Kingfisher Cove

Another Hot Flash, Another Day

Speaking of hot, I’ve got a glass piece firing in my kiln as we speak. It’s the same size as this one (that broke in the kiln) (which I’m sure hoping this one doesn’t do), so it’s going to take a lot of hours for it to heat up and cool down. I really have no idea what to expect. This is how it looked when I set it inside the kiln:

All of this is experimenting, after all. I do keep a log for everything I do, with before & after pictures and the details of the kiln settings, etc. That way, when things go haywire, I can pretty much determine the reason. (Sort of). I’m at the point now where I need to learn how to set some custom programs on my kiln — I’ve just been using the default ones. There are some things that really need to heat up a lot slower than the default settings, but I have to admit I’m a little intimidated about undertaking the customizing. That kiln controller is not what you’d call “user friendly.”

Oh! I just realized I haven’t picked up my bowl I made at that slumping workshop I went to a couple of weeks ago! OMG! I need to go do that.

I found a different veterinarian! We’d noticed a new one that just went in up the road from us, and one day on his way home from work, John noticed the woman vet in the parking lot with TWO WEENIE DOGS. He said to me, “They must be weenie dog people!” So I set up an appointment with Peanut and showed her the itemization from the previous vet. She could do the exact same procedure for about $400 less! (And sure enough, she is a weenie dog person; she has two that are half-sisters just like Peanut and Bailey, and their names are Piglet and Molly!) I’ll take Peanut in Monday morning and will be able to pick her up later that afternoon. I’ll be glad when this ordeal is over.

Then, I saw the ear doctor yesterday for my follow-up. I went in rather nervous, afraid that he might need to poke a hole in my eardrum so it would finally drain (wha? what’d you say? I can’t hear you!), but thankfully it didn’t come to that. It may yet, but for now he wants to go about 3 weeks and see if it drains on its own, which he said it very likely will. I hope so. I’m weary of not hearing out of it. And I hate the sound of my voice. You know how it is when you plug your ears and talk? Yeah. That.

Yesterday, my friend, Helen, came to visit and spent most of the afternoon and into the evening! It was so great! She came up from Oregon earlier in the week to celebrate her mom’s 85th birthday and spend some time with her, and then she and her brother were driving to Eastern Washington today for a big weekend family reunion. She brought along another picture of Mojo with his siblings when he was a wee baby, that I hadn’t seen before!

I’d say he stands out from the crowd, wouldn’t you?

Speaking of which, I was graced once again this morning to a pile of guts on the landing. Yeah, I get it. It’s a gift.

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Technorati Tags: fused glass,warm glass,kiln,ear infection,Helen,Oregon,weenie dogs,Mojo,serial killer

Blah Blah Blah

Maybe it’s from coming down from a perfectly lovely weekend at Harstine, or maybe it’s because I’m coming up for air after reading an 800-page epic novel that continues to swirl around in my brain, but these past few days I’ve been rather meh. (Translation: blah)

Also? My ear is still plugged. It doesn’t hurt, and hasn’t since almost immediately after starting the antibiotics, but it’s still plugged and my hearing sucks out of that ear. I’m hoping it’s just a process and that the ENT doc, when he looks at it again on Friday, doesn’t say: “Well, looks like we’re going to need to drill a hole in your eardrum and drain it.” Because I’ll just run screaming from the exam room. Plugged ear? I can live with that, right?

 

Saturday, while we were at Harstine, John’s folks came to visit and they brought along their newest addition, wee lil’ Chibi! We couldn’t get over how tiny (and adorable) she was! OMG.

 

Yes, we were smitten! Our weenies looked like mooses by comparison. Peanut kept nudging her with her nose, like “Let’s play!” Lots of tail-wagging and requisite sniffing ensued.  She is just so perfectly formed and so dachshund!

We noticed last Thursday night that Peanut had a big nodule beneath her eye. It was big, and it really distorted her face. It also had to bug her eye, I would think, as it was quite weepy. We thought it might be a bee sting, so we kept watch over it during the weekend. It never changed — didn’t increase in size, nor did it decrease. She didn’t exhibit any signs of distress over it, so we figured it wasn’t hurting her. I took her to the vet Monday and it turns out it’s an abscessed tooth. Plus, she has a number of teeth that are very very bad. Long story short, she’s on antibiotics (the swelling has greatly improved) and is scheduled for “oral surgery” next Tuesday. But get this: the vet’s estimated range of cost for this procedure?

                                         $744 - $922 

And that’s not counting Monday’s $233 visit that involved blood work and a mandatory rabies shot. I can remember being young and single in my 20s earning hardly enough money to make ends meet, and while a vet bill (for my cat at the time) was never welcomed, it certainly wasn’t crushing. This? This is crushing.

Why does everything continue to skyrocket in price while jobs can’t be found and those who do have them get measly 1-2% annual raises? (What with our 401(k)s tanking and the equity on our house tanking, while corporate executives rake in obscene wages and gazillion-dollar bonuses and golden parachutes on their way out after fucking up, we are feeling pretty pissed off right now. Like John said, “I’ve done everything right. I started packing away money into my retirement account in my 20s and have worked my ass off ever since. To what end? The loss of a decade or more of retirement money and house equity.”) (We refuse to acknowledge the possibility that our retirement Harstine house is a pipe dream. But? Things certainly need to change for it to not be).

At any rate, I checked with another vet that just opened up down the road from us, and they told me their going rate for Peanut’s procedure is significantly less. So I have an appointment to take her there tomorrow and see what they can do for us.

Breathe. One day at a time.

Blah.

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Technorati Tags: blah

I May Live

I couldn’t take it anymore, so on the advice of good friends, I went to see an Ear-Nose-Throat doctor earlier this week. (He was an odd duck). He diagnosed a “severe ear infection.” In fact, he said, “Your ear drum is bulging.” Yikes! No damned wonder I was in so much pain; my ear drum was on the brink of rupturing! He prescribed a high-octane antibiotic (Amoxicillin just wasn’t cuttin’ it) and some Percocet, for which I was eternally grateful. As it turned out, I’ve needed very little of the Percocet as the antibiotic kicked in almost immediately and it’s doing the job! I still feel like I’m “under water,” but the pain is basically GONE. Oh, hooray! (What a nightmare that was).

It was a rather high-tech ENT office. He had this contraption with a tiny camera on a long skinny wand attached to a monitor and he stuck it up my nostrils to check out my Eustachian tube (“to make sure it isn’t blocked by a tumor,” he said. Jeeze.) Then he played the video back for me. I don’t know about you, but I’m not too keen on seeing the internal parts of my body. It’s just….ew.

In other news:

Yesterday, I colored my hair. I’d seen a couple of recent photos that made me cringe — I was looking a bit “floozy-ish” with the white-blonde look, so I decided to “tone it down” somewhat. I picked up an ash-blonde shade and it turned out BROWN. Gah! Not happy about it, although I do know it will lighten up after a few washings. It always does. Which is the reason it would become “white-blonde” after using moderate blonde shades. It does that when I have it professionally colored, too. But for now…eh.

Also! John’s folks got a PUPPY! And it’s a “toy” dachshund! It will be quite a lot smaller than our miniatures, and at 5 weeks, she’s the size of a remote control!

Is she adorable, or what? We can’t wait to meet her! They’re planning to call her Chibi-Chan (or maybe Chibi-San), which means “little one” or “little girl” in Japanese.

I’ve got Mojo locked inside; we’re heading to Harstine for the weekend and John will come home about noon. I know Mojo will be happy about that, but for now he’s NOT. He wants out in the sunshine. S’posed to be in the 80’s this weekend! Perfect!

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Technorati Tags: ear infection,toy dachshund,miniature dachshund,Harstine Island

Man-Oh-Man

My ear is about to kill me. Damn but it hurts. It’s making me all kinds of crabby. Next up may well be weepy.

Half-way between a fog of pain and a fog of painkillers (and no, not the good kind; more like the useless kind), John and I had our date last night. Dinner was great! I’ve had so-so experiences before at Olive Garden (and I hate restaurants that don’t accept reservations so you have to stand around outside among the hordes with a buzzy thing in your hand). But our food was excellent, as was the service. We had an appetizer of stuffed mushrooms that were amazing; shared a bottle of White Zin; my main course was Grilled Shrimp Caprese, and John had the Parmesan Polenta-Crusted Steak — both so nummy; and then we ordered a tiramisu to-go and ate it late last night after the movie. Mmmm….

[It has been many many moons since we’ve eaten out, so I’m sure that contributed to the awesomeness of the experience — not having to cook!]

And then! That movie! “Inception”, with Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page. Talk about a mind-bender. My God. Knowing what I know now, I really want to see it again and pay closer attention — probably when my ear is better. The fact is, there were times I couldn’t hear the dialogue well (the music would soar and drown it out, I think because we were near one of the surround-sound speakers, plus — my hearing in that hurty ear isn’t 100% right now). John and I rehashed the whole thing afterwards, filling in some blanks but raising a few more questions. Then I spent some time last night crawling around the web and reading forum discussions by people who had seen the movie, just to get their take. It was very interesting. The movie was incredible, complex, riveting, and did I mention mind-bending? Wow. Just…wow.

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In the warm glass department, I’ve had one nice little success and a few failures. I tried to fire-polish the piece that had broken off a chip in the kiln to see if it might “heal” but instead it just broke off another chip. Bub-bye. Then, I’d bought a round bowl mold at my workshop the other night and I ruined two pieces of glass trying to cut a circle with my circle cutter. Finally I had a success and realized the circle was too small! Then I tried another one and it was just a smidge too big, enough so that I was afraid it might curl around the mold edge when I slumped it. (Math/measurement/spatial ability = Tonya’s nemeses). I got lucky and was able to trim it down with that circle cutter, though. (Whew! Really didn’t expect that to work!) So…I  now have the round piece (for the bowl) all decorated and fusing in the kiln. And I decided to take the mis-sized small circle (that doesn’t fit any mold I have) and just “play” with it — I designed it with some different colors of frit and paints and glass pieces and we’ll just see how they work. You know, for the helluvit.

Here’s the nice little success story, though. It’s the same size as the other little slumpy bowls I made. It started out looking like this before I stuck it in the kiln. After fusing it, and then slumping it into the mold, this was the result:

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Today, John has been outside with two guys with a woodchipper. (Yes, “Fargo” definitely comes to mind!) At least one of the guys is on John’s crew at Da Airplane Company — lots of tattoos on both of them! I’d take a picture (because it’s quite the MOTLEY CREW!) but other than delivering a beer to them now and then, I’ve been keeping clear. They’ve been going at it all day long — what a job. No nap for John today…

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Technorati Tags: ear infection,Inception,Olive Garden,fused glass,slumped glass,warm glass

Aches & Pains (translate: getting old ain’t for wimps)

John’s been busy tending to some major household projects, such as hacking back bushes, trees, grass, weeds, you-name-it; staining the deck; washing vehicles [except mine, ahem]; hauling loads to the dump; and chopping up kindling for our Harstine fire thingy. He is whooped. (He’ll need to head back to work on Monday to recuperate!) Lots of moans and groans from that corner.

And then a couple of days ago I blew my nose (hard, apparently) and immediately my ear screamed and just about knocked me to my knees. It’s been killing me ever since so I went to the doctor today to have it looked at. Thankfully no rupture, but a borderline infection — fluid in there building up all kinds of pressure. So I’m taking a decongestant and if it doesn’t ease it up in a day or two, I start on antibiotics. I totally understand why babies SHRIEK when they have ear infections! I remember when Nate had them and it was just awful. I remember once in particular when he was about two and he kept sobbing, “Why me? Why me?” Poor little guy.

Oh, and I keep waiting for that soy/black cohosh to kick in. Lordy lordy, it can’t be too soon. In the interim, I may need to strap a fan to my head and aim it at my face. Or something.

We have a “date” to look forward to tomorrow evening, though! My dad had given us a restaurant gift card for our birthdays, which we are going to use, and then we’re going to see the movie “Inception.” It sounds fascinating, the reviews have been over the moon, plus Ellen Page is my most favorite actress!

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Technorati Tags: homefront,aches and pains,dinner and a movie

The Rest of the Week

Ever since we abruptly returned home from Harstine Monday evening, the weather has been stellar — of course. It’s possible that stellar here still meant non-stellar/windy there, but probably not. That seems to be how the world rolls. But it’s good that we’re home on this second week of John’s vacation; he’s been attending to projects around the house. And me? Ha! You know what I’ve been up to!!

Glass!

And yet…

I just now pulled my latest effort out of the kiln. And what an effort it was! (Lots of head-banging). And now the head-banging continues, because for whatever reason, a small chunk broke off during the slumping process. So frustrating! I *think* I’ve figured out why, although it was pretty much random. But I suspect that the glass was a leeeeetle bit too big for the mold and stress happened at some point. (When, I don’t know, whether heating up or cooling down). I’m bummed. (But I also realize it’s part of the learning curve).

I might actually attempt to re-slump it and see if the glass flows in to “heal” that break. Might be worth a try.

In the meantime, I have two more small projects back in the kiln! (It hadn’t totally cooled off yet!) It’s nice to try to aim for the kiln-cooking overnight. It amazes me how much time it takes — and it must — because glass is weird.

This is how the small projects looked before placing them inside the kiln:

 

What’s that white powder, you ask? It’s ground white glass! (Called “frit” which comes in different coarseness and this one is powder). The picture below has coarse aqua frit:

I have NO IDEA what to expect. After all, I’m EXPERIMENTING!

And then, this evening I attended a workshop at our local glass shop for learning how to “slump” (which I’ve been doing all along since I’ve had my kiln, but I love seizing learning opportunities!) It was quite fun. There were 7 of us students, all of whom have stained glass experience. All were women, all were smart and interesting. We were all designing bowls, whether square or round, and we learned about the process of first fusing the glass together into a flat piece, and then setting that finished flat piece over the bowl mold so that it would “slump” into the bowl in the kiln. (It’s a two-step process that takes many many kiln hours!) The shop has several kilns (including HUGE ONES). I’ll stop by later next week to pick mine up. This is what I came up with:

It’s pretty much on the fly — you’re limited to the glass pieces available for the class. I snapped this picture after I’d stuck it in the kiln. These were a couple of the other students’ projects:

(That bottom one is way cute).

It was fun to talk to the ladies about stained glass. Some of them have been doing it for many years, and are really into huge, gigantic projects — a couple of which were there in the shop under “construction.” It’s a great place to go hang out and work on projects, especially large ones where you can spread out. John and I took a several-week-long stained glass course there back in 1999 and I remember the peaceful feeling of cutting and grinding and putting together a project after very stressful work-days. It was so therapeutic for me. It still is. It can be frustrating and intimidating at times, but there is just something about the feel of glass…

In other news, isn’t Mojo weird?

Out of the blue, he just plopped down in the middle of the kitchen floor.

He also likes to walk on glass. Yeah, right in the midst of me working on a project. Cats.

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Technorati Tags: fused glass,slumped glass,warm glass,stained glass,MojoTheCat

Save Us From…What?

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Technorati Tags: RWNJ,Teabaggers,Tea Party,Tin Foil Hats

Back Home And Back At It

We actually planned on staying at Harstine until Wednesday (aiming to get home in time that day before the garbage man came!) but the relentless wind ended up being too much for us. Oh, it was awful! It never took a break, and it basically kept us trapped inside the camping trailer for over 36 hours. It was COLD (such a difference from those 90+ deg. temps days before), and being outside was miserable, dodging projectile fir cones and hearing that non-stop roar in my ears head. My internet connection refused to cooperate which made me hella-grumpy, and even though I read my book off and on, I wanted to be doing other things. You know, like taking a beach walk. Or sitting out on the deck and reading instead of the uncomfortable trailer sofa cushions. Ugh, cabin fever in the worst possible way.

So, last evening we realized that Mojo was inside napping, I’d already cleaned the bathroom and vacuumed (because I needed to MOVE MY MUSCLES SOMEHOW), so all we needed to do was pack up and go. And we did.

I had a couple of fun boxes waiting for me when arrived home from my glass supply place. That was fun!

And in between unpacking and doing laundry and getting groceries, I’ve started to play again. One of the items in my delivery was a new mold. I don’t have a picture of it, and it’s currently cooling in the kiln after applying the kiln wash (but it’s still too hot to pull out of there). It’s a 10” square shallow plate/bowl, so quite a lot bigger than the previous ones I made. I spent some time experimenting with a design and I’m thinking I like this. You never exactly know what you’re gonna get!

Once I can pull that mold out of the kiln, I’ll fuse this, and then tomorrow I should be able to slump it into the mold.

And of course, today is lovely. Warm, sunny, and NO WIND.

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Technorati Tags: glass fusing,glass slumping,warm glass,summer

Improvements!

Not bad for a 24-year-old camping trailer, eh?

It’s needed to be power-washed for, oh, probably 23 of those years! No more globs of moss  hanging off windows, no more ugly black and green streaks just about everywhere. It almost sparkles! (With polka dots!)

And today John stripped the old remnants of deck stain off the deck and weather permitting, he’ll re-stain it tomorrow. Looking good!

Wow, the wind has kicked up and this trailer is rattling! It’s sure been a vacation here of weather extremes. Strong winds or oppressive heat; take your pick.

Isn’t it pretty how evening sun shines on the tree trunks? I’ve always loved that.

 

It just might be time for a little nap…

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Technorati Tags: Harstine Island

Mojo Stories

Yesterday, Mojo caught a crow. Now, to be honest, I have often mentally encouraged Mojo to go after the crows because they are so DAMNED annoying around here, with their incessant noise and birdseed robbing. John even has a “crow gun.” It looks rather intimidating (it would easily scare off an interloper if the situation ever arose), but it’s actually an air rifle that shoots plastic (I think) pellets, and John uses it to scare away the crows, not actually shoot them. But here was Mojo way down in the gully holding down the flapping crow while the crow’s peeps were screaming bloody murder at the cat, dive-bombing him, and creating a ruckus like nothing I’d seen or heard before. Those crows were MAD.

Crows are big. I think they may even be as big as a cat, in many cases (although Mojo is a big boy). It was hard to know about this particular crow (it might have been a younger one), but eventually it did escape Mojo’s claws of death, perhaps as a result of intimidation, who knows? (And we don’t know the resulting condition of the crow, either). But long after Mojo appeared back on the deck (all nonchalant), those crow-peeps continued to carry on and verbally ream Mojo a new ass.  What’s funny is that this morning (many many hours after that incident) we saw Mojo sauntering down the road toward the neighbors’ and the crows were squawking at him from every corner of the woods. They know him, and they carry a grudge!

Last night, we heard coyotes nearby. They make the hair stand up on my spine because their sound is like no dog. Their sound is alien and wild and wicked.

Yes, I was concerned about Mojo slinking around out there in the dark. I have to remind myself at times that he is, after all, mortal. But a part of me suspects he could hold his own against coyotes. And he’s proven time and again that not only is he amazingly bold and capable, but he also carries with him whole lot of common sense and Zen wisdom.

I’ve never before known a cat the likes of Mojo. He’s the Jack Reacher of cats.

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Technorati Tags: Harstine Island,MojoTheCat