Pretty Pretty Bang Bang

Here’s how I really feel about winter:

Thanks for the picture, mom!

This weekend Steve and I reintroduced ourselves after a long absence. He was only out of town for four days, but we’ve been spending less and less time together as he’s been traveling we’ve had many social obligations. Friday, Steve had to work in Branson so I went along and passed the time shopping at the outlet mall, which was very disappointing. I managed to spend $20 on underwear for Steve and $13 on a new workout shirt for myself. Whew! Stop the spending insanity! Friday night we had a very nice dinner at D’Arpino’s, one of our favorite mid-priced Italian restaurants. It was a nice way to start the weekend.

Saturday evening we hosted a potluck dinner for friends Sarah, Dennis and Sean and had a fun evening of great food and friendship despite the awful weather. It rained so much that we awoke on Sunday to a wet basement which we haven’t experienced in quite some time. We started the fans and dehumidifier and things are drying out quickly.

Sunday we spent the day together drinking coffee, reading the paper and running errands. We finally solved each other’s problem of anniversary gifts. This year, we bought each other a really nice pair of boots from local retailer PFI Western Wear. Many of you may be shocked that I would shop in a western store, but the truth is that I adore cowboy boots. My faithful Frye Harness boots will still be worn regularly, but now I have a beautiful pair of chocolate, black and turquoise cowboy boots to add to my collection. Steve got a gorgeous pair of chocolate ostrich. We do love taking advantage of a good sale. Yes, it’s a bit unconventional of us to just buy the gifts right in front of each other and wear them immediately, but we had a lot of fun doing it and are now looking forward to a relaxing weekend in KC to celebrate 12 years of marital bliss. It may sound boring, but it’s always a fun time for us.

I have the day off from school today so I’m planning on running errands that didn’t get done yesterday, working in the formerly soggy studio, and doing some laundry. Hope your day is productive too!

It is done! My scale model table is finally finished and ready to turn in today. It’s steel with a copper planter and, yes, that’s real grass planted in the middle. The top measures about 6″ x 4″ and it stands 2.7″ high. Sadly, it’s too small for Barbie so I guess it will just be a table to sit on my table.

Last night, while enjoying dinner at Mick and Carrie’s, they tuned me in to what must be one of the funniest things I’ve seen on the Internet in a long time. [funnyordie.com](http://www.funnyordie.com) has a series of three short videos entitled Drunk History. The synopsis is simple: get somebody drunk, then ask them to tell you about a famous moment in history. While the Alexander Hamilton/Aaron Burr story is amusing, the Ben Franklin stories are hilarious. Check it out for yourself, but be warned of the language. Don’t play it at work!

[Drunk History Vol. 2](http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/6eff3fba0d)

Except for the fact we have power (thankfully) and our bathroom isn’t in the middle of a remodel, it feels like the January 2007 ice storm all over again. School has been cancelled for the second day and I’m pretty much homebound. It’s not all bad, as I’m getting a lot done, but I am getting a bit restless. Maybe I’ll attempt an outing later this afternoon, but I doubt it. It’s really bad outside. Here’s picture of the tree in our front yard with about an inch of ice coating it:

Oh, and did I mention it’s currently 20 degrees and windy?!

Well, school was cancelled today so I decided to get some work done. Since my table was finished, I spent the morning working on a special order for Valentine’s Day. Once that was done, I treated myself to a new design.

I rarely wear post earrings, preferring dangles. However, bundling up in the winter with turtleneck sweaters and scarves means my long earrings frequently get tangled in the sweater or scarf and pull out threads. I’ve been toying with the idea to make myself a pair of post earrings and this is what I made today:

As you can see, they are really small! I deliberately made them funky and not exactly alike. I figure if we’re going to have all this crummy weather, I should have some fun, happy earrings to make me feel better. Now I guess I’d better get back to doing some real work!

Weather-wise, Saturday was a lovely day. It was around 55 degrees, sunny and calm. Valerie and I went flea marketing then ended the day with a great meal, cooked by Kevin, and a terrific movie (Smokin’ Aces). Sunday was a bit of a shocker as we woke to what looked like another sunny, warm day. The wind was blowing but it didn’t seem cold. That is, until we ventured outside. Brrr! It was 25 degrees and very chilly. It seemed like typical temperatures for February, but I was enjoying the mid-50s we were having. Fast forward to this morning where I’ll take yesterday’s weather over today’s. It’s sleeting, the roads are encrusted with ice, we have thunder and lightening and it’s just downright nasty. It’s so bad that almost all schools are closed including MSU (for the morning classes anyway). Steve’s supposed to be on a plane to Phoenix, but he’s been stranded on the runway since around 6 a.m. I just got a call from him telling me that he was going to drive to Arkansas and get a flight out of there since it doesn’t look like it’s going to let up any time soon.

I hope class is cancelled this afternoon since I really don’t want to walk over to school in this mess. I already skipped my workout so I’d probably be willing to skip school too (except my piece is due today). Now that I have a whole morning free, I think I’m going to enjoy my time. Maybe I’ll actually get caught up on some special orders for Valentine’s Day!

It’s been one of those weeks where all the little things got pushed aside. The only thing I thought about almost all week was my metal project. Monday I ground off the excess metal around the legs. Tuesday I did more grinding followed by filing (using the power grinder outside during a storm. Not my smartest move). Wednesday the fun continued as I kept filing and started polishing. Damn! This thing was taking a long time to construct! Thursday was polishing and welding. And it’s still not done. However, the legs are welded together which was a major chore. Next up is grinding and polishing around the welds and welding the top to the base. Whew! I’ll be glad when this thing is done and I can go back to the easy job of making jewelry. Photos to come when it’s done – I promise.

This morning Steve and I took some time to reintroduce ourselves and get some paperwork done. Steve’s been gone all week for work and will be gone again next week so we’re trying to make the most of our time together. This morning we paid bills, drank coffee, listened to some LPs (he wanted to hear the Sgt. Pepper’s album) and caught up on our week. This afternoon he’ll be studying and Valerie and I will be flea marketing. Tonight is dinner and a movie at Valerie and Kevin’s which should be fun.

Happy 2nd birthday Lydia, one of my favorite nieces! I remember two years ago when Ralph called us at 5 a.m. to tell us the good news: Julia had a sister. Lydia is funny, headstrong, opinionated and smart; just like her mom! She’ll give Julia a run for her money which is what Ralph did for me many years ago. Hopefully, Julia and Lydia will form a close relationship like I did with my sister. Happy birthday, little one. 

First of all, I want to preface this post by saying that I grew up in a household filled with great music. We listened to The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Van Halen, Vladamir Horowitz and more. My dad made sure I heard many different types of music and, even if I didn’t like them, learn to appreciate them. Of course, being the pre-teen that I was, I was not going to listen to my parents music. No, I was going to listen to my own music. It was much cooler than theirs. That being said, I attempted to go back, musically, to my youth.

Valerie and I have been on a flea marketing kick lately and have been adding to our ever-expanding vinyl collections. Sunday I made the decision to purchase the following double album:

I remember seeing the movie and falling completely in love with the soundtrack. I bought it (a double LP) with my allowance and played it for months. It was full of classic Beatles songs from the Sgt. Pepper’s and Abby Road albums. Never mind we had the actual Beatles versions, I wanted these songs done by the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of seeing the movie, here’s a brief synopsis:

Billy Shears, grandson of the famous Sergeant Pepper must save the magical musical instruments of the band from music tycoon B.D. Brockhurst.

The cast was full of stars: The Bee Gees, Peter Frampton, Billy Preston, Steve Martin, George Burns, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper and Earth, Wind and Fire. You’d think with all these great people, it would be a terrific movie with a decent soundtrack. At the time, I thought so. After purchasing it on Sunday, I think differently.

It’s bad, people. Monumentaly bad. The only good songs are Aerosmith’s version of Come Together and Earth, Wind and Fire’s version of Got To Get You Into My Life. That’s it. The worst offenders are Sandy Farina, who apparently fashioned herself as the next Olivia Newton John, and Frankie Howard, who’s so bad I have nothing to say about him. Still, I have spent the morning listening to the entire soundtrack and laughing my butt off. It was worth the money for so much entertainment. I now leave you with one last look at the album that should never have been made:

After a long Tuesday afternoon of cutting out the top of my table for class by hand, Kevin suggested I use a [plasma cutter](http://store.cyberweld.com/plasmacutters.html) to roughly cut out the legs, then grind off the excess. It has been about a year since I took my welding class and used the plasma cutter, but I remember how much I loved it. There’s just something exciting about using an electrical charge, gas and compressed air to cut through a thick sheet of steel. Oh, the power! Anyway, the cutter I used at OTC last year had a thicker tip so I was really excited to use a smaller tip a be able to cut more precisely this time. The results were a bit messy and I have some clean up to do, but I cut out four legs in far less time than it took me to cut the table top. Next up: grinding off the excess and shaping the legs. I think I’ll do that next week as I have a planter to make and it should be easy to assemble and solder that at home.

I’m beginning to like my table model and would love to make it life-size someday. I just don’t even want to think how heavy the thing would be! I’ve designed it to be 7 ft. x 4 ft solid steel. Guess I’d have to reinforce the floors.