (ours or the supplier) know that he was back and okay so the supplier called the company who freaked out and called everyone including the border guards on both sides of the Poland/Germany border. Someone called our admin here in the States, who called "R" on his international cellphone. The admin was freaking out over the missing "P," and got the answer, "no, he's not missing, he's right here next to me."

And that made me think about being in Mexico and being completely confounded that the pay phone didn't take quarters which struck me as being insane, until I remembered that we haven't yet taken over the entire world and their coins do not equal our coins.

I have no idea where I was going with this post, and it's 4:30 in the morning and I'm sleepy so I guess the moral of this story is to never let me travel anywhere alone. And Jenny rocks.

Peek-A-Boo

You say octopuses, I say octopi... And either way, they're pretty cool. Scientists were shocked to recently discover that they can use tools. Why are scientists so frequently surprised by the natural world?

Anywho, check this out for the story, and cool octopus video.

Holiday Hours!

The studio is open on Sundays until the New Year! Yay! Which means I have to go to the store now 'cause I'm probably not going to get any laundry done until then. This started last weekend, so I spent Saturday and Sunday at the studio. It was awesome, but I got nothing done. *sigh* Oh well. Maybe next weekend...

I've got scads and scads of stuff to share, but for now these are the two things I picked up today.

The black footed bowl turned out okay. I LOVE the green one. I'm so happy with it!