No Moles Were Harmed... Not Even in the Oven

One Book to rule them all,
One Book to find them,
One Book to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

Coffee is brewing, "The Ride of the Rohirrim" from The Lord of the Rings soundtrack on iTunes (of course). The book is the Moleskine Dave got me for Christmas. It looks much like Van Gogh's in size and appearance though less worn and without the cool art paper inside the covers. Its comfortable weight lives in the back right pocket of my jeans and it literally saves my butt several times a week. Yesterday, for example, I was writing the last of the project re-writes and reviewing the last projects for my copy editor. I needed to know the amounts of each glass I used in the cranberry stone oval melt. I whipped out my Moleskine and looked it up. Then I needed to know the last tweaks I made to the firing schedule I used to fuse the lace to the single-thickness wall sconce. My hand went to my back pocket and produced the Moleskine with a flourish. Prior to Christmas I used whatever notebook or random scrap of paper was at hand to write whatever important credit card, phone number, firing schedule, mileage I needed to track. Now, as long as I wear jeans (whatever am I going to do when spring comes and I move back to my pocketless capri's?), I have the MOLESKINE (and a pen in my right front pocket. A known recipe for disaster, but greatness has its price).

Coffee is now in the Los Angeles mug in honor of Jodi (and Eric). Congratulations! No, nothing as humdrum as a wedding (to the best of my knowledge they are already married)... (Bryon and Vanessa, YOUR upcoming wedding is not perceived to be humdrum in ANY way)... (I am having a hard time getting to the point this morning and I just sipped the first luscious drop of coffee!)... (Back to Jodi and Eric:) They won the Bake-off! I am writing all this without actually looking anything up because I want to the pass on the news as I got it... from Dave. Dave doesn't even know Jodi and Eric virtually so you can imagine my surprise when he slid into bed last night saying casually "Your friend Jodi won the bake-off with her spaceship". I was asleep at the time so the little gnome trudging from my ear to my brain might have garbled the message a bit. I groggily asked him (Dave, not the gnome) how he knew and he said "The Internet is a mysterious and powerful device whose mystery is only exceeded by its power. It was on Boing-Boing." Hoo ha! I (sort of) know someone famous! (Fame = being mentioned in a blog Dave actually reads, unlike mine.)

Now back to glass. I think I am going to skip reading the first big set of edits the copy editor sent me yesterday. She rearranged the Basics and condensed them into two sections. I am reluctant to read them in case my worst fears (brought on by her admonition "When you read them make sure there is enough of your own voice left.") are realized. Instead I am going to fire today. And to invent! I need a guide for my lapgrinder which will enable me to make regular, even, true 45 degree mitered corners on the boxes. I am going to dust off the compound miter saw in the studio extension (aka the garage) and go to it. I am inspired by Smasty and her very clever chalkboard towel hangars in their lake house guest bath. Time to dust off my own power tools.

I realized last night that I have to make a choice for the BMAC next week. I can either have a lot of Cloudstone or I can have four new boxes. Since I am sending out the postcard (today) with the Cloudstone on it I should probably have several more colors and styles to show and be ready to market them heavily. On the other hand, I am up for a NICHE for a box so it would be nice to have more of them. But realistically I haven't even figured out how to price them yet so maybe I am not ready to splash out several more. Or maybe I could figure out the pricing in the course of making (or failing to make) four more. Maybe I should just get another kiln or two...

Before I go and do something so rash I had better get on with the nitty and the gritty, the nuts and bolts of the day... FIRING!