Staying Busy

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Sorry I've been so quiet. I've had my godson and his friends helping me out in the shop and around the house - organizing stuff, trimming hedges and other yard work I can't handle on my own.

In addition, the long overdue website overhaul is getting underway along with the launch of a new website. If those two projects weren't monumental enough, I had another site go down this week. It was the Museum of Modern Rubber line that I license and their former host (rhymes with Betwork Molutions) is notorious for ramming it to their customers... they want A LOT of money to get everything back up and running. So, I just bought a similar name and created a NEW Modern Rubber website . It's VERY basic but will do the job for now...

The hole in my bedroom wall has also become quite the project. Patching and sanding and now painting. Lowe's mixed the wrong color and I tried and tried mixing my own last night to no avail. After hours of painting yet another wrong color, I gave up and called Hank & Sue's mom. She's a scenic painter on lots of tv shows. She brought primer and a gorgeous color of paint called Ruby Gold, which is also one of the prettiest colors of glass! I got the primer up this morning and she is bringing me the right wall color tonight... but what to do with that fabulous Ruby Gold??? I'm digging through my rubber stamps for a fleur-de-lis...

I bought a plane ticket to Baton Rouge for early November. My big sis will be celebrating her 65th while I'm home. Actually, I promised her a trip home for the occasion in hopes it will get me a good excuse not to be there in December. I really want a quiet, happy Christmas for once. But it will be good to get to see the cousins in Walker & Gonzales as well. It's been too long and these guys are like other siblings to me.


My feet are better every day. I hope everyone is having a good week!

The Accidental Filmmaker

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I hope you guys laugh at these as hard as I have. Remember the dog post...two days ago? In the first video, you hear me mention, "Oh I'm making a video!" Until that moment, I didn't know my camera did that! I swear!

In the meantime, I've made two more movies. Please keep in mind... I thought I was taking a picture...still picture!

This film was taken at Laguna Beach recently when my Greek mom (really my close friend, Kat's mom) was visiting.



This next one is even more embarrassing. It was taken when we were in Temecula again for BF Barb's birthday. I was trying to get shot of the flowers for a post on a nursery there.



The really funny part is... if I wanted to make a movie with this camera... I wouldn't know how!

News

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I was going to post something else today but had some news.

First, I can walk!!! Like magic, there was NO PAIN today! No cane, no walker...just me! Wow! And while I started to have doubts when Mabel took off on me in the middle of nowhere (punishment for no run yesterday), I managed just fine.

Second, the "job interview" was a request that I volunteer teach. I can't really afford to sit in traffic 6 hours a week and make no money. But, I did learn how to get into the already full glass blowing class... Yeah!

Yesterday was exhilarating and expensive, and painful as I still had to use the cane / walker. I stopped by Pacific Artglass yesterday only "needing" a few items. I had started some Halloween beads and found I had no orange. As soon as I got in the door, Karen and John both see me and exclaim, "The moretti is fully stocked!!!"

This only happens about twice a year... the chance to grab any color rod you want right off the shelf. I was a little overzealous and over spent... and wouldn't you know, the one color I was dying for (straw yellow), they didn't get in.

Then I went to the crochet class and remembered they teach glass bead making there. They had the color I was looking for...tons of it! So I had to pay retail but I'm all stocked up on glass and can play til my heart is content I run out again.

Finally, the bead crochet was so fun! I had tried to teach myself a dozen times and failed. But in class, I realized, it's really simple...you just have to make sure the cord is over the previous row's bead. It was really fun, once we all got a few rows and the project started to take shape. And the teacher is coming back for a free follow up class to help us finish off our projects in a few more weeks. Very nice.

The Pack

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OK, let me just tell you that it took everything in me NOT to title this post "Danger: Doofus with a camera!" When you see the videos, you'll understand.

I promised Jackie some time ago that I would post pictures of our "pack" that we hike with... not us humans... just the pretty doggies. Finally, pictures of the pack.

Let me formally introduce: Hank on the left and Sue on the right. The brat in the middle, you probably know. Notice how carefully Mabel is studying Sue's tail. She nibbles it constantly trying to get Sue to give chase.


That would be when Sue isn't trying to get everyone to chase her... Love Hank's ears as he's running to get in on the fun.


Regal Hank ("stealing" a roll in the cool grass of the golf course!)


They love frolicking at the creek or creating a dust storm.


Sometimes, we can't all make it to the creek, so we try to visit at home with a play date. Sue and Mabel always have kisses and often hugs for each other.



This is Sue, headed home from a hike. Isn't she a doll?



I was desperately trying to capture a kiss between the girls on my camera, only to discover, my camera takes videos. I've "accidentally" made a few movies! But you can almost see Sue trying to kiss Mabel here.




The kids running...




Best Friends...

The Ugly, the Bad, the Good & the Pretty

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It's been a rough couple of weeks here. This time of year is always hard on me. I tend to get very depressed... at least I did until two summers ago. Now, it's just a really bad mood that happens in late June / early July. So if you just want the happy stuff, skip down a bit.

Oh, the above picture is Mabel..."playing" with her buddies Hank & Sue. But it totally sums up my mood! Note the placement of Sue's paws on Mabel's neck. (This is my best attempt at getting one of their "hugs" on film.) Even when things aren't so good, it's nice to have friends who care!

The Ugly: I'm back on my walker or cane, depending on distance. Not happy at all about this. I went to get a pedicure hoping to look cute for the BF's (that would be best, not boy) bday. There was a line and a sign saying reflexology available. The masseuse was standing around so I decided to get a session. What I didn't know then was that a Thai reflexology session is very different from the kind that I've had many times and even credit with my mobility. Apparently, the Thai massage the feet with sticks! In spite of my showing her my surgery scars and explaining my foot problems, she jammed the stick right into my plantar fascia tendon and I flew up in the air! I kept hoping it was just a bruise, but I'm back with the doc getting the bloody horrible injections and doing my thrice daily routine of icing, anti-inflammitories and stretching. I'm swimming nightly and praying the doc won't tape me.

Ugly #2 is it has been so darn hot, the ac doesn't kick off til 2 or 3 in the morning and I've got an ear infection from the "wind."

The Bad:

My bad mood seems to make everything just irritate the crap out of me! The targets of my ire in recent days:

*The stupid gardeners who blow debris into the street and in front of the gardenee's neighbors house. In LA, it's only a few minutes before the neighbor's gardeners show up and blow it back. Why don't they sweep it up and throw it away instead of just blowing it back and forth?

*Children who ride their ^*%(__)# skateboards into oncoming traffic (me) at dusk. I followed them home and talked to their parents. Brats!

*My old house and pipes. Since I moved here, I've hated my shower. It takes a good 8 minutes to wet my head. I've often wondered how this can be water conservation but chalked it up to the mandatory shower heads we must have. Until I happened to take a shower at Kat's house the other week and it dawned on me that maybe it is my shower head. Two shower heads later, I called the plumber who had to cut an opening in my custom painted bedroom wall (the palest lavender pink with hand stamped silver spirals) to remove the old clogged pipe. Total: $580.00. Ugh!

*My one road town. I live in a tiny valley / hillside that is two miles wide x five long. And while we do have back roads, we are pretty much a one road town. This little village really ticked me off the other day when I decided to make peach ice cream and discovered my ice cream maker had breathed it's last after I had cut everything up and was ready to go. I spent two good hours driving to nine stores in town looking for an ice cream maker. Every store agreed that an ice cream maker is something they should sell but don't.

*Myself - for having so much faith in my one road town that I wasted two hours instead of just driving 10 minutes to the metropolis of Burbank, getting an ice cream maker and returning home. The total time this took after I gave up: 30 minutes door to door but... I was too tired to make ice cream at that point.

The Good: Yes, thank God there is some good in all this.

*The pool is finally warm enough to swim. I curse having a pool(never wanted one but loved the house...it came with) all winter long when I'm freezing and wet having to vacuum or deal with too many leaves. But swimming at night, right before bedtime is exhausting in the best way. I tend to sleep much better in summer and I'm certain it's the pool. There's nothing like floating completely still, staring at the stars and hearing only my heartbeat and breath.

*My summer school classes have started so there is a boost to my income. Best of all, after teaching for years, I've finally started to book my own teaching gigs around classes I want to take. I feel stifled when I'm not learning something new. It's taken some planning and juggling but this past week I finally got to take the silver solder class I've been dying to take for years. And Wednesday, I'm taking bead crochet. This fall, I hope to take glass blowing.

*When I called about the glass blowing class...it's already wait listed...I ended up with a job interview... not even sure for what really but the head of the department was excited to meet me because I teach jewelry fusing at several colleges and a few art studios. We'll see...

And finally....

The Pretty: We've got babies!!!!

There is a small horse farm right across dirty creek. They have one large horse and three minis. The mini mom, Lady was pregnant when they bought her two years ago. She gave birth to Ginger and sometime last summer got pregnant again by their male mini, Magic. And it's a girl. I just love the arrow on her tummy. I'm also amazed at how protective Lady is...she gets really mad if Ginger comes near.



I rode by the "peacock tree" the other night and noticed a baby peacock on the roof. This was the only shot I got before he / she flew to bed.