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Review 2005
_____________________
someone close my mouth for me,
this pool
trick shot
left me speechless
360 degree panorama pix
Paris by
Night
Evolution
of Dance
amazing, note the language
fishy
card trick
Telemarketer
Nightmare
audio
Chris
Bliss
the Beatles juggler
The
Godfather: scammer upsets the Mafia
are you a Star Wars fan?
Emperor
Palpatine get a phone call from Vader
This has been around a while, I just found it again
How to
Fold a T-Shirt
David
Hasselhoff's
"Jump In
My Car"
German
Coast Guard
John Walshes
Family
Watchdog
find registered sex offenders near you
David
Hasselhoff is
hooked on
a
fealing
this
kid is too cute
Fat Kid
Gay Dance
my
husband found this
(yes, it's clean)
Men In
Coats Vidio
Tom
Cruise Is Nuts
John
Titor time
traveler
click on 'John's story'
left hand column
Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii
January 2006
short
version - 32 pix
long
version - 337 pix
my
Seattle Sep/2005
trip
my
Seattle June/2008
trip
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TRIBUTE
TO MY MOTHER
My Aunt Ruth's poem
If
Tomorrow Starts
Without Me
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I finally opened an
Etsy store
this week. There's a permanent link on the left side of my home page.
10/1/08
I have a friend who does a lot of sculpture beads and she did the most
adorable Haloween beads. Well, I don't care for doing sculptures,
but it motivated me to gave doing some Christmas beads a try.
They're not bad and I'll have to admit, they were fun. Here's my
first batch, it's a small one but I wanted to see what bugs had to be
worked out. Now I'll make some for an upcoming jewelry making
open house at a gallery I'm represented in, and some for my catalog,
too.

9/28/08
Introducing - - THE DRESS - - Kara got her wedding dress. Wow,
proud isn't the right word, more like so pleased that life is going so
well for her and Dave. Only 5 weeks, man the time is flying.



9/18/08
A man from my husbands forum relayed this story to their board.
This is a true story.
My oldest daughter is about to give birth to my ninth grandchild (a
girl this time). She is also the mother of my 3 year old granddaughter.
The three year old is very observant and quite outspoken for her
age. My daughter is tall and heavyset, not obese, but nonetheless
a big girl. Her weight has gone up only slightly during the
pregnancy, but her belly is swollen.
Last night she was showering and my granddaughter joined her in the
shower. The granddaughter exclaimed "Mommy your getting fat!. Is
the baby in your tummy?" "Yes" mommy explained that the baby in
her tummy makes her look fat. My granddaughter then said "Is there a
baby in your butt too?"
9/15/08
The cookoff is over and there's nothing left but the bragging.... Steve
got 1st in chicken, 2nd in beans and 5th in brisket. There were
around 45 cooking teams, doesn't sound like much, but this is an old
cookoff and these are seasoned veterans so the competition is high....
When "Crosstimbers" was in their hay day doing cookoffs every weekend of the year (sometimes
two in a weekend), this would have been nothing to brag about, but when
you only fire up the smoker a couple of times a year, the "seasonings"
inside the cooker just aren't the same, so this was actually a nice
accomplishment. Steve had a friend compete for his first time in
competition, Ryan took 5th in ribs. He does a bit of catering,
but competition is a whole different ball game, so he gets bragging
right for placing, too. A lot of times, the spices you put on
competition meat will cost more than the meat itself, so chances are
you won't taste something this flavorful in a restaurant. One thing I really like about the Sanger trophies is they are always unique. We have an ornamental iron worker in town and he does the trophies.

9/12/08
I have kind of a different post today. Not much been happening in
my life lately except hum drum stuff so I thought I'd post about an odd
subject to talk about... teeth... After years of drinking mucho
glasses of tea a day, I finally decided to try some of those teeth
whitening strips. I did my research and came up with a couple of
rousing endorsements of 'Celebrity Sexy Teeth'. Kind of pricey
but I bought it anyway. Wow, within the month or so I've been
using it, I've actually gotten a couple of shades whiter.
Wello, if hurricane Ike does what it suppose to, it will only
skirt the Dallas area and Steve & I will cook our first solo BBQ
cook off here in Sanger. Steve and his cooking partner were an
award winning cook off teem in the 80's. Sometime in the mid 90's
life stared getting in the way and they dwindled down to only a couple
of local competitions a year, with the second generation helping
out. I never got involved much when we got married but everyone
had other direction this weekend so instead of not competing, we
decided to do this one, just the two of us. I know - awwwww...
8/22/08
Been tired lately, not sure if it's the hot summer (of which I don't
take the heat well anyway) or if its just this getting old thing.
I think I like the hot summer explanation the best. I have a
friend that is opening a brick and mortar bead store and I've been
helping there one or two days a week. If you make jewelry, you
need to take a look at her website. (Wired Up
Beads) She's the one that has come out with the high
end jewelry tools called Wubbers,
and of course, all kinds of other findings. She's growing almost
faster than what she can keep up with. My good friend Trudy is
also working there full time so it's nice to get out once a week and
spend time there.
8/9/08
This is why I have a 6 ft work table, at least this time they left me a
small work area on the corner. It's been too hot for them to go
outside much, so hanging around crowding mom has been what they love to
do.

8/2/08
More electroform, I've become obsessed. This time I put six flat
ovals into a bracelet with copper accents.

7/27/08
I'm have a great time learning to electroform. Some stuff is in
my catalog
and some is on Etsy.
After ruining a batch of the solution, a lot of technical things just
clicked. The patina part will take the most research, all those
formula's, and what chemical does what. I'm not a science whiz,
but I'm learning. I really like the turquoise, it goes good on
the geo faux rock type beads. It's simply done with ammonia, some
suggest using used cat litter, that was just to icky of a visual for me
to even consider. I made one the other day that had a contaminent
on one of the anodes and it transfered green, indigo and rust colors to
the copper on the bead.

7/13/08
How
to arrange 5 cats -
the final chapter
Missing Man Formation
It was late summer of 2007 when this cute-as-a-button black and white
stray started to hang around the yard. He must have been about
6-8 months old, and you could tell he was born in the wild, not afraid
of humans, but kept his distance. We left him along for a week or
so, just in case he had a mind to go find his mother... but he
didn't. Mouse would hiss at him, then ignore him. Weazel
would bat the crap out of him and Maynerd (as we came to call him)
would just look at him as if to say "are you done now, cause I just
want to play", and off they would go. Tina and Jett made it know
they were the matriarchs and he was to mind his place. Eventually
he learned that if he went through the cat door, he could eat when HE
wanted to, not when we fed him at night. He became my buddy,
always plopping down in front of me when I was standing at my work
table, even learned his name. It's been several week now, since
we've seen Maynerd and the others still seem to look for him. We
all miss our little buddy.


7/5/08
(this
is an abreviated version, for the whole trip click here,
the sandcastle pix are worth the view)
Time
to update you on my trip to Seattle a few weeks ago. First off, Kara's
cat. I love this cat, he's Javanese, an offshoot of Siamese. They
have fur as soft as rabbits, and oh those eyes....
First we went to Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast for a sandcastle
building contest.

And the main reason for the trip. After struggling for 10 years in
junior collages, Kara put
graduation on a fast track. She had enough credits to wound up with a
degree in
geology and anthropology.



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6/23/08
Well
I went to my electroforming class this weekend. That's Janelle
Zorko of Pigeon Point Glass to the left, the teacher. The
others are my fellow classmates. I got a nice refresher in
electroforming, filled in a lot
of gaps that I didn't learn the when I first started 2 years ago, and
learned the tricks to making monster bycones. We even made hollow
perfume bottles with cute little feet. My head is swimming but my
overload mode is giving way and I've been making some cool monster
beads and should have them up for sale in my catalog in a few
day. Aaand, I plan on getting to my Seattle vacation pictures
this week
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6/19/08
I'm
going to be taking my electroforming class this weekend, so my vacation
update to Seattle will have to wait for a couple of days. I guess
I'll have lots to blog about on Monday. Sandcastles and
graduation and electroforming, oh my......
6/6/08
First
of all I want to say:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO
MY HUSBAND STEVE
I'm off to visit my daughter in Seattle for 10 days, so the catalog
will be closed. I've been playing with a couple of new shapes for
a couple of weeks so there's be NEW new stuff up in a few weeks.
5/16/08
I
went to the dr again
today, maybe this
prescription will get rid of the throat infection I've been plagued
with for 5 week now. - Ya know that link on my beads
catalog to my electroform beads? Ya, the one with no
electroform beads for sale? Well, I plan on remedying that in a
few months. I signed up for a class in June with Janelle
Zorko, her beads are extraordinary. I stopped
electroforming last summer when I just didn't have the energy, and have
missed it terribly. I have the equipment and it's just sitting
there collecting dust, lots
of dust. This is one of my first electro beads.
5/4/08
How
to arrange 5 cats -
part eight
Bermuda triangle style - - which way is up? which way is down?


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5/1/08
My
first Chihuly rose of the year. The side shot looks like the
inside is on fire. |

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4/29/08
Sorry
I haven't had a new catalog up in what seems like forever, sometimes it
seem like there's a plethora of excuses to choose from, but here's the
one I like the best. I don't feel good. (I know, whaaa) Just one of
those throat things, and I get run down so easily (in my old age), but
I have gotten a
few focal lentils done lately. Ya, you heard me right, focals. I'm
doing lentil focals now, 13x30mm. I've had the mold for over a year
and finally got a bigger torch a few weeks ago, so I can stop
struggling to make big beads. Here's a picture of one. If you're on
my email list, you'll get notified when they are up, if you're not on
my list, well, why aren't you? There's a link at the top of the
page.... |
4/18/08
How
to arrange 5 cats -
part seven
to match my eBay auction, Midnight in
Albuquerque....


4/11/08
"Mom, would you do something about
Weazel. He's always chasing me. I went to jump up on the
hot tub to get away, and the lid was
off!!!!! I was just up there not 15 minutes ago, sunning
myself. Dad didn't tell me he was going to clean it!!!! I'm
soaked to the bone.

4/2/08
Sorry, I've kind of dropped off the
face of the earth lately. eBay sales
dropped out from under me, so I've been taking a side road and taking a
few months to get myself some local venues going. I already had
my
beads in Kittrell/Riffkind, a very schnazzy glass gallery in Dallas,
and my jewelry in Vetro, a working glass blowing studio with a schnazzy
glass gallery store front. Now I've added two local artzy fartzy
art
gallery/boutiques and a bead store. Even did a couple of
shows last week. Next I'll put together a portfolio to
present to a couple of gallery/boutiques. In June, I'll be off to
Seattle to see my daughter and will take some loose beads and finished
jewelry with to scope
out a few places there, so I'll need to get things made for that.
eBay... well, I'd like to get back to it, but the market just isn't
there right now, maybe later this year, but I will be keeping up with
my website catalog, just need to get those pesky taxes done first.
3/23/08
I finally got around to blowing my
first shard. I had a pretty good bubble blown, then I tried to
heat it a little. Big mistake, I collapsed it. Then I tried
to fix it. Another big mistake, I blew a side out. I should
have trashed it and started new. Reminds me a bit of a
duck. It's a lot of fun, but I think I need a lot of practice.

3/16/08
I went to our local bead society's
monthly meeting last night and saw a demo on making glass shards. Very
cool. So I bought a blowpipe from one of the ladies and now
I'm ready to be a faux glass blower. What is a shard, you might
ask? Well it's as simple as building up a hollow bead on the end
of the blowpipe and blowing it into a bubble, like a balloon. When it's
broken, you use the thin 'shards' as decoration on
beads. Sounds simple, I'm betting it takes a little practice,
though. Since I use a lot
of twisties, I have plenty leftovers laying around and I can see lots
of design possibilities.
3/9/08
How
to arrange 5 cats -
part six
rug - not - wide - enough - - -

3/6/08
Snow has been falling for about
three hours now, there's 5-1/2 inches and it's still falling. Oh,
did I mention, I live in Texas??

3/4/08
Maynerd went to the vet yesterday to
get his first shots and to get fixed. Boy was he mad when I went
to pick him up. But now that he has his own vet card, that makes
our latest little stray officially part of the herd. Since he was
a stray, he prefers to go outside instead of using the litter box (ok
fine with me - -). Well it snowed here last night, you should
have seen his reaction, "you have got to be kidding, you traumatize me
at the vet, then expect me to go outside and squat in the snow?? Oh
well, the food is easier to catch."

3/2/08
My daughter Kara, and Dave, have
decided on a location for the wedding. The Valley of Fire is just
outside Las Vegas. Holly visual reality check Batman, time will
go by quickly now and I've got to start getting my butt in gear and
loose some of that weight I gained when my thyroid went amuck on
me. I at least want to look halfway decent in that ugly
mother-of-the-bride dress I've heard so much about... What a
lovely setting for a wedding though, don't you agree?

2/24/08
It's been a long couple of weeks for
me. Bead wise, a few doors have opened, so I am closing one. One
of my customers graciously offered to contact me when her local bead
store admired some of my beads in a necklace she wore into the store...
so now, my first trunk show is forthcoming at Naturally
Jennifer's in San Luis Obispo, Ca. Don't know
when the date is, the beads will ship to them tomorrow and I'm reeeal
excited.... My friend Trudy & I, went hunting
gallery/boutique outlets last week, and we found one that will carry
our jewelry, at another the owner is out of town so we'll make
appointments in a couple of weeks, and I'll start putting loose beads
in the glass gallery that already carries my jewelry, got another
gallery/boutique scoped out to hit next week. Oh ya, almost
forgot about the boutique that wants me to come back for Mothers
Day/Graduation. And the door that will close?? eBay has been
extreeeeeemly
slow for me, but it's been good to me, so I'll not stop completely,
just slow to a trickle.
How to arrange 5 cats -
part five
When you wish upon a star....

2/10/08
How
to arrange
5 cats -
part four
All in a circle, pheweee......

2/6/08
Lordy Lordy, look who's 40 + 40. Art, my favorite uncle, had a
birthday party over the weekend. Happy 80th Birthday, Art ! ! !

2/4/08
Have you seen this email going around? How embarrasing...
"When making a fake ID, attach a picture of yourself only...
no matter how much you love your girl."

2/1/08
Found this prickly pear cactus patch not far from my house. If
you think this is a lot of cactus, you should see how much is behind
it, too, at least double.

1/30/08
According to Bill Nye, The Science Guy, if everyone in the U.S. flushed
their toilets just one less time per day, we would save 1.5 billion
gallons of water per day. That's enough to fill 2000 Olympic
sized swimming pools. Kids, please don't try this trick at
school, and parents, please don't try this trick at work........

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1/28/08
Since I'm originally from North Dakota, I have some North Dakota trivia
for you. Today, millionaire and former North Dakota governor, Ed
Shafer, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Secretary of Agriculture.
How did his father, Harold Shafer, make his fortune.
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he invented Mr Bubble |
1/27/08
How
to arrange
5 cats -
part three
All in a row, two black & whites facing north, two blacks and one
torty facing south 
1/21/08
Well it's in the low 40"s and raining here tonight in north
Texas. I've been doing some work on the computer, rainy weather
is so soothing to me, serene... Then Weazel jumps up on my desk
to get some attention. That fine - except - Weazel likes the
rainy weather too. No, he literally
like the rainy
weather. He's sopping wet from playing outside, and trying to
brush up against my face. He's my virtual weather forecasting
cat, if I get lost in my work, he lets me know if it's raining...
1/20/08
How to arrange 5 cats -
part two
All in a row, facing one direction, color synchronized.

1/13/08
Riddle me this Batman: How many ways can you arrange 5 cats? Answer:
I'm not sure, but we're going to find out. --- We feed our fab-5 tuna
every now and then. We started the tradition when we were feeding them
'average' food. Tthe oil from the tuna was good for their coats,
and
when it's time to take one to the vet, all we have to do is run the can
opener and they come running. This is the first
installment of "how to arrange five
cats"

1/10/08
I can't think of a better way to start my first post of this year than
with one of the best video's I've ever seen. Thanks for the link,
Cheryl.
The
Window Washer
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