Beam Me Up, Scotty!

Coffee in the Atlanta skyline mug, the sound of the fan in the kitchen clearing away the burned smell for music. I don't know what was burning--Mom swears it wasn't the potato she put in the microwave for breakfast.

Time continues to go by me at warp speed, but I hang on by my fingernails and avoid the wake. Since I last posted, I drove to Magdalena New Mexico for a business visit with Sara and David of Creekmore-Durham Glass. They are the friends from whom I bought all the hot-shop equipment a few years ago. This time around I got two large kilns, a watchmaker's cabinet, a Giberson (the first syllable rhymes with "give") head (and a good--though off-color--story to go with it), about 100 lbs of dichroic glass in sheet and scrap, a bunch of molds including another large sink mold, and various odds and sods.

They also shared with me a luster and glass powder technique they developed so I could include it in the book. I am amping up my skills in it by teaching it this spring in the studio. Dee went with me--ostensibly to help with the driving and take dictation for the book--but I like to drive, and we listened to all three books in the Hunger Games trilogy instead.

Since my return I got the new class write-ups on the website--and discovered flaws in my provider's infrastructure. I also wrote and sent out next quarter's newsletter--in the process uncovering if not flaws, at least serious weaknesses from my point of view--in my provider's sign-up process. Yesterday was an incredibly challenging day culminating in the Apple TV refusing to recognize the format (it's code for "I won't play for you") of any of the TV shows or movies in our home library. *sigh* I worked through that one too, but not till after we had already rented the new Three Musketeers.

The highlight of the day yesterday was discovering that all nine of our chickens are, indeed, laying eggs almost daily. We have never had more than eight eggs a day--or so we thought. Turns out one of the girls has been disdaining the nesting boxes in favor of a downy nest she made under the prickly holly bush. Jessie discovered the nest on accident and we recovered 32 eggs from it! None of them are obviously rotten (none of them float or smell), but I think they'll probably end up blown out and the insides discarded unless I can come up with a use for 60(!) eggs--the current quantity in the fridge before today's production. I would be giving them away, but I'm out of cartons (ahem, people, when you take home eggs, bring back the cartons). The carton problem will be going away soon as I finally broke down and ordered a batch on-line.

At the studio we finish the preparation for Judy's hip replacement surgery. Dee is stepping in to cover for her, my Mom deciding it was just more than she could take on--and rightly so, and Judy and Dee are reorganizing the studio, preparing for the bazillion classes I am teaching now through June, and generally making sure the baton is--temporarily--safely passed. I am confident that I can ignore them and everything will work out Just Fine.

Now for me, back to the book. Deadlines loom, gallery contributors need prodding (or initial notification--I am bad AND behind), and text needs, well, written! It's going to be an exciting spring at Siyeh Glass. If you're anywhere in the area, make sure you stop in for some madness (and check out the latest newsletter!).