Jane, Jane, beautiful Jane.

And now for the day that all my blogger friends have been waiting for. I got to see Jane's socks up close and personal. We borrowed our friends car and drove up to Phoenix to check out an art show that we are thinking about participating in. It was a nice show and we got a brief visit with two artist friends from Utah that do that show. But....
The most important part of that trip was being able to visit with Jane. Jane and her girl tribe met us at the art show and we hung out there for a few hours. We then went to the Willow House for coffee and chai. Then we all headed over to Bookmans. Bookmans is a great used bookstore that we used to shop at often when we lived in Tucson. It was fun to be around all the books but the prices are much pricier than 15 yrs. ago and I didn't buy anything. Sad to say that I buy most of books at half.com these days. Jane uses Bookmans like a lending library. She will buy her books than trade them back in for store credit to get more books. If I lived near a Bookmans I would do the same.
Then we got to drive to Jane's and see where the family is living these days and to see the place of many blog stories. It's a sweet house. It was funny that at the time that we were there the fence had been pulled up all around the house and there were lot's of guys outside working. Apparently Jane had an oleander hedge that had that day disappeared and YES we got to meet Bob. We were all feeling pooped so we ordered Chinese and we let Jane's husband pick it up on the way home from work. We loved the timing in all this. We all ate and chatted, the girls played. Jane's girl #3 told Artie that she remembers her from when they lived in NY and Artie babysit for them Apparently she played spiders. Girl #3 was hoping that they could play spiders again.
In the living room Jane's house is this very sweet alter...so very Jane.And, also, in the living room is this very big fish tank. Michael and I think that maybe it is 120ish gallons. Wow, huh? Jane's husband is really into it. So very him.
We exhausted ourselves with talk and catching up and we all staggered off to bed. The next morning I got to spend a few moments with Jane's husband before he had to take off for work. Poor husband having to leave us vacationers behind. In his absence we had a rousing game of Snorta.
I love being associated with people that are doing their bliss. I find it a true honor to witness people that are doing exactly what they arrived on the planet to do. Jane arrived on the planet to be a midwife. Oh, you should have seen her face when she brought out her photo album out of all the births that she has attended. She was so sweet when she asked me if I was OK with blood. I am...the photo album is quite moving and stunning. Jane glowed and her aura grew ten fold when she talked about each woman and their baby. What a joyous time it was I had being with Jane in her dining room watching her become one of the most beautiful parts of herself. On the wall by the stairs that goes up to her room are all these pictures of women. She calls it her wall of women...it's pretty spectacular.
We got to have a moment together on the couch.
We had to leave all to soon to go and have lunch with some Ren Fair friends before we went back to Tucson. We left with promises that we'll see the Jane clan again.
Jane, Jane, beautiful Jane.

...toward the Tucson city lights.

Before I start this post about our trip to Tubac and Mexico I have a very important thing to tell you.
Last night as Michael was packing our bags and the girls are running around collecting their stuff I called the airline to confirm our reservation. I found out that I had made a mistake and instead of leaving at Friday at midnight we are really leaving Saturday at midnight. Oops. I guess I really did need a vacation.
Now back to our regular scheduled post....
One day on our trip we went South to Tubac and then on to Nogales, Mexico.
Tubac is an artists communtity that has it's origins in an old border fort town. Our friends had never been there so off we went. We brought a packed lunch and everyone ate in the van when we got there. The main village in Tubac is a bunch of adobe type buildings that are all tourist stores and art galleries. It was fun to walk through them and look and see what Southwest artists are up to. The one thing that really caught my eye is the art by this woman who manages Cirque de Soleil in Las Vegas. Think that style in figure form. I'm sorry I have no name or pictures but we've all got good imaginations, eh.
Xan felt like we should take a tour of the old presidio so off we went. This is a picture of she and her friend Kelly goofing off in school.And then while we walking around it was raining. After the rain stopped there was this gorgeous rainbow. Xan snapped this of me.
We had had enough of window shopping and playing tourist in Tubac so off we head to Mexico.These are our friends that we are staying with Beth (mom), Keith (dad), Ian (kid), Reilly (another kid), and Kelly (yet another kid). They are wonderful friends and hosts. It's one of those rare friendships where everyone gets along stupendously and sharing space with each other is relaxed and easy. I met Beth in an infant massage class just after our number 1's were born. We've been good friends ever since.
We walked around Nogales and did some shopping. Xan bought a cowboy hat, she's a regular vacquero now. Artie bought a red shirt for $4 that say's "pirates rock". Now Nogales is the border town of Mexico and Arizona that is just South of Tucson. We use to go there a couple of times a year when we lived in Tucson. Let me tell you...it hasn't changed much. It's still a dirty border town full of tourists and tourist trap shops. I think it was quite an eye opener for Miss Xan. We ambled around for an hour or so and then started asking the locals for suggestions for dinner. We ate at a great local joint called La Posada. This is us having a fun meal.By the way, the flan was to die for.
It was yet another fun day of vacation and this time we all (8 of us because Beth had to leave early to be home for a Girl Scout cookie pick up) squished into the Vanagon and drove off north toward the Tucson city lights.

...loving faces.

WELCOME TO THE ARIZONA RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL...

What a beautiful show. On Saturday we went to the fair to visit with some friends of ours that we know from working at the Florida Ren Fair. It was great good fun to be patrons and to be able to see shows. We went with our friends that we are staying with so there were 9 of us. We are getting pretty good at travelling in a pack of 9.
We saw the Mud show, the Pirate show, and the Dead Bob show. They were all so entertaining and in the case of Dead Bob a bit crude and lude but still very funny. Oh and we saw the Jousting...a bit too violent for my taste but we saw the last show which is the joust to the death. I should have known better. We saw our friends working just like we were in Florida. That was a bit strange seeing them in garb and we were not.
Xan had to buy a grain of rice with your name on it. Personally, I have always wondered why these are sold at Ren Fairs but they are...at all of them. Artie got some pirate trinkets. I'm sure I must of bought something but I can't remember what. Maybe it was just mead.
As we were getting ready to leave the show at dusk we ran into the Wyldmen who do the Mud show. I stopped them to thank them for such a fun show. Low and behold they whipped out their musical vegetables and played them for us.And then Michael the broccoli freak had to learn how to play the broccoli.I am going to put a link to their website in my sidebar. Anyone who plays vegetables for a living deserves to have permanent stasis in my blog. So track to the right and click away.
After the show was closed we went out to dinner with the 9 of us and our friends Nixi, Lance, and their son Elan.
After a dinner full of revelry and laughs we all got into our various magical vehicles and flittered away into the evening air.It was a day full of good times and loving faces.

"It's all about the people."

It seems that this vacation is turning out to be all about the people. Not that we aren't doing fun things and going fun places but it's the people that are making our vacation.
On Thursday morning (still wearing our travelling clothes because it seems our luggage needed some extra time to be tourists in Omaha) we went to the Rodeo Parade. Now, all the years that we lived in Tucson we never once went to the Rodeo Parade. It was a girls day out...none of the men in the household at our friend's house wanted to go. We drove to the Tucson Mall and took a shuttle down to the Rodeo grounds and then we walked along the road until we got to a spot where we could get a good view. Here are some of the things that we saw:


This parade is said to be the longest non-motorized parade in the nation. I don't know about you but I was expecting to see a lot more creativity and imagination dispayed but mostly it was people riding on horses, local marching bands, people riding on horses, stuff like what you see in my expertly taken pictures (I know, I know I've got such a keen eye), and more people riding on horses. I was told later that all the horses are a very big deal. Apparently one gets to see all kinds of different kinds of horses. I admit it, I saw all kinds of different horses. I was so impressed that I tool all kinds of pictures of them. I quess I'm just not about the horses. People weren't even dressed interestingly. A few were but not many.
So, we watched the parade for about 40 minutes and then the young girls got bored so we moved on to more excitng things like this:Now we thought that this was worth our attention.
Of course, there were a few "fry bread" booths to scope out. Ah, to be back in the land of real fry bread made by real Tucsonians. You can get plain (that means hot with grease) or with powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar, and (my personal favorite) taco style with beans and stuff. Hey, the Native Americans have been around longer than my tribe and if it's good enough for them then it's good enough for me. This is a picture of all us girls:As were sitting there a group of young thugs in training walked by and threw something on our blanket. It just so happens that a few minutes before that someone had thrown something at Artie's pantleg while we were watching the sumo wrestling. This thing is a small glass vile filled with some sort of yellowish liquid and when the vile is broken there is a vile smell that comes wafting forth. It smells like rotten eggs. One of the kids told me that one of the vendors was selling them. How did I miss that? Anyway I was told later that "you should have seen the look on my face" as I turned to the young thugs in training and told them exactly what I thought of what they just did. I remember the word "rotten" being repeatedly used.
All in all it was a great good time. We packed up our stinky, rotten egg smelling blanket and took the bus back to the mall.
I wish the parade itself had been visually more fun but like I said, "It's all about the people."

So far so good...

We were at the Wholesale Buyers Market in Philadelphia last week. This is our second time selling at a wholesale show. It's a whole new ball game for us selling to galleries and gift shops. So far it seems to be a good choice trying this out. We are hoping to be able to cut down on the retail shows a bit and pick up more wholesale accounts so that we won't have to be travelling as much. Not that I don't like to travel but as soon as we get back to Lopez full time we want to be more home bodies.
Being in a wholesale setting is very different than a retail one. It is slower..we may make 20-30 sales at a wholesale show versus a hundred at a retail show. The biggest difference for me is being in an aisle that is all clay artists. At this past show there were 5 rows of clay artists. It's very strange for me to be among all that clay, booth after booth. As I walked the show with Xan we found that we could get through about a row and half before we were saturated with that one element wether it was glass, clay, or jewelry. It is very fun however to hang with your peers and a lot of talking shop happens between customers.
We were across from two wonderful women Rebecca and Kristen. Rebecca started her own studio called R.Wood Studio. They hand build real fun function pottery in a variety of great colors. Rebecca is one of these people who wants to get the word out about peace, love, and beauty. She emanates it all. As soon as I have a minute I am going to put her link in my side bar. So keep an eye out over there for her! These are pictures of the clothing that she was wearing. The skirts are polartec that she has appliqued.


And here is a sweater that she appliqued.
These are pictures of Xan working for two of her clients.

It was a fun and profitable weekend. So far so good...

Thanks deary!

I am going to skip ahead on my timeline a bit for a very important announcement.
MONS FLUMEN IS A SWEETHEART.
I get back from Philly and there is a package of Valentine cookies from her. I decided that I would save them for the plane ride to Tucson. What a happy breakfast we had! What a damn happy family. Thanks deary!!!!

Whew.

This is what it looked like outside my house the night before we were supposed to drive to Philly for a big wholesale show.
This is our neighbors shovelling their cars out on the day that we finally left for Philly.
This is what our dashboard looked like as we were driving away from home on our way to Philly. The snow was blowing in through the dashboard fan.
We made it to Philly. Whew.

...our past campsites.

I was just working on our year end letter. Something that we haven't done in a few years. Anyway I was hit with the sense of loss over not going to Florida this year and participating in the FL Ren Fair. We won't be camping for 2 months this year. We won't be with our Renny community. We won't be outside. It's making me weepy.
Here are a few pictures of our past camsites.

We do sweetie. We do.

Last week we got together with my sister-in-law. Got ya didn't I? For a moment you thought "Oh, this is going to be juicey." But it's the wrong sister-in-law. This is my brother-in-law's wife, Karen.
We got together to create a "grave blanket" for Audrey & Alec's grave. No one in my family had ever heard of a grave blanket before. You take chicken wire and cover it with greens and anything else that you want. We put on pine and cedar boughs. Xan picked some sort of thing that had red berries on it. Karen had picked a bunch of green things from their yard and we had brought suet. We spent an hour putting it together and then we decided that we would go together to the cemetery on Saturday to lay it out over the grave.
On Saturday after I got home from working at the Farmers Market I gave Stuart (Michael's brother) a call. He told me that Karen could not come and did we want to come over to their house and all go in one car. We had a few things we needed to do afterwards and declined his offer. He offered to have us follow him. We did not see the need so I told him that we would meet him there.
We get in the car with a few shovels to clear a spot on the grave for the blanket and off we go. We get to the town where there is a fork in the road and in typical married fashion I'm sure we need to go left and he's sure we need to go right. Since he went to Audrey's burial last year I concede and we go off to the right. And we go off. And we go off. Ten minutes down the road and we're not so sure we are going the right way. But Michael has great visual memory and he remembers the big Virgin Mary in the blue background in front of the church. He remembers the old paper mill. Though, there is no sign for the cemetery. We finally end up at the Saratoga Battlefield National Park. We go inside the visitors center (beautiful view all the way to Vermont) and get directions to the Saratoga National Cemetery.
We are late. We got lost. We call Stuart. Michael is on the phone with him and he starts out by saying "I was sure I knew the way but we got lost." and then I hear "What's that noise, Stuart? What are you doing? I can't hear you. Stuart? Stuart?" He loses the connection.
On our way to the cemetery with our new directions we get a voice mail. It's Stuart. He's miffed. He says that we wouldn't do what he wanted to do and go in his car. He knew we didn't know how to get to the cemetery. He offered us directions but we wouldn't take them. We never do what he wants to do. We always have to have it our way. He was cold. He had been standing outside waiting for us and he was leaving.
Well, OK then. We get to the cemetery. He is gone. The grave blanket is there. It's funny how Audrey and Alec are in the same grave and they share a grave stone. Alec is on one side and Audrey is on the other. As we are walking up to their gravesite it hits me. Like a rock. Of course we are late. We were on our way to visit Audrey, the woman who was never on time and would get lost so easily. I turned to Michael and said, "Of course we are late honey, we were on the way to visit your mother." We stood there and cracked up. It was perfect. It was divine intervention. We stood there for a few minutes and thought of Audrey and Alec and what wonderful folk they were. We then decided that we needed to stop at "Saratoga Apple" pick up some cider donuts and go home and have tea with the girls.
At home we made tea, held our donuts up high and toasted Michael's parents.
"Mom you are so cute. Who toasts with donuts?"
"We do sweetie. We do."

...all over our bodies.

There are so many things I want to blog about. My participation in the "anti-war peace march" that was in DC or the grave blanket debockal of last weekend. But I must devote this entry to our scabbies adventure because I'm living through it and because misery loves company I have this perverse need to share the "itch".
It all started in December when Artie came home from being out on Lopez for 7 months. Two weeks before she arrived she got diagnosed with scabbies ($75) and got the treatment from the local pharmacist ($50). She is living with friends so everyone had to it.(This means lots of laundry and spray for all the surfaces.) She works in a daycare center so letters were sent home with the kids. "Warning, Warning Everybody! Artie has SCABBIES!" Poor kid.
She does the treatment and her skin has a total hissy fit on her. She ends up with this red, itchy, unhappy rash all over her body. Thus she arrives home to her family begging me for the thickest, goopiest, most hydrating moisturizer that I can get my hands on. I have some Shikai brand lotion with borage in it. Great stuff. Thick and hydrating. She finds it barely passable. I go to the local health food store and buy her a bunch of options. She tried them all. Didn't ask for more so something in there must have been OK for her.
Christmas is right around the corner and we are in bustle mode. Getting ready for a trip to my Mom's and delivering local cheer. Poor Artie comes down with a nasty respiratory flu while the rest of us get the stomach flu. After two weeks of that sickness and recovery time, Artie begins to sense that she still has skin. Still very unhappy skin. Still very itchy skin. Still has little red dots on her skin. F*** almighty she thinks she still has scabbies on her skin. Xan notices that she has itchy hands with little red dots on them. Oh brother or sister in this case.
We make an appointment with our local doctor. At the visit our doctor isn't quite sure wether the girls have scabbies or some sort of extreme excema. Something about not being able to find the scabbies' tracks (they borrow in your skin). Because Artie has had such an extreme reaction to the treatment and because she's just not sure she wants to refer us to a dermatologist so that a scratch test can be done. Well if she's not sure then we agree and let her make us an appointment with a local dermatologist ($100). She swears that this guy is great, the best.
We wait a week and half to see the dermatologist. His office is big and crowded. They will not let the girls be in separate rooms. That ticks off Artie who is old enough to do this on her own. The girls are told to put on paper gowns and have to sit in the exam room for 45 minutes and they are cold. The nurses come in and take down the girls' history. More waiting. The doctor finally comes in. He is abrupt and haried. Poke here. Look here. Other than the scabbies I want him to look at a rash on Artie that we've been dealing with for years and one on Xan too. Why not, we're there.
"Yep, yep this is that, that is this, I'll prescibe that and this. You've got scabbies. How many in the family?" And he's walking out the door.
"Wait a minute. I have a philosophy about what we use on our body. I want products that are as natural as possible and not tested on animals."
Oh you should have seen the look on his face.
"Alright I'll prescribe sulfur in a petroleum jelly base for all of you. It will be best anyway considering that your daughter has very sensitive skin. You apply it twice a day for three days, wait a week and apply for three more days."
"Sulphur?"
"Yes."
"Is it going to smell?"
"It is like sulphur in rotten eggs it might smell but it won't be that bad. I don't think. I will be back in just a minute to talk about the prescriptions."
He never came back. He sent his nurses. They were not all that informative. I figured that I could ask the pharmacist all my burning question about this remedy ($300).
We get to local CVS and the guy at the counter made a face when I handed him the prescription. He told me that it was going to awful and smelly. Really smelly and we couldn't bathe for three days. I couldn't do it. I took back the prescription and headed home to call the dermatologist. I call and the office is closed. I was just there the office isn't closed. And the office won't be open again for three (my magic number) days. So I got on the emergency line and leave the Dr. a message. The next day I leave three messages. The next day I leave four or five messages. Finally on Sunday morning the Dr. calls me back and we talk about the alternatives. We decide (without me telling him what a dick I think he is) that Artie needs to do the sulphur treatment and the rest of us can do the one day normal treatment. He calls in the prescription to CVS.
Later that day Michael is out doing errands and he stops at CVS to pick up all our stuff. There is only one thing there and it is for Xan. So he picks it up and comes home ($130).
"Did you ask if this is for one person or three?"
"No, I just picked it up"
I call CVS. There is no prescription called in for Artie and what we picked up for Xan is only for one person. We are sitting at the kitchen table trying to figure out how we are going to pay for all this shit. I then have to take Artie's prescription down to CVS to get filled. Guess what? They can't fill it because it is a compound and they don't have one of the ingredients. I ask how much is this compound going to cost us. Much looking in books and the answer is about $100. So Artie's remedy is about the same as the rest of us. I am sent to a pharmacy in a neighboring town. They are super nice there and tell me that it will take overnight to make and that it will cost less than $20.
Again we are sitting at the kitchen table. We now have one remedy at $130 and one at $20. We decide that we need to call back the dermatologist and get him to write us two more prescriptions for Michael and myself and we will call around and find the cheapest place to get them.
The next morning I go over to the dermatologists office to pick up the prescriptions. That's done and then I have to drive over to the pharmacy that's making the compound. When I get there I pick it up ($11) and of course the first thing I do is open it to smell it. Damn if it really doesn't smell at all. I say something to the pharmacist about and he tells me that is a misnomer that sulphur will smell in petroleum jelly. In other mixes yes but not in this one. I call Michael and we decide that we are going with the sulphur remedy. I discuss it with the pharmacist and since the original prescription was for a pound of it and we only had him make up 4 oz. of it he can easily make up another 8 oz. for us. While I was on the phone with Michael the pharmacist and his staff decided that they were going to make this compound up for us that day and it would be ready in the evening($22). I almost wept. I was teary eyed and told him if I could get back behind the counter I would hug him.
We started the remedy yesterday. Michael is going to do the one day deal. He's the man and he's going to go for the harsh remedy. The rest of us smell like a spa. We smell just like one of the mineral springs here in Saratoga.
I'm doing tons of laundry and I think that today we'll watch movies and clean the house. For we shall not go forth into the world. We shall stay home and slather petroleum jelly all over our bodies.

...don't want all this negative stuff to stick around

My mother-in-law's estate is progressing more quickly now than it has been. Most of my spare time is creating documentation for the court. Making the list of missing items from the personal property, printing the pictures of those items to present them to the judge in a coherent way, transcribing audio tapes of conversations (just like the FBI), collecting of affidavits concerning what people know for sure was in the house when Audrey died and that Audrey did not sell off her things for the past 20 yrs. to raise money etc.., and putting together categories of things like "all the documentation of all the times we were told that there was an inventory or all the times that it was written to us that there was an inventory". Our lawyer loves us (I think) because we are anal central with all the documentation and fine presentation skills that we have. Alas, it is time consuming and it's where I am putting most of my free energy these days.
When confronted with a missing list of 126 line items and 49 pictures of some of these missing items. My sister-in-law responds like this....""Regrettably, the Tiffany letter holder is valueless because the glass is shattered in several places and a chunk is missing. I would like to have it for sentimental reasons." or "If MIchael means the litttle one about two feet high, he asked for it and got it. I don't actually see it on the list (meaning the appraisal list that is supposed to be all the personal property) myself but the appraiser may have described it differently than I would have." Did I mention that she has the photo file that goes along with the appraisal? She could look at the pictures to make sure if it is there or not. Better yet, she could give us the photo file so that we could look. She's been "sending" it our way for 5 weeks now. It's crazy making. And it's sad.
So now I am going to make this it's very own post so that my experience last weekend can stand by itself. This one will disappear in a while...don't want all this negative stuff to stick around.

The party is over.

I work at the Saratoga Farmers Market. My well kept secret is that my employers don't really have to pay me to be there. I love it that much! I love to be around home grown food. I love the people. I love to tell people that they owe $25 for a head of lettuce and hear Sandy say, "Oh, Victoria". For me, there is nothing not to love about being there.
I work for two farms now, both organic. The Kilpatrick Family Farm fellows have bought a half size school bus painted red. They have named it "the flying tomato". These are my kinda people!!
This past Saturday I got up to get ready to work at the market. I was standing in the kitchen in an early morning daze staring at our calendar. I was in disbelief. The calendar was telling me that we had an art show coming up the next weekend. An art show? What? Our last show was before Chrismas and the sad realization that we have to go back to work was slowly making itself known into my reality. Ah, jeez.
The party is over.

...while it lasted.

This is a picture that I took first thing in the morning yesterday. No snow but we got ICE. Today we are at the tailend of an ice storm. Yesterday we were truly in the middle of it. It was Martin Luther King Jr. Day so we laxed on the homeschool. We were going to walk down to the library and participate in the MLKJD festivities that they have there every year. Artie has got a job at Saratoga Coffee Traders and we decided that we would walk her to work then we would go on to the library. We walked because our van is at the garage where the mechanic is trying to figure why we don't have any heat. (it's because something is wrong with the radiator but they can't find any leaks in the radiator which means they now have to search in the engine. it is starting to sound expensive!)
This is the next picture that I took. Notice that we haven't put away our hose yet. Personally, I keep forgetting because the weather here has been so absurdly mild. I think that I'm going to leave it there so that I can be reminded that Spring is on it's way. And when it gets here I'll have to buy a new hose.
So, we putzed around in the morning. Xan and I did some reading. We folded laundry. We talked about all the ice outside. I made us all sausage, scrambled eggs, and toast for breakfast. Then it was time to bundle up and trek downtown. There was one tense moment when no one could figure out where Artie's snow boots are. The case has not been solved but we had a pair of rubber boots that fit her handy. (I swear that I unpacked them...but maybe I am having a memory of years gone by.) Then the power went out. No worries. We have a gas stove and a propane heater that we use in our booth sometimes. We are good if the power stays out.
We are off. It is very icey out there!! Artie and I choose to walk in the road where there is not a thin layer of black ice waiting to catch your ass. Michael has on his "Yaktrax". He is immune to ice now. He got them last year to use walking to the kiln and back outside. They are these metal gidgie things that you attach to the bottom of your shoes.
So, we are off. It is beautiful outside. Everything is covered in a thick layer of ice. It's an ice world out there. We walk Artie to work and then head down to the library. The picture above is off the trees outside the library. The library is closed. No festivities. It's the first time I have ever seen the parking lot empty.
So we do what anyone else would do...we play with the ice. We are having a blast getting as big a piece as we can and then smashing it on the ground. Very theraputic, very fun. We did that for a while then we walked back to Saratoga Coffee for some hot drinks and a rousing game of Scrabble.
When we got home the power was still out. I shoveled ice off of our sidewalk outside. Michael and Xan set up a candle wonderland inside.
I did the dishes and made dinner by headlamp. After dinner a friend of ours who had power picked us up and we went over to the land of electic and played a game. When we got home at 10 the power was back on.
The magic hour was over and the TV got turned on.
It was fun while it lasted.

...just what I need.

It's official. I've booked us on a flight out of Albany, NY on Feb. 21st. We are flying to Tucson via 3 lay-overs. First we fly to Chicago, then Omaha (this is the excuse I've needed to get to Nebraska), then Denver, then finally Tucson. The destination. We'll be in Arizona for 9 days. We fly out at midnight on March 2nd and arrive back to Albany on Saturday morning of the 3rd.
Doesn't all that sound like fun?
A vacation. We get a vacation. I am delirious with disbelief and anticipation. Our lives have been so emotionally distraught since Michael's mom passed away. A vacation is just what we need.
We used to live in Tucson and it will be so nice to be with old friends. Friends that have known us for over 15 years. Friends who know us and know what kind of people we are (not the kind of people that my sister-in-law keeps saying that we are).
We arrive just in time to go and see the Tucson Rodeo Parade. It is the largest non-motorized parade in the country. We will go the Arizona Ren Fair and visit with our Florida Ren Fair friends that have changed venues this year (good for us because we get to see them). We will drive up to Phoenix and see Jane. Yippee!! And we will go to Art Celebration in Scottsdale to check out the show. We have two artist friends there that we will visit with.
Xan is going to spend a night working in the kitchen at Janos Restaurant in Tucson. Michael worked for Janos when we lived in Tucson. Janos is an innovative and charismatic chef and has graciously agreed to spend time with our chef wanne-be daughter. This is a major thrill!!!
Now if we can just make it to Feb. 21 without bursting.
Time in the desert is just what I need.

...from the well

This is Artie arriving from WA. Happy family.

This is the makeshift menorah that Michael made because our other menorah is packed away.

This is our Dr. Suess style gingerbread house that we made.

Annalise wrote and asked if I had fallen down the well again. Yep.
It all started at the beginning of Chanukah when we finally received an appraised inventory of my mother-in-law's personal property. I spent some time going over the list and then looking at pictures that we have from the interior of her home before she passed away. It soon became clear that there were things that I was seeing in the pictures that I wasn't finding in the list. One thing led to another and Michael and I spent Chanukah creating our own list of items that we could not find.
On the Friday before Xmas Michael, Xan, and I came down with the stomach flu (my second round). We had to postpone leaving for my Mom's for a day. We had a funny thing happen on the way to MA. We were driving on the Mass Pike. I was driving and looked in my side mirror. There was a small car coming up in the fast lane with an Xmas tree roped to the top. I told everyone to look out at the car that had it's Xmas tree on the top. The car passes us and it turns out to be some friends of ours from Saratoga. We called each other on our cells and met at the rest area. We had a fun visit with them with no hugs because we were getting over the flu. Our friends were going to their family's house and bringing a tree to set up and decorate. How fun, huh?
So everything is good until Xmas night and after dinner Michael and Xan revisit the stomach flu and Artie gets a whopping, nasty respiratory flu. The poor kid was congested within an inch of her life. My mother has a sort of boy friend, a bridge partner, that joined us for Xmas dinner. My mom and he drank before dinner, had a bottle of wine at dinner, and then drank 1/2 a bottle of Drambuie after dinner. My mom woke up in the wee hours of the morning quite ill. I think that she did not get the stomach flu, I think that she poisoned herself with alcohol. I must admit that I felt like the "typhoid terras".
There was no going to see "Blue Man Group", no driving up to NH to stay with our best friend Andy, no going to Maine and having a lobster dinner, no seeing our friend Toby in Maine, no fun trip to LL Bean, and no going to the La Cruset outlet to look at groovy cookware. I didn't even get to visit with my brother because he couldn't come over because we were all sick. We stayed at my Mom's the whole time and watched a billion hours of TV. She has dish so we got to see many movies. I found the groovy health food store in New Bedford and got to know them pretty well over there. I got to visit with them 3 times. I can't tell everyone enough how good the Boiron homeopathic remedies are. They saved us!!
We are back home now. I have a cold and feeling marginal. Everyone else seems healthy and happy. Artie still has a nasty cough but she's in good health.
Yep...that was my second trip down the well.
I work at the Saratoga Farmers Market and last Saturday all the talk was about Global Warming and how sick everyone has been this season. We still have no snow here....very weird! and I am a walking testimony as to how sick everyone has been.
I hope all my cyber friends had healthy, happy, merry ones!
I am now planning a vacation. I decided that we need to get away and have some fun. So we are thinking of AZ. Flying into Tucson and visiting there and driving up to Phoenix to do some visiting there. I'm just waiting to talk to our lawyer and see if the timing is good. He might tell us that our timing sucks and we need to stick around and be available for estate stuff. I really hope not!!!
Hello to all from the well.

BACK FROM MY TRIP DOWN THE WELL

It's been so long I can't even fathom where to start. First it was the nagging never ending cold which would go away and then come back after a weekend art show. Then it seemed like it was art show after show. Then it seemed like I was not having any time to rest during the day because I'm the "teach" and if I don't homeschool Xan, who will. Then I got the flu just as we were preparing to leave for 2 back to back shows and be gone for two weeks which changed the schedule to Michael and Xan leaving for one show without me and then they had to drive home to pick me up for the other. Then it was our best and busiest show of the year in Chicago with me just getting over the flu. Then we arrive back home to have Artie arrive home (Yippee!!!) and now Michael, Xan, and I all have the flu. And, of course, this all has to happen during our busiest time of the year.
And how is everyone else? My dear cyber-space companions. I haven't even read anyone's blog in ages. I feel like I dropped down a well or something. I am wondering how Mons flummen's surgery went. I have been holding her very dear to my heart this week. I want to know all about Jane's births she's attending...I do so miss her quick wit. I wonder if Annalise finally got her house and what terrific places her family has been to and what books on tape they listened to on the way.
Happy Holiday's everyone. I don't think we are expecting a white christmas it is presently raining this day before the day before christmas. This is the day after the longest night of the year, the Winter Solstice (we missed the solstice celebration/ritual at the UU church last night becuase we are sick). It is also the day after Chanukkah. In my house we celebrate them all. Mostly, the 2 latter.
I wish for peace to enter all your lives. For your days to be as enjoyable and soft as a purring cat. I wish that humans will wake up and do everything that they can to help save our mother earth (watched an Inconvenient Truth this week). I hope that love abounds in your lives.
Hopefully I'm back from my trip down the well.....

UNTIL NEXT TIME

Hey, I'm still sick. Still have this crummy cold. I am very tired of green snot. Yep, I'm infected. The best remedy I have found this time around has been raw garlic. Am I the only person on the planet who has a hard time eating raw garlic? It burns. How come Michael has a geographic tongue (meaning his tongue has more surface area than most other tongues and it is very weird) and raw garlic doesn't burn his tongue.
Every day for the past week I have been dutifully getting out the spelt bread, slathering it with butter (we get an Amish butter roll that is to die for) and then I squeeze a clove of garlic on it and eat it. Tears roll down my face. I like the taste of it but it burns my mouth and it burns on the way down. Oh poor me...I'm still sick and we are going into our crazy, busy time of year.
This week I had to drive Michael to a show in Hartford, CT because he was too sick (we kiss, what can I say?) to set up on his own. It is only a 2 1/2 hour drive so Xan and I took him down and then came back home because Xan is in a chorus and they had a concert on Friday night. Michael is sharing a hotel room with a friend and today we drive back to the show to break down our booth. Ya gotta do what you gotta do, right?
Before Xan and I leave for CT I am going to take all of our food off of our shelves and rearrange everything. Doesn't that sound fun? It's all part of the rubic cube lifestyle that I have at the moment. Since I packed up most of our kitchen stuff and now we are staying I need to make do with what we have blah, blah, blah.... I am also trying to rearrange furniture and such to make room for the arrival of Michael's inherited things (Yes, it's all still a bloody mess!). That mean's that I am going to rearrange the food on the shelves so that when inherited furniture arrives we can take some of the cabinets out to make room. I have this gut feeling that we are going to be notified like 1 day in advance that it's time to pick up the stuff. That's how it happened in September. The pick-up never happened because my sister-in-law was demanding that her brother's sign blank receipts for the stuff that she said was their portion of the equal distribution of the personal property. Of course they didn't sign anything....it was blank...they did not know what they were getting. The rest of that tale is more bullshit. I am refraining from telling all because we are still in the middle of it. One day when this is all over I'll put it all down for all to read.
So I am off to the kitchen for some rearranging fun. Yesterday I made 3 batches of strawberry jam with the strawberries that I had frozen in the freezing. I bought 5 organic, freshly slaughtered chickens (I helped slaughter last year and couldn't this year because of my crummy cold. It's a very ancestral experience and I'm sorry that I couldn't participate this year) from my farmer friends and I needed to rearrange my freezer to make them fit. Thus I had to make jam.
Is there end in sight? Is Victoria going to spend all winter rearranging her apartment? Will she still be sick next week? Stay tuned, same blog, same weary woman writing it. Until next time....

FOR ELOISE, WITH LOVE

I have been taking a weaving class. Not only do I love to weave but it's the only time that I get to go do something that is just for me. I pay $6 an hour for the opportunity to leave my family behind and emerse myself in something that I like to do. I find it funny (I mean funny as in strange) that I get to pay someone for my opportunity to leave my family behind. Sound familiar women? A couple of years ago I was thinking about taking the class and one of my daughters thought that it was so cool and they wanted to do it to. Instead of saying "no, this is my time" I just never did anything about it. Now I'm over that and I've been taking classes since the spring.
This is a scarf that I made for my friend Eloise.

She graduated from acupuncture school this past spring. I chose to use fibers that came from non-animals (cotton and rayon) and I chose to use specific colors for their healing properties.

Green for balance (and it's the color of american money), purple for serenity, and white for connecting to one's higher self.
Eloise is an amazing woman that I know and love. I am so pleased that she is out there "filling her cup" and doing her thing to make the planet a better place.
For Eloise, with love.

AND SO MUCH MORE.....

Wow. I'm back. My pinky finger is feeling much better. It's still not a pretty sight but it's not hurting like it did. As for my cold...I've got that Lauren Bacall husky, sexy voice thing going on and I need to take a nap every afternoon. We were in New Hamshire this weekend (another blog entry) and we went to the state liquor store and bought a bottle of Jim Bean so that we can have hot toddies at night. If nothing else I get loopy enough to get a decent night's sleep.
This is going to be a brief blog because I need to get dinner going and I have my weaving class this evening.
I want to share some Halloween pictures with you all.....
Halloween is one of our favorite holidays. We set up our 10x10 Easy Up tent out in front of the house and give out hot mulled cider to the grown ups and non edible treats to the kids. This year we had tombstone stickers, halloween tattoos, bloody hands and feet (these were sticky and gushy), and trick candy (they looked like taffy but when you unwrapped them there was a plastic bug inside). We order all our non edible goodies from the Oriental Trading Company. It's the most amazing outlet of cheap crap that I have ever come across. It's amazing the shit you can buy in gross. This is a picture of our set up this year...

This is a better picture of Michael's pumpkin. Pretty cool, huh?

This is Xan and her friend Gretchen. Gretchen is the little old lady who bakes and Xan is her plate of chocolate chip cookies. What a crack up they were....

Lastly, this is a dish that Xan made for us. She makes dinner one night a week and the week before Halloween she made spaghetti with eyeballs.....

This is my brief post about Halloween. I hope that everyone else had as much fun as we did.
There is so much more to catch you all up on....a scarf I made for a friend, my mother's quilted clothing fashion show, and so much more.....

OUCH

Can you kinda sorta see my finger? The nail on my pinky? I got it slammed in the car door on Sunday morning. And to top it all off I have a crummy head cold.
So many wonderful things to type and my pinky is pretty sore. Hard to type.
Will return, ouch, in a few days, ouch.