I Will Never Get the Hang of Time

I haven't been much for playing in the clay recently, but there is this:

 

(Yes, that is me in a clay mask. That's about the extent of the claying I've been doing.)

(And I know I have kind of a low forehead, but damn, it's more like a twohead there.)

On Saturday as usual I went into the studio. I mostly glazed Empty Bowls things (only because I wanted to fire five of my own pieces--all of which are months old--and had to fill the rest of the kiln with something). Glazing was a chore because there were too many glaze monkeys around. Glaze monkeys are the people who don't quite get that they're working in a small space with other people and so take up too much room and don't get out of your way and hog the sink and spill wax and don't wash the studio brushes they use and so on and so on. They're the same monkeys who talk on their cell phones as they're driving down the highway fifteen miles below the speed limit. They're the same monkeys who leave their cart in the middle of the aisle in the grocery store so that no one can get past them. They're the same monkeys who take up two parking spaces or who park in handicap spots "for just a second." One of Dave's students is an interrupting monkey who asks a question and then cuts you off five words into the answer by talking over you. I haaate interrupting monkeys. Consequently, her pieces didn't quite fit into the kiln I was loading. Yes, I specialize in passive-aggressive monkey handling. Yes, I am available for children's parties.)

I'm feeling very cynical tonight. And, yes, it is night. It's about two a.m. and I can't sleep. I think the unsettled weather has me unsettled. The stormy weather gives me the nastiest headaches and those end up keeping me up half the night. I'm not a take-something-for-the-pain kind of person, so I just end up suffering through them, thinking that's better than drugging myself into oblivion. So instead of sleeping, I've been lying here watching episodes from the fifth season of Northern Exposure on DVD--a birthday gift from Dave. Northern Exposure is one of my all-time favorite shows. It's so brilliant.

It was a good day though, despite my complaining about everything. Dave and I did some yardwork and went to the studio long enough to unload yesterday's kiln and chat with the studio director about some new glazes that are in the development stages.  We went to Target to check out the microwaves. The one we have is about on par with an Easy Bake Oven in terms of power output. (And yes, Easy Bake Ovens are still for sale. And yes, they're about $10 cheaper than Target's cheapest microwaves.) We ended up ordering one online but we still spent a bundle at Target (frozen lunches, a Swiffer and refills for it, Ziplock bags, cheese, canned tomatoes and beans, taco seasoning, cat food). We also went grocery shopping (peaches, yogurt, coconut creamer, taco shells, Quorn, rice, couscous, onions, garlic, carrots, celery, and bananas) at the local co-op. One of the cashiers has memorized our co-op membership number, poor thing. I apologized to her.

On the homefront, we prepped a few meals for the week (which we don't normally do because, let's face it, that takes time, effort, and organizational skills) so that we could use up the zucchini and tomatoes that the garden has suddenly started flinging our way. We made two zucchini lasagnas (we ate one for dinner and froze one for later) and a pan of zucchini and goat cheese roll-ups. The garden is doing well, is what I mean to say. We harvested most of our beets and roasted and froze them and blanched the greens and froze them too. We cut the heads off the sunflowers and brought two in to dry and roast and left two for the birds to eat. We also planted a crop of lettuce, edamame and bush beans (the other beans that we planted at the beginning of the summer did not pan out at all). We've also had a small number of cucumbers from the plant we put in in July.

On the catfront: David noticed today that the cats have what look to be sticktight fleas (a type of flea they get from birds, but which doesn't affect people at all) in their ears, so we had to treat them with anti-flea stuff. They don't like it much, but I'll bet they like fleas even less. We also had to take Albus, the studio cat, in for his feline leukemia booster shot. For a stray, he's incredibly well behaved at the vet's office. He got five envelopes of food as a reward though.