Friday From the Place That Doesn't Freeze Over

Coffee in the Atlanta skyline mug, "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" by (covered by?) Jimmy Ruffin on iTunes. Oh yeah. I hesitated posting this morning as I know my spouse is going to read it and there's no way he won't feel distressed and guilty. Dave, honey, it was the universe--not you. You have a good time listening to great music, talking code smack, and drinking frufty beer with wheat, oats, orange peel and coriander interspersed with vodka. Think fondly of me.

It was a tough night bleeding into a tough morning and a heavy schedule in the studio today. Highlights include the deerhound going out at 1:30 and 3:30 am--after not quite making it out at 2:30 and my cleaning that up at 3:30, the Sprout aggressively cuddling in the night and biting my back hard about 4:30 followed by flinging out her arm and poking me in the eye about 6:30. The spaniel decided the deerhound was getting too much attention by being sick so he threw up all over his dogbed while I was wrestling with mulch and finances this morning. Oh yeah. There's my prep for the day.

I'm a Mommy and a glass artist/small business owner all day today--the J doesn't have school. So far this morning I got the mulch and soil for the studio yard ordered and delivery scheduled. I have a call in to the concrete guy about redoing the end of the driveway (now that the oak tree that warped it all out of shape is gone) and putting in the new sidewalk. I have picked out the shed and the options that I want and I'm heading to Home Depot within the hour to get it ordered along with the 4X4X8 landscape timbers to border the path from our yard to the studio. I have the landscape people scheduled to put out the soil, timbers and mulch, and I have the carpenter coming (soon I hope) to shore up the floor so I can get the rest of the glass moved out of the basement. When he does that he'll also put me on his schedule to screen in the front porch. Since DHL basically forgot to pick up my shipment on Wednesday, getting the porch screened--and therefore the shipping area secured--has moved to a priority.

Four orders go out today, and two--maybe three--full kiln loads go in. Bill (and maybe Elaine) are coming down in a week to bring the metal components for and to look at the new pieces we have for ACRE--including a 16 X 24 horizontal panel on a stand. I'm really excited about the possibilities of that last one.

Yikes! It's after 11:00 and the shipments have got to be ready by 2:00. Got to run. Tonight J has Grace over for a sleepover (Grace is J's best friend and the daughter of Stacy the Assistant extraordinaire). Stacy and Grace's sister Alice will be bringing Grace and staying for dinner. I can already taste the first glass of red wine...