Will Work for Porcelain

I am blessed.  I am not homeless, hungry, insane (hey now watch it!) OR  standing on a street corner with a cardboard sign that says what I would be willing to work for.   But if I were, today it would say "Will Work for Fabulous Porcelain Tiles from Italy"

I was recently at Tiny Pieces, the store inside The Chicago Mosaic School where the wonderful Andrea vends tesserae and tools for the mosaic makers of the greater Chicago area.  While I was there I bought some fab tiles from  Italy.  The colors are stupendous and they break cleanly. They are a joy to work with.

I know, I am dropping participles right, left, up, down, and all around!

I came home with 10 of these tiles:  2 yellow, 2 dark green, 2 burgundy, 2 light blue and 2 light green.  I already had some white porcelain at home.  I went to Goodwill last week and found a wonderful small wooden table that is also a wine rack, and I decided to use my precious tiles on it.

I worked on a design for a few days and settled on something I had sketched a while back.  I tiled and tiled and tiled.  Sometimes late at night when all the other humans in my household had gone to sleep.  Today I was near to finishing.  And I ran out of light blue and light green.  Which are essential.

So I ordered more online!!

Here's what I have to date:

 

 

Here is proof it's a wine rack:

 

 

 

Can you feel my pain?  Here's a close up:

 

 

Just a few missing pieces...argh!

 

D. M., MD

I met my new primary care physician yesterday.  For privacy reasons he shall be known only by his initials, DM, MD.  He is a ...oh jeez, one of those things that reads the same forward and backward,...I am having a senior moment, and it's lasting a long long time.

Well, anyway, I haven't had a primary care doctor I liked for a few years.  Since my last favorite one got "promoted" to administration full time,  I switched to another doctor that I didn't care for as much.  Inertia kept me from seeking out a new one.  Then she left town.

Goodbye!!  Farewell!! Adieu!  Adios! 

It took a while to get in to see DMMD but I had a couple recommendations that I trusted, that he might be "the one."  He is! 

Here are things I like about my new doctor:

He knows his stuff.  And he figured out quickly that I know my stuff, too.

He is direct and does not mince words.  (He asked me what my natural hair color is, for example, when trying to figure out what my risk for skin cancer is.  When I said "gray" he didn't laugh.  He just said, "and before that?")

He has 2 degrees in Forestry and likes hiking.

He asked me nice questions about non-medical things like what I like to do in my spare time.

He told me a little about his family.

He has a blog!

He isn't going to make me come back for 6 months.  That I really like. 

He's a Palindrome!

If it weren't for bad luck...

Ok, maybe it hasn't been that bad.  I will just tell my tale and you can decide for yourself. I'll start with today and work backward.

On Mother's Day...my cell phone has no service.  So I can't call and talk to my mom.  I am royally bummed.  I am sorry Mom.  I just emailed you instead.  But it wasn't the same.

I had some work done on my car a few weeks ago and I have had it back in the shop TWICE since then to replace "defective parts."  At least no charge for the 2nd and 3rd tries to get it right.

A nice old guy backed into my car in the parking lot at Menards last Monday.  His ginormous Sierra truck was unscratched.  I have a big-ass dent in the side of my trunk.  Because it was in a parking lot "There is No Ticket." said the nice policeman who came to make sure we were exchanging information in a pleasant and friendly way.  (We were.)  I want to remember that in case I ever feel the need to visit revenge upon someone, make sure it's in a parking lot.   The policeman tried to make me feel better since "You were both pulling out of parking spots" but I did a little eye roll and said "Yeah.  But I pulled out first.  And then honked like crazy when he was pulling out toward my car."

Still.  No.  Ticket.

On the other hand:

It's Mother's day and my little people helped me plant flowers and veggies and herbs in the garden. (No Herb is not the guy who hit my car at Menards.)

The sky is blue.  The Cubs just beat the Nationals for the second day in a row.  The grass is cut, the carpets are vacuumed, and The Player is out buying a steak to cook on the grill.

I guess there are all kinds of luck around here after all.

Earth Day 2013

Earth Day 2013, a beautiful sunny warm spring day here in Central Illinois.  I spent the morning on my deck, grouting small mosaics that some of the women at the NCC Women's retreat made this past weekend.

I love me some women's retreat weekend!

I spent the afternoon running a few errands, then enjoying a short visit to a used book store.  Where I found "The Facts on File Dictionary of CLICHES"  (second edition.)  It's delightful and full of useless information about the origin of clichés. 

Because it is Earth Day, I looked under E to see if there were any clichés involving the word Earth.  Indeed!!  There is a cliché originally from Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls, 1940, which is...

"But did thee feel the earth move?"

  Really, Ernest?!  That is over the top. 

On Earth Day here is a sad message on our state of affairs in 2013:

Random Facts

Fact number one:
I worked so hard to get a pair of pantyhose on this morning that I broke into a sweat. 

Fact two:
I just got a new Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM to those in the know.)  I have a little sensor just under the skin of my ample tummy and a receiver that I wear like a pager.  It tells me my (approximate) blood sugar all the time.  I will change the sensor weekly.  It has an alarm if my blood sugar gets too high or too low.

Fact three:
On the CGM I can enter "events"  like eating carbs, taking insulin, or exercise.  Exercise is listed as light, moderate, or intensive.

Fact four:
I think the pantyhose episode counts as at least 5 minutes of intensive working out.

Fact five:
I saw a barn owl yesterday while hiking at Parklands.  No photos of the bird, but here are a couple photos of things I did see on my hike (60 minutes of moderate exercise).

Some kind of puffer-necked bird?

 

Not much greenery yet unless you get down on the ground and look very closely.

 

River nymphs must be sculpting.

 

 

Find the snail shell in this picture...squint...oh there it is!

Fact six:  I love Parklands. 

Fact seven:  Removing pantyhose counts only as 4 seconds of no exercise at all, unless that deep exhalation of relief can be included.  Then it's about 30 seconds of moderate joy.

Fact eight:  That's all folks!

Have Finkle Will Travel

I don't know what a Finkle is, but this semi driver definitely is dedicated to his, or is one, or is transporting one.  Saw this on I-70 in Ohio.

 

A couple other highlights of the trip included:

 

1.  Great views of the pandas at the zoo...just two days before the female went into estrus and the indoor part of the exhibit was closed for hanky-panky or artificial insemination.  Depending on the quality of the hanky-panky.  Those zoo biologists have such good jobs!

 

 

 

 

2.  Seeing one of Sisi's heroine's airplanes:

 

Now it's quiz time:

 

Which of these is from the Zoo?  Which of these is from the National Gallery?  And which of these was waiting for us when we got home?

 

A.

 

B. 

 

and finally C.

 

 

Good luck! 

 

We arrived home safe and sound.  I will probably not choose to drive 13 hours again straight through until at least one of the kids can share the driving.  Since they couldn't share the driving, they got a chance to share in the clean-up:

 

 

and there was some of the 9" of snow still left for us to see, though it was a bit of a let-down:

 

 

at least the kids didn't have to shovel when we got home!!!

 

 

 

The District of Washington

License plate from DC seen today with motto on the bottom edge "Taxation Without Representation."  True.  But is that the district motto, for real?  Inquiring minds want to know.

The kids think that DC should be called DW instead, not wanting any homage to Cristobal Colon, a.k.a. Christopher Columbus, to be present in our governmental monikers.  Washington, D.W. just doesn't sound right to old ears, though.  Just sayin'.

We have visited the Air and Space Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the National Zoo, and the Natural History Museum in the past 3 days.  We are all somewhat overstimulated.  Today J-dude reached a new level of overwhelmed crankiness from which he is now recovering.  Sisi is still soaking stuff in like crazy.  I just have sore feet. 

Tomorrow, our last day of sightseeing, is still up for grabs a bit.  It looks like we will go back to the Zoo to see a few exhibits we missed.  And then...who knows.  Certainly we will watch some more of March Madness on our 7000 TV channels at the fancy schmancy hotel where we are staying.

Speaking of this hotel, it is a cut above my usual price-range and service level, and kind of a fun treat for me.  We have a little studio with kitchennette, king bed and sofa bed.  Free breakfast and 4 nights of free dinner as well!  Indoor pool, a kids room with ping-pong table, and very friendly staff.  I feel happily spoiled.

Friday we will head home to The Player, Three-Point, and Samarra.  And maybe some snow still on the ground!