This 'n that

I don't think I gave a review of the retirement party part 2 yet, so here it is. This was the actual party-type party, given by the father of the "retiree" and attended mostly by blood relatives and friends from college days. There was drinking, dancing, wearing of straw pith helmets adorned with wiffle golf balls on erratic pieces of wire, "remember when..." and "let me get my glasses".... more dancing, a yummy buffet (garlic bread, caesar salad, fresh tomato and mozzarella salad, linguini with pesto, chicken marsala, and mussels diavolo), playing air guitar, lip synching to Dylan and Aerosmith, and more dancing to tunes. Most of the speeches, jokes and other references were meaningful only to the very long-time buddies so a lot of it went over my head, but there was no drama and people were all joyful so it was a good thing. The retiree and his crew were still rockin' when we left them in high spirits.

Sunday I had my shop open but no one came, so I was able to make a few pieces of jewelry to replenish my stock since I have a fair this weekend and another one the next. I do have to stop making pieces for myself, though.

This was day 1 of 4 classes I'm taking at the state art institute on basic jewelry making. This class focuses on techniques that are new to me, ones that are used in making the pieces - pendants, rings, chains - that are the essence of a piece of jewelry. Until now the only true jewelry-making technique I've used is wire wrapping beads and stones to make them into pendants, so I'm delighted to be able to learn this craft. The danger, of course, is that once I've taken this class I'll want to continue. It's an hour's drive south of me which adds to the cost, but when I'm hooked, I'm in all the way. The first project is a pendant, and I've chosen a small carnelian cabochon to set in a pendant with three finishes in a shape similar to a leaf or a paisley teardrop. If I can finish that one in good time, I'd like to make some hammered chain links in silver. The first class taught me a lot about metals and it challenged me as a blank piece of paper challenges me, but I'm excited to learn.

Responding with information to a question asked of me by an internationally known, Nebula-award winning author makes me feel pretty darn special. He could have found the information on Ask.com, but I think it was his way of staying in touch and of allowing me to feel a part of the book he's currently writing about a time traveler.

Today we had a new cable internet/phone modem installed, something that should help us to reduce some large phone bills. However, ever since about an hour after the dude left, I've been experiencing the worst flakiness of connection I've had since cable was first installed more than two years ago. I can't remain connected on the new iMac via internet connection sharing for more than about half an hour without it showing me as being disconnected from the internet, and yet nothing on either of the computers has been changed. The same problem exists with the laptop that I've been able to use out in the shop but now it can't connect to the network set up by the old desktop computer, the one that's plugged directly into the ethernet cable. I reset the settings and nothing improved. I am not happy and will be on the phone with my isp until this is straightened out.