Bewildering Balderdash

Treadmill = 15 minutes

Today found me in Baltimore so I could meet our new accountant, John Mayo. Not that we had an old one really, although a former Redskins player did my taxes for two years. Lots of stuff learned about how things will be working with the pottery studio as far as taxes go. Many thanks to dreamtigress for loaning us her tax guy.

Speaking of dreamtigress, we had a nice lunch and catch-up chat. We traded stuff and caught up what's going on.

There was also a trip to Clayworks to pick up a new glaze - smokey Merlot! I ordered a 25-pound bucket of the stuff. I was really good too since I didn't even buy anything except for that. First time that's happened!

2/2/13 Treadmill = zero
2/3/13 Treadmill = zero
2/4/13 Treadmill = 15 minutes

Treadmill 1/29 = 15 minutes
Treadmill 1/30 = 15 minutes

Really just a a treadmill update since I am outof time for the evening

Saturday & Sunday - Treadmill = zero.

We chose not to exercise since we were running errands on Saturday and doing a _lot_ of housechores today.

I know that it's not over yet, but sheesh!

Treadmill = 10 minutes
Sadly I am realizing that on days that I walk, my hip hurts. And it's hurting worse each time. Crappity.

The really cool thing about my treadmill time this week though is that it's been done early in the morning side-by-side with my Panda (on his gazelle contraption). We're trying something new by exercising together and early in the day.

January 21st was our first wedding anniversary and to celebrate, we went away for a weekend in the mountains of Luray. There was hot tub time, breakfast in, dinners out (huzzah for finding vegetarian-friendly fare), a foray into downtown Luray, checking out an art gallery (my new favorite artist = Chris O'Dell Ferguson), getting to swing by Rainbow Hill (home of the best rhubarb pie on the planet), and - last but not least - visiting Millcreek Pottery and getting to visit with Alfie and Gail.

About half of the last bisque load of pottery has been glazed and I plan to fire the kiln tomorrow.

Tucker has been started on a medication regimen for his hip. He's been having trouble getting up and has been stiff and achy. While he's always had a funny gait, it's not given him much trouble until recently. After a visit to Dr. Rushing at Blue Ridge Vet in Culpeper, we've made the decision to give Adequan for the slightly deformed hip joint that we saw on the x-ray. First shot was Tuesday night and after a weekly-dose month of ramp-up, he gets one shot every month. Duchess, is always, oblivious.

Apparently this is a rambling sort of post (I am sure you've noticed that by now...)

My most awesome daecabhir asked me to bundle up and go view the night sky with him (it's about 16 degrees right now). The moon is waning but still very bright. We saw Jupiter, two of Gemini's stars, Orion's belt and two of his supergiant stars, and lots more stars that I cannot name. The moon made wonderful shadows - the light reflecting off the little bit of snow we got last night makes everything so pretty.

... you figure that the day was a success because there were no noticeable explosions in the kiln.

Today was a bisque firing and as noted above, there were no noticeable explosions. I won't know for sure until tomorrow when I crack the kiln.

Did a bit more research on the issue with my hips ... seems that sitting with your legs tucked under you (which I do while at my desk) and not tucking in your tummy (which I've became very lax about) can both exacerbate the issue.

Treadmill = zero (and last night's hip pain in bed was minimal)

In knitting news, I think I've gotten things figure out after swatching fours times. Now to cast on for real.

daecabhir is off for four - count 'em four days and we have a little something special planned for our anniversary. In some ways it's hard to believe that it's been a whole year since we were married and yet it seems that we've been together forever. Either way, I am madly in love with my Panda.

Our new fridge was delivered today and it's very shiny!

The install guys came two hours early and had everything done within 30 minutes. It was pretty amazing to watch the guys at work - they have this fridge delivery thing down pat. They put the old fridge where I asked, carefully set everything up, and gave me a run-down on operation. One curious aside is that both of the installers were Hispanic and, no surprise, when they were speaking to each other it was typically in Spanish. When they were deciding the best way to get the new fridge in the kitchen, the main installer turned to me and apologized that they were speaking Spanish. He explained that the other installer spoke English not as well as he did so Spanish was faster for them. I hope it doesn't seem contrite but I really appreciated his gesture.

The new fridge will take some getting used to for sure but we're up to the task. One funny thing that we've both noticed is that with the light gleaming off the stainless, it sort of looks like the door is open when you catch it out of the corner of your eye. We've already adjusted the shelves a few times and may not be done. Thankfully we've got the fridge downstairs to help us in this process.

And now for the 'finally' part ... the copy of birth certificate (and my first marriage license) arrive in today's mail. It only took the state of New Jersey FOUR months to fulfill my request. Hopefully the state department granted the extension that I filed for and my passport application can actually be processed now. The bureaucratic baloney is ridiculous!

While nothing new got created in the studio today, I cleaned up the pottery from yesterday and added handles to the mugs. 

daecabhir came home early today with flowers - he my MVP (Most Valuable Panda) for sure!

Treadmill = zero (the day was just too nuts)

Lots of household chores done today - the floors are vacuumed and mopped, area rugs are cleaned, our new Gel-Pro mat is down and the old one got cleaned, pulled the fridge out to clean the floor and wall behind it in order to make Friday's delivery of the new fridge a little smoother, things like that.

Busy household day also meant no studio time but that should come tomorrow.

Treadmill = 15 minutes

That would be me.

After working for a bit in my studio with my spiffy new utility sink, it didn't take long for me to realize that the sink was too low. Standing at the sink for any length of time was excruciating. The sink seems so high when you look at it but when you combine the short neck on the faucet, the depth of the basins and the height of the sink, it just adds up to a potter in pain.

I was feeling pretty dumb for not figuring this out BEFORE we paid someone to install the sink.

Lucky for me  - I am married to the most amazing man on the planet. When I finally fessed up to daecabhir about the sink on Friday evening, he simply said that we would fix it. And then he surprised me by fixing it TODAY. Not only is my utility sink now  SIX inches higher than before, I have a new faucet, AND my honey caulked the bottom of the tileboard that we installed when dreamtigress was here.

We spent several hours in Lowes today so that we could buy the needed plumbing parts needed to raise the sink, a new faucet  - one with a longer neck and handle that I can flip on with my arm when hands are full of clay*, we looked at tool boxes, bought a few needed items for the house, decided on a new storm door for the front of the house (the one that is currently there will get moved to the basement/studio door), pondered our tile choices for the master bath shower stall (don't get me started), and my lumberjack of a man got himself a maul so that he could split wood.

* Am I the only one who uses a UTILITY sink with dirty hands? All of the readily-available utility sink faucets come with knobs that you have to turn. Add to that most utility sinks have very deep basins - deep in width to the wall as well as deep to the bottom of the basin. It'd be nice to have a long-necked faucet so that you could actually utilize your utility sink better but guess what most utility sink faucets come with? A short, stubby neck!

And so tonight, I am overwhelmed with gratitude and awe for my mate. He pretty much spent his entire day off working hard - all to help me.

For the record, treadmill use for the weekend was zero.

We spent a good chunk of Saturday in Fredericksburg. The highlight of our errands being the purchase of a new refrigerator. Our current kitchen fridge is a 21-year-old Kenmore (made by GE), the ice maker has been leaking for quite a while now. It also happens to be a side-by-side model which is not very user-friendly nor energy efficient. Our new fridge - which will be delivered on Friday - is an ultra-sexy, 4-door Kenmore Elite (made by LG), complete with LED lighting, adjustable shelves, and a very smart layout. Our favorite appliance salesman, Super Dave, helped us once again to make a smart choice and get a great deal.

Even though I was so busy today that I pretty much forgot about the treadmill, I am calling the day a win.

• Sorted out and cleaned up more in the studio
• More importantly - I played with clay!
• Finally touched base with the gutter guy about the gutter behind the garage (it's not flowing correctly)
• Got in touch with the (hopefully) right person to sort out my CPAP supply issues