Umm. . .umm. . .

I’ve been in a more receptive than productive mode, actually. I cruise around the web, see all kinds of things I would comment upon. . .if everyone else on earth hadn’t done it all ready. There’s not much point in simply adding another voice to the cacaphony, so I just leave brief comments and be done with it.

My internet time has been a bit more limited, too. The guys who are replacing our siding and fixing the soffits and installing the gutters and closing off the garage have been here every day, so I’ve been going out to chat, approve things, talk timelines, and all the stuff you do with contractors. Plus, I’ve been away from the garden so I don’t get in their way. Plus, they keep knocking the cable loose and I lose the internet. Heh. (This happens when the cable is loose on the ground waiting to be secured to the house, and right in the major traffic pattern between supplies and work. I’m not saying anything bad about these guys. They’re great.)

I’ve been playing around with clay, and have discovered that Fimo is way better for me than Sculpey. I’m still new at this, and don’t have enough precision to make consistent pieces, and the Sculpey becomes very soft and pliable, which makes it worse. The Fimo is stiffer, so my little adjustments don’t become big mushy things. I got some tools yesterday from Polymer Clay Express, only a couple of days after I placed the order, and they should help a lot with consistency. A couple of marking tools, forms for cabochons, bead rollers. . .In a few weeks, I’ll be able to put it all in an organized fashion in the new art studio and be able to sew again, too.

In between, I’ve been doing things around the house. Audrey now has a normal closet rod. She and Carolyn and I have all our clothes hanging from commercial hangers that are 14 inches wide instead of the normal 17 inches (10 inches for children’s hangers). No more little bumps at the tops of my sleeves. I also hung up a closet doubler rod (a rod suspended from two vertical rods that hook to the main one, so you have an upper and a lower rod) and went through my clothes, getting rid of stuff I don’t wear, stuff I don’t think I look good in, stuff I outgrew. . .more things will be on their way out when I have things to replace them with. You need to have pants, even if they make your butt look huge, because you can’t go out in underwear.

While the girls and I were out yesterday, we stopped in the Ocean Pet Center on Fischer Blvd., and met one of the volunteers for SAVE, which helps out the TR Animal Shelter because the town doesn’t support it well enough. I’m thinking of helping out – start small and see how I like it. They need people, and I love animals and like to do things that actually make a difference. We also checked out the Chinese restaurant in the same mall, Dynasty, and were pleasantly surprised. It’s a small place, only two tables, so it’s really a take-out more than anything, but it was really, really clean. That counts for a lot. The dumpling skins were a little thick, but they were homemade and tasty. We’ll just tell them next time to make things a wee bit more spicy.

We haven’t been to the beach yet. I’ve been letting the girls sleep in, we’ve had some afternoon things going on that would interrupt a trip. . .we’ll get out there soon, though. Friday we’re going to make a stop in Ong’s Hat on the way to Grandma’s house to see if it’s really weird. I hope we don’t get sucked into the vortex.