Cats: Clarence was adopted. Edgar and Alfie are still looking for homes. The new kittens are getting bigger, and are playing with the dog and the other cats. Pics to follow soon. Nigel had roundworms. Ick. Ickickick. All better now after medicine, but the episode confirmed. . .

Bifocals: I need a different prescription. Distance is fine, but the bottom part of the lens is uncorrected. I can see up to about a foot away uncorrected, and from about four or five feet away with distance correction. This means that there is a very large, fairly essential distance that I see poorly through either lens. That area includes anything at arms’ length, like scooping litterboxes, which is why I didn’t see Nigel’s roundworms earlier. Not that I want correction specifically for sighting feline parasites in poop, but you know what I mean.

The Raiders Cane: Unfortunately, I made the silver clay with silver and translucent, and it baked up to a dark color. The contrast was lost, so I have to try a different mix. Not such a bad thing, though, because it gave me lots of “scraps” to try out my new bench grinder/buffer. Heh. I’ll also try out a different method for reducing the cane to see if it lessens some minor distortions.

Being a Band Mom: Part of the reason for the dearth of posts. I had many cookies to make, had a lot of driving to do. The kids put on an excellent show at Giants Stadium in the cold and the pouring rain, not that the judges appreciated it. Their scores went up, but they were among several bands that somehow scored lower than other bands with less impressive (IMO) shows. I’m not going to name names, but some schools were unfairly treated in the rankings. We’re heading down to Baltimore this weekend for the last competition of the season. Since the judges apparently base their scores, in part, on the bands’ previous scores, there’s no question that there will be any upset in the rankings, but I still know that these kids are doing a truly impressive job.