Back in the swing of things

The show was pretty good. Not quite as good as last year, but still considering the detour and the intense heat on Saturday it was a great show. I sold two rugs that I have been hauling around for 10 years now... they were not quite the oldest rugs I have, but darn close.

Maddie sold almost all her felt balls and I sold a great many of my needle felted balls. One woman bought $134.00 in felt balls. I only had to take three credit cards so that was good. I am terrible at remembering all the stuff I need to call in the card transactions later so they always make me nervous. Not to mention the fact that the credit card companies nip off a little more profit each time. One guy actually bought a felt ball with one. I could not talk him out of it. Oh well. The cost of doing business. Maddie needled another 10 balls over the two days and was a nice attraction for people. I hope I can hang onto her for a while for shows. It is good to have a decorative fixture in the booth LOL (some guy called her a fixture and she asked me if I thought that was a compliment)

Puck had to work on Sunday night so it was just Maddie and me for Sunday. The weather was much cooler, but the wind was horrendous. I hung up all my heavy rugs on the tent so it would not blow away. I was nervous the whole time... On one side was a glass artist and on the other was an expensive potter... talk about being between a rock and a hard place :)

we all survived and it seemed like people were buying. Michael stayed with us for most of the day so we got to visit when the booth wasn't too crowded. He also helped us pack up, which was wonderful. He is nice and tall and can reach all the things that we short people struggle with. I forgot to bring my nice step stool. I will have to add that to the show list.

we got packed up in a little less than an hour which is great timing. We drove home and I smelled burning rubber faintly. We had the windows open so I wasn't sure it was us. I didn't see any smoke or anything so we pressed on. We stopped at McDonald's for our end of show vanilla shakes and the van was sort of burbling like it was overheating. A little steam was escaping, but the overflow tank was pretty full. I added a little water to that. We headed for home again and got on the final road to home which is a curvy back road when the heat light came on. "Oh Shit" I exclaimed and pulled off to the side of the no shoulder road. We were right on a curve. I popped the hood and checked the over flow... it was still full. bummer. I did not want to open the radiator when it was hot, fearing an explosion. I had poured most of our spare water into the overflow tank.

We waited a few minutes. Finally I decided I better try to let some steam out of the radiator. I grabbed one of my cloth utilitarian bags (grocery and whatever) and set out to open up the steaming monster. I gingerly unscrewed it and waited for the gushing water that usually boils out. Nothing... Yikes! The radiator was completely dry. Now we had a completely different problem. Maddie and I scrambled to find extra water to pour into the radiator. We had half empty water bottles that we had drunk at the show so we emptied those in. Dumped the last bit of our designated radiator water in, still not full but could at least see water in the radiator. I decided to chance it and turned the van back on. No light so I drove slowly home. We made it and it appears I did not completely wreck the engine.

I tell you if it is not one thing it's another. I spent most of the evening deleting the things I had sold off of ETSY and cursing myself for not having a better system for locating the dang rugs. It took hours to figure it all out and I had sold a rug off of Artfire too. That all is way too complicated for my poor brain.

I finally decided to create a spread sheet with all my goofy names, the descriptions of the rugs and my id numbers. I spent Monday completing the spreadsheet. Now I am ready for anything. Oh and I had sold a book from my vintage shop too so I had to get that packaged up and sent out.

Yesterday morning I steeled myself to call in the three credit card sales. I called the number followed the instructions and punched numbers in as fast as I could. The nice little automated voice told me I was not a valid merchant number and transferred me to a human. She asked for my merchant number three times and finally told me I was not valid either and to call my merchant account person to straighten it out. I called him and left a message... he called back two hours later and told me my number had worked fine when he tried it (gee I hate that) I took a deep breath and tried it again.

I apparently am too slow for the automated telephone deely and they transferred me to a person again. This time my account number went through, but it had been my first sale and I had forgotten to get her street number and zip code so that her number could be verified. In my notes it mentions that I can just use my own number and zip for stupidity like this. The girl said I couldn't, I said it was in my notes and she said what the heck. When it came to the sale amount I gave her an amount, but did not include the tax since on my crib sheet it looked like the tax was supposed to come later. She started to give me a verification and reference number and I asked if she needed the tax amount. She sounded a little confused, I explained that I had not added the tax on the amount I had given her. She claimed it would be fine, but I have a feeling I lost the tax amount on that one.

I went to do the next two on my own. Dialed the number for the fourth time... got all the way through one and got a message that it was declined... Panic!

Called the number for the fifth time and did the other transaction... yippee that one went in just fine, grabbed the other one and tried it again... barely beat the automation timing, but this time it went through just fine so it only took me 4 hours to enter three credit card transactions. I sure hope I get better at that.

Dyed some wool for felt balls and got Maddie's balls and some of my own into the washer. All that wool and balls are now drying. Took picture of the rugs that are not yet on ETSY this morning and got them edited and resized for the site.

Ordered 35 more little connectors for my grid display system. We discovered after we were at the show on Saturday that we were about 25 connectors short. Maddie and Puck zip tied the heck out of the grids and it held together pretty well. I will be prepared for the next show. The problem is that because I now am selling online I need to be able to find the dang rugs if I sell them so we set up a rack in the basement. That used up my connectors and now I am short.

Well that just about wraps up the last few days. I think I will do some weaving today or cut some rags

Eventful day sort of

Last night just in the middle of an e-mail the electricity went out. It was late... probably around 9:30 or 10:00 so it was already quite dark. Maddie started digging through the flashlight/junk drawer to find one that worked with little success.

I happened to glance to the right out the window and noticed that our neighbor's porch light was one. None of us had heard any stormy weather although it has been terribly hot and humid. Seeing that light changed out perspective. We discovered that only part of the house was dark. We happen to still have fuses in this old house and are pretty used to changing the one that shorts out when someone nukes something while someone else is taking a shower with the heater on or blow-drying their hair. Those we are used to, but this one was new...

Puck and Maddie trooped down to the basement with the dim flashlight. Fortunately the light in that part of the basement was working. Hmmmmm could not find any fuse that would set things right. Puck finally started taking them out one by one and have Maddie inspect them (she has the only good eyes in the family now) They all looked good... at last Puck tried changing all of them out with new ones. Still no success.

This was rather distressing. We were envisioning trying to call an electrician and having walls ripped out trying to locate the problem. We thought perhaps a squirrel or rat had chewed wires. It all was pretty depressing. I went to bed as Maddie came around the corner with a monster extension cord. She had to get online LOL

I fell fitfully to sleep, having to reset my clock each time Puck pulled a fuse out. Finally I fell asleep. Woke up early intentionally because I need to get to sleep early tonight so I can get up at 4:00 tomorrow morning for the show.

Anyhow I woke up around 7:30 and came downstairs... didn't think the tv in the living room was working since that was the room that was mostly out along with the computer room/library.... Had a bagel and coffee and watched a little news. Noticed the extension cord was snaking out of the kitchen outlet through the dining room and into the computer. Wondered a little at that. Went on the computer, found the birthday card Puck left for me :) We usually leave cards on the keyboard.


Went upstairs and sewed some rags for rugs. Mail came and there was a card for me and a package for Maddie. Called her down and she told me she had set up the tv for Puck last night and that it was on... moved myself into the living room and cut rags.. went back online to play my quizzes.. still worried about an electrician. Puck got up and we made a plan. He would go to the hardware store and get new fuses and we would try them all again before we called an electrician.

Maddie hauled down a big box for me from her and Puck. It was exactly what I wanted and had directed them to get for me :) It was a usb capable turntable so that I can record some of our large record collection onto cd. It was a little depressing not to be able to try it out right away, but very cool to get it and it even had a little plug for 45s.

Puck got dressed and we packed up the van... it was good to get all that stuff out of the kitchen and dining room. Could not find my dang cooler any where though. I know it is somewhere, but it seems to be lost.

Puck went back down to the basement and Maddie got ready for work. He called me down to the basement for an opinion and it sure looked like the fuse he had was burnt out. It looked different than the new ones and try as we might we could not fit a new one in. Puck was ready to give up on it, but I was frustrated... I get very antsy before a show.. It is hard for me to sleep and feels much like it did when I was singing and playing banjo professionally. I told him to walk down to the Pig, get the car from Maddie and go to Janesville to find the right fuse. Danged if he didn't go

He came back a couple hours later (I kept cutting rags) and he had the solution. What had happened is that the fuse screw cover was stuck in the hole.... I was ready to just jab a needle nose pliers in there, but Puck insisted on shutting down the power :) He worked at it with me holding the flashlight, but finally I shoved him gently out of the way and went at it tooth and nail... It took a little work, but I bent the thing all to hell enough that I could grab it with a pliers and unscrew it. Put in the new fuse and wonderbar it worked! No electrician needed, just a little advice and running around.

Puck is off decorating for the book festival Elvis fund raiser.. He came home a little while ago to grab our stack of 45s to use as decorations. Maddie is working at the pig and I am home alone blogging and cutting rags and hoping to get sleepy early this evening.

I am leaving the re-plugging of everything back in to Maddie when she gets home, but it is a great birthday present not to have to worry about electricity.

Can it really have been 32 years?

Puck and I are celebrating our 32 wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe that we have been together that long.

We met in 1972 at a theater interest party at UWRF... He was standing by the punch bowl on stage flipping Goldwater coin. He was sooooo cute! I was a freshman and he was a junior or maybe even a senior. We got to talking and things clicked, but we were both pretty shy ... it took a few more weeks and a little subterfuge (and some tequila) on both our parts to become a couple and the rest as they say is history... Sometimes it seems as though I have always been part of "Puck and Lori"

We are spending our anniversary packing up for my show this weekend. This is how we usually spend our anniversary and my birthday which is tomorrow (double nickles)

We went to see Comedy of Errors last night in Spring Green and I cannot recall enjoying a play more. It seems everyone screws with Shakespeare, but this one was great. The director is a big fan of Hope and Crosby road pics so the play was set in sort of Hollywood version of a forties road pic with Hollywood type exotic foreigners in wild costumes and big swords. The play calls for two sets of identical twins to get mixed up. The casting was remarkable. The first two brothers were actual brothers and the resemblance was very good, but the servants were totally identical and not related at all. It was amazing and I thought for a while that they were being played by the same actor until Maddie and I relooked at the program. It was incredible especially in a repertory cast that two actors would be so similar.

There was a talk back after the show which was very fun. One of the servant twin's daughters had attended an earlier performance and related a funny story. She is 4 and at the end of the show she stood up and said "OK, show of hands, Who loved this show?" we all laughed at that story.

We had dinner with our friend Michael before the show and gave him some goofy birthday presents, which he seemed to like. One was a toy sewing machine made by Hasbro. It was a Necchi machine though, which is quite rare and happens to be the same brand as my mothers, which Michael well remembers. He collects vintage machines, but did not have this one so that was cool. He said all the girls in the shop would be very jealous and that was cool too. The other present was a Christmas Album which was performed by the "Snap on Male Chorus" When I saw it at Goodwill I knew I had to have it LOL... I knew right away it was the snap-on-tools people, but Michael didn't get that at first. That made the whole thing even funnier.

We had a great time and it was as nice an anniversary evening as we could have with the people we love the best.

Wish me luck at the show this weekend... we ran into a detour yesterday getting to Spring Green and I hope that does not discourage people from coming to the show. There is also a forecast of storms for Saturday ... Sheesh!

Not much going on sort of

Happy Fathers day... We are going to a graduation party today and that is about all the special stuff for today. I have spent most of the last week caning or rather re-weaving a chair.

I got so frustrated that I wandered around the kitchen crying after ripping out all my work 10 times. I just could not see what I was doing wrong. Finally the mote was cleared from my eyes and it made sense. Sheesh that was painful... even after I figured out the pattern it was very easy to mess up and I had to back track several more times after that. 60 hours of labor later though it is finished. The catch is that I under charged him (my fault) and this is just the back of the chair.... it goes back to the refinisher to attach to the chair and then comes back to me to do a whole seat that is even bigger.

I told him in an e-mail that if he got another one I would have to charge $300.00 for it and think twice before accepting the job.

It was good to have it done.

I did take a couple breaks last week. First we all drove to Janesville on Tuesday. I needed to renew my drivers license and Maddie needed to apply for her passport. They dropped me off with my book at the DMV and I jumped through all the weird hoops set up to confuse us. I even managed to pass the eye test (Whoopee!) I actually got done fairly quickly and read a chapter of my book (Thanks Sonja) before Puck and Maddie got back... they had a much longer wait.

On Wednesday a group of us displaced support staff got together at one woman's house for a sort of farewell bitch session. She has a very lovely home in the country and just built a terrific bar in the basement. We sat around and talked and laughed for 5 hours. It was great and wonderful not to be caning a chair.

Thursday Maddie and her boyfriend went to a movie and stopped at Goodwill. She called me saying "Mom, somebody just unloaded a whole crap load of piano rolls and they are priced at 99 cents each, what should I do?" I do have the vintage shop on ETSY so I told her we probably could resell some of them. I instructed her to check them carefully, get only the ones with boxes and cute names. Don't pass on any jazz, blues, or boogie woogie and look for Scott Joplin, and Jelly Roll Morton. We limited it to $50.00 and she came home 2 hours later with a box of piano rolls.

Unfortunately the person was mostly into marches, but there are some fun songs. Red Red Robin, On the Trail of the lonesome pine, On Wisconsin, and more. I carefully soaked the labels off (grrr) and cleaned up the boxes... now I have to photograph them and list them. We shall see.

I spent most of yesterday listing books in my vintage site. It is a little sad, but it is time to set some of them free. I hope I get some hits. I did sell one little pamphlet called George Washington in Verse to a girl stationed in Germany who wanted it for her father for Fathers day. That was very sweet. I hunted up a card and asked if she would like me to write something in it for him. I did and hopefully it got to him in time.

I am still trying to find places for all the crap I cleaned out of my room. I gave away a mess, but still kept a mess as well.

The good news is that Yami is looking much better. I think I will have them do another test when we get to the end of our Ringers bag to double check the diagnosis.

Introducing Lizard Band

Well we got Maddie set up with an Etsy Shop. Got her a credit card, set up a paypal account, set up an etsy account, created a banner, created a profile, created a shop announcement. Photographed a bunch of her art to turn into magnets, and all the felt balls which she has designed. and several people have favorited her shop. She even has gotten a convo so that is pretty cool. Still need to get the fine art magnets done and uploaded. She also will offer custom collage portraits. She has done several for her friends who are graduating and they all have been very well received.

She spent most of last night entering descriptions for her felt balls. She seems to have a good knack for interesting descriptions.

The cat seems to be doing ok. Puck is much better. The kids at school are maniacs. The staff threw a big bash for all of us who will be leaving. There are about 6 of us who will be changing jobs. Who knows though what will end up happening after it all gets sorted out.

I have been slowly clearing out my desk, giving away my knick knacks and generally moving out of the room. I really hate an empty room, but Emily (the permanent teacher) needs to vacate her current room and squish into the Read 180 room. We make such a good team. I will miss her a great deal. It would have been nice to work with just one teacher for one year at least. Ah well

today I was at the grocery store and two of the kids we worked with in drama asked who would be taking over Drama. They were so sad when I told them no one had picked up the contract. I was sad again too. Then when I walked out another woman asked again about drama.

The music teacher gave me a beautiful brilliant rhinestone pin that had belonged to her grandmother. I have admired it several times when she wore it. She gave me the sweetest card as well.

I will really miss the people at my school

Oh I have Maddie's shop as a mini here on my blog so watch for updates :)

And still it doesn't get better

those of you who are facebook friends are aware that we are having a kitty crisis. Yami our 5 year old goofball started losing weight and fur luster so we took him to the vet last week. The vet gave me a look that told me immediately that I was bringing this cat in at deaths door. He suspected diabetes and took a mess of tests. Yami normally hates strangers and he was a docile as a kitten. That is when I realized how ill he really was.

After they took his blood and gave him a 150cc of fluid he crawled back in his cage. I asked Maddie and her boyfriend to take him out while I settled up the bill. Her boyfriend is a sweetie and loves the cat too. Well all of a sudden I see Michael sort of bracing up Maddie and carrying the cat carrier. Maddie had gotten faint in the room and had to get some fresh air. Thank goodness Michael was there to help her and the cat.. She felt a little woozy even while we were driving home so I stopped and picked up some OJ and nuts. I think she must have been a little low on sugar and locked her knees up while we were standing there with the vet. She has been fine ever since, but it gave me a scare.

The next day I went into work and saw the woman whose job I bumped talking to one of the office people. She had been the person who got Yami neutered when we first rescued him. She volunteers at the pet rescue place. She had a cast picture from out last show with signatures from all the kids. It was going to go up in the High School to memorialize Middle School Drama. I fell apart and started crying. I feel so bad about taking her job. I apologized to her and she was so gracious. I told her about Yami. She remembered him. That was 5 years ago. Her sons have been in drama for many years so we are friends.

It was not a good day. When I got home the vet called back with the test results. Not diabetes... kidney failure... death sentence... I authorized one last test to finalize whether it still could be diabetes and crossed my fingers.

Next day the cat was looking a little better. I ran around after school to get cat food and another litter box. The vet called and confirmed the kidney failure. Unusual in a cat that young, but not uncommon in Siamese type cats.

Friday we learned how to do subcutaneous fluid insertion in the cat and he is doing ok. I sort of look on this as hospice care now. The lab tech told me he has probably 6-16 months. We will take it as it goes I guess.

I am getting ahead of myself though. Friday morning Puck was supposed to sub. He had fallen asleep in the chair so did not get a good nights rest. He was acting groggy and I sort of put it off to weird sleep. I went to work and he walked to work. about half way through the day one of my co-workers came up to me and told me that Puck was acting odd. Nothing specific, just not himself. He had recently be diagnosed as pre diabetic and I thought it might be that. Our office manager is diabetic and she thought he looked like he was having an episode. We have several people who occasionally have had diabetic highs or lows and it looked very much like that. My co-worker grabbed him a coke and I talked to the office manager. After a little hesitation we both decided that I should probably get him checked out.

I ran up to my classroom and told them I was leaving, I hauled Puck out of his class. He was pissed at me and still just a little off and I took him to the emergency room. they did a mess of tests, ekg, cat-scan, glucose, blood test. Everything came back normal. Glucose was sort of high, but the doctor was suspicious of a combination of tiredness and his beta blockers, which he takes for a tremor.

I took him home and told Maddie to keep him quiet and fill him with fluids.

He seems better today.

I tell you I may not live through the next few weeks