Tribute

 Recently I was reading through one of my cookbooks and this was a recipe title that I found:  "Faux Fondue Au Beurre d'Arachide".  I looked at that title and without reading the recipe to see the ingredients, I loosely translated it to mean "Fake Fondue of Sipder Butter".  THEN I looked at the ingredients.  Ah...Fake PEANUT butter fondue!

Then, for some reason, I was reminded of my 9th grade language teacher.  Mr. P. was a very interesting individual (which, at 15, I couldn't quite appreciate).  He was a short, rather round individual and was quite as bald as the proverbial billiard ball.  He had emigrated to Canada from Lithuania or Latvia.  I don't remember which one.  I just know it was one of those little countries that were part of the USSR.  His native language was neither English nor French--this might explain the strange accent that people complained of later when I took French in college.

Mr.P had a number of entertaining quirks.  He was a firm believer in students arriving on time and not only paying attention, but acually looking like they were paying attention.  He also found gum to be anathema.  The thing I remember best from class is him bouncing between the rows of desks either inquiring,"Do you haf a chewing gum in your mouth?"  or demanding, "Seet op, seet op, seet op!!"  (Sit up!)  And heaven help the poor student who actually fell asleep in his class.

Partway, through my 9th grade year Mr. P decided for some obscure reason to invest in a bad toupee.  I don't even think he waited for a holiday or weekend.  One day he was hairless and the next he had this amazing wig.  We had all managed to close our mouths long enough to get through class, when the next class of students started arriving in the hallway.  The window in the classroom door was soon full of staring amused teen-agers.  In exasperation, Mr. P pulled the shade, so that they were unable to see.  Whereupon, one enterprising young man--being taller than most--proceeded to jump up and down in order to see Mr. P through the transom window.

At some point during my high school career, Mr. P also sponsored his sister and she also emigrated to Canada. 

I only had Mr. P for one year, but it is obvious that he made a lasting impression on me.

Summer Vacation

 Summer vacation...so far it has not really been much of a vacation.  I have been busy catching up on all the things that had gotten neglected while I was working.  Oh, and let's not forget...every "free" minute is being used to file for unemployment and look for work.  I shall soon be an expert at filling out on-line job applications.

I find filing for unemployment and all the necessary requirements to be extremely tedious.  I begin to suspect that I don't like to play by someone else's rules...And I am very frustrated by the wait.  I keep receiving letters telling me to continue to file for unemployment, but that I will not be receiving unemploymnet benefits for the weeks I have already filed.  Deep breath in...deep breath out...this too shall pass.

I have quite a few new beads and I have a new necklace started--pictures to come soon--all over the dining room table...AND I rearranged all the furniture because we have a major house repair project coming up (Yes, ANOTHER one!!) and all the furniture will have to be relocated out of the master bedroom.  Trying to find a place to put everything is requiring great skills of creativity and imagination because our house is not that big.

But for now, I'm going home to make a new recipe for Pad Thai.

Unemployed

I have been rather ungently ushered into the frightening world of the unemployed.  Last Friday was my last day of work.

I have already filed my claim for unemployment and have been looking for work for some time.  Knowing that it will likely take some time before I can actually find another job, I have decided to treat my lampworking and jewelry making as a business.  So...each morning at 8:00 I go to work.  I even have a schedule to which I am trying to adhere.

Every day I am melting glass for at least an hour and completing one piece of jewelry to add to my inventory.

I also have allowed time to choose glass, colors, clean up and look for ideas and learn new skills.

I am not buying anything new at the moment.  The challenge is to see how much I can make with what is already at hand.  And should I run out of things to do or grow bored, I still have to stain the back deck and the remodeled bathroom requires paint.

Fifty-two

Last week one of my preschoolers wanted to know how old I was.  I told him I was old.  I was sooooo old that I couldn't remember how old I was.  Well, that didn't fly.  He looked at me with a great deal of skepticism and said, "Nuh uh!"  I relented and told him I was fifty-two.

About this time another child, who was avidly listening to this conversation contributes this little nugget--"Teacher, you aren't old!"  Then she moved on to the really important stuff..."I'm five!"  she reported, showing me five fingers, in case I didn't get it.

This little conversation started me thinking.  What if we all were to consider our age a matter of great pride?  We have managed to live to be five, fifteen, thirty-five, fifty!  What if instead of bemoaning our age--which we can't do anything about anyway--we were to celebrate it?  What if we used our birthday as a time to look back over the year and see all the things we accomplished?

Guess what?  I'm fifty-two!!!!!  I'm still married twenty-nine years later to my first husband...I bought a new camera and am learning to use it.  I learned how to blog!!!  I paid off another debt!  I tried vegan cooking!  It doesn't matter what we decide to do, we just need to continue learning new things, or maybe just being excited about the old things we know.  Or how about doing new things with our old knowledge.  I learned how to crochet dishclothes!  I started a new exercise routine--Zumba!  Whatever...just pick something.

Internet Experiment

I recently read on a friend's facebook that baking soda and peroxide mixed into a paste make a very good cleaner.  So--being the chemistry student who mixed all the chemicals to see what would happen--I tried it.  I happened to have both baking soda and hydrogen peroxide in the house at the same time.

I got my husband's popcorn popper.  We have one of the old-fashioned ones that you use on the stove and turn a little handle.  We have managed to kill several of the fancy electric poppers and so are back to a basic one which we hope will last a long time.  Anyway, it hasn't been cleaned since it entered the kitchen (I don't think) and was covered with a dark, greasy residue.

I covered it with baking soda and then squeezed hydrogen peroxide onto the baking soda.  There was none of the bubbling that I get when I combine vinegar and baking soda.  I let it sit for a while and then began to clean it off. 

For a non-toxic cleaner it works quite well.  However, it ONLY works if one applies copious amounts of elbow grease.  It doesn't appear to make everything wash off by magic--it requires major scrubbing.  I'm not sure it's any better than vinegar and baking soda.  It may not smell quite as wild as vinegar and baking soda does.

And here's my little experiment for today--frosted blossoms with sugar frit and my own headpins.

The headpins are made from rubino, light violet, and medium blue transparent effetre glass.  Since I'm still experimenting, I used a 20 gauge black annealed steel wire for the headpins.

The Lost Word

Choose a word for 2013.  I didn't.  I'm not much for New Year's Resolutions and this sounded a little like resolutions to me.  However, my word had other ideas.  It chose me.  So I had my word...it came to me while I was washing dishes...

This is easy, I thought.  I have a word.  I can do this.  Three months into the new year and I began to feel like Jane of Jane of Lantern Hill fame.  I had a word; I knew I had a word, but it was buried under all the debris of accumulated daily living.  I simply couldn't find my word.  "Create"--that's all fine, but I could barely decide what to fix for supper, never mind create.

So I made cookies...black and whites...from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar...and they were good!

Then spring started to arrive.

The apricot started to bud and then to bloom.  All that promise.  I could see the jars of jam and almost taste the apricot pineapple pie...All that promise gone in one cold night even though we built the tree a small fire.  I may still get enough apricots for a pie...I always hope.

And then Spring Break came and I got oxygen at long last.

I think that perhaps I am becoming reacquainted with my word.  The ivory beads are ivory with small pieces of silver leaf and encased in clear.  I didn't completely melt the silver off before I encased it because I wanted some of the sparkle to remain.

And finally there are these recycled earrings.  These have my very first attempt at making my own headpins.  Since I was experimenting I used black annealed steel wire (and also because that was what the store had available).  Making headpins is quite fun.  I just have to discover how to get my wire straighter and how long to cut it so I don't scorch my fingers when working with it. 

Today I decided to rearrange the studio.  It is crammed with paraphenalia from the bathroom remodel and seriously getting on my nerves (or maybe my LAST nerve).  Anyway, I got the bright idea that it needed to be rearranged.  So I did...I am quite certain that this was NOT my best idea.  But since it was a lot of work, it will remain this way for a while...at least a month.

I think that I am starting to live in the spirit of creativity again.

Has It Really Been a Month?

March.  What can I say about March?  I did have a lovely birthday.  I would say it was uneventful, but the cake we baked was an experiment and in the nature of experiments everywhere didn't quite cooperate.  The ganache refused to thicken in time and the final result--although tasty--was not lovely to look at.  We had made a peanut butter torte with cream cheese frosting and a chocolate peanut butter ganache.

We are still embroiled in bathroom remodelling.  This is likely to take some time as we are only buying materials as we have the actual money.

Spring break will be next week and I still have to get some oxygen for my torch.  I do not intend to go the entire vacation without taking some time to melt glass.

I'm hoping that the weather will cooperate long enough for me to get the early seeds into the ground.  I'm really wanting some fresh spinach and lettuce.

The laundry dryer has also decided to do its part in adding to the general chaos by burning out its heating element.  It still turns and blows air; however, it is cold air and takes all day to dry anything.  We have retaliated by drying things for about an hour and then hanging them to dry the rest of the way.  So far, it is working quite well.  It will go even better when it is a little warmer and a little less prone to drop rain without notice.