Big Island under siege

An earthquake on Monday jolted the Big Island of Hawaii, which is already under a hurricane watch and a tropical storm warning.

I was eager to see the video of the “Hawaiians” clearing the store shelves, so I could compare it to my experience, except that their video feed is not working for me, for whatever reason. (Although someone does need to remind CNN that “Hawaiian” is a race designation, not an indication of state residency. Some Hawaii residents are Hawaiian, but not all Hawaiians are Hawaii residents.) In the six years I lived on Oahu, I saw serious stockpile buying only once, right after 9/11. It was really weird to go into the store and see no bottled water, no toilet paper, no rice, no beer. I imagine it is pretty much the same in this instance.

Hang in there, Amy-san.

weirdness

I’m a little weird. People who know me know this, and I do, too.

But is it really all that strange that I don’t like blobs of mushy fruit in my yogurt? That I like fruit yogurt — not merely “fruit-flavored” — but that I really prefer the fruit to be smoothly pureed so as to blend with the smooth yogurty goodness? Combine this with my absolute abhorrence of all types of artificial sweetener, and, well, it makes it hard to shop.

Yoplait indulges me in this regard with its custard-style line, but I am worried about the future of our relationship. It seems that every time I go to the store, another flavor has vanished. Whither mixed berry? Blackberry?

I fear that soon I will have resort to buying some other kind (I do love the taste — if not the texture — of the Stonybrook Farm organics) and running it through the blender before I eat it. Kind of takes the convenience factor away, though.

productive day

This afternoon I knocked out one of the big items on my populous to-do list: getting a handful of new jewelry items finished and posted on Etsy.

I’m especially pleased with the brass etchings I’ve been working on. I first learned this etching technique several years ago, and in the past week I’ve been experimenting with how to apply some permanent color. I think these fit in nicely with the other garden-themed pieces I started making in the spring. I have many, many more than are posted on Etsy; come out to an upcoming show to see more.

Summer Market link

The Avon Lake Summer Market show launched their website today: http://www.folgerhome.org/summermarket/. Looks like lots of great vendors again this year.

North Olmsted Juried Arts & Crafts Show

Today I learned I was accepted into another summer show. It’s a small, first-year show, so I’m not quite sure what to expect, but I hope it will be a good one. If you’re out and about that day, I’d love it if you would stop by and say hello.

North Olmsted Juried Arts & Crafts Show
Sunday, August 12
10-6
Frostville Museum
24101 Cedar Point Rd.
Rocky River Reservation in the Cleveland Metroparks
map

Here’s hoping they’ll get some kind of publicity going for it soon; I wasn’t able to dig up anything on the web.

blogging without obligation

Today I have had the luxury of following artistic breadcrumbs across the web for much of the afternoon, discovering new inspirations and connections and filling my creative reservoir. On my journey, I found a succinct and sane little piece about blogging without obligation at tartx.com, which in part says:

Because its okay to just say what you have to say. If that makes for a long post, fine. Short post, fine. Frequent post, fine. Infrequent post, fine.

I, too, have stuggled with feeling the obligation to post without really having anything to say and have been guilty of starting many dozens of posts over the years with an apology for not posting and a promise to “do better.” No more. I have enough other stuff to stress about, so I’m happy to add the little bwo link down at the bottom of the sidebar.

the joys of catching up

I wrapped up a slew of work projects right before the wedding, and I’m not expecting the next to arrive until next week. This lull has allowed me time to catch up on other projects, a few of which have been lingering too long.

(Of course, the minute I typed that, I got a lead on a rush work project and put aside this entry to send off an inquiry about it. Funny how these things work.)

I am almost never “between projects,” even when I have no actual paying work on my desk. I always have some kind of personal project or volunteer project on my plate, and oftentimes more than a few. This week I made progress on a lot of them, along with knocking out a ton of manini to-dos that make up the project I call “life in general.”

The alumni club is looking for an automated way to handle memberships to take the load off of volunteers and streamline the process. I did a lot of research earlier in the spring and found what seems to be a viable — and free — solution. After much back-and-forth, we decided to give it a try with a small test group, and I spent most of today setting up the community website and inviting our testers to sign up.

Yesterday I spent the day completely revamping my professional website and doing the first draft of a new prospecting letter. I’m still not happy with either, but it’s more progress than I’ve made on either in the past six months. I hope to attack them again on Monday, after they’ve had the chance to stew a while.

I’m about halfway done with creating the “just the highlights” wedding photo page for those who want a taste but don’t want to slog through all three hundred professional photos and umpteen amateur photos. With luck, I’ll finish that tomorrow before I take off for the weekend.

Earlier in the week I spent a few hours at the old house sorting and packing more stuff. Those who know me from the olden days might be shocked to learn that I ended up with more books in the giveaway pile than in the save-me boxes. While nowhere near as hoardalicious as some people I know who shall remain unnamed, I was at one time known for my vast accumulation of books. I have (mostly) gotten over that compulsion to acquire and hold everything remotely interesting that crosses my path, and I now try to limit myself to those books that are truly indispensible or that I truly love. What a concept!

2007 Avon Lake Summer Market

I will post about this again when the date gets closer, but several people have asked whether or not I was doing this show again and to give them more details, so here you go:

Avon Lake Summer Market
Saturday, 28 July 2007
10-6
32770 Lake Road (at Route 83; map)

The Summer Market is a benefit for preservation and restoration of the Thomas Folger Home (note: the Folger Home website is all bells & whistles [including sound] with even less [and well-buried, at that] information about the show than I’m giving you here, but it does give a little history of the Folger Home, if you’re interested).

This is a fun, well-organized show at the lakeshore with about fifty vendors selling all kinds of great stuff: home decor, flowers and plants, baked goods, quality arts & crafts, antiques, and so on. This isn’t the same stuff you see everywhere else, and the scenery can’t be beat. I was so impressed with this show last year that I expressed my desire to be included this year less than halfway through the day last year. Hope to see you there.

sneak peek

Our photographer’s blog has a sneak peek of a few of the wedding photos: Tom Forrest.

Tom was an absolute joy to work with, a true professional who listened carefully to what we did and did not want and did a great job making everyone feel comfortable, even those who hate having their picture taken. Besides that, he’s an incredibly talented nice guy. I whole-heartedly recommend him to anyone who needs an event photographer.

rested

What a truly wonderful week and a half! All the planning and stressing about detail and choosing and running around all came together beautifully. I won’t bore everyone with the details; suffice it to say that we couldn’t have nicer, more supportive family and friends, or a better crew of wedding professionals (more about each of the latter to come when I have some photos to share that will illustrate what I mean about these talented, creative, generous, wonderful people).

Our honeymoon to Niagara Falls, Toronto, and Windsor was fun and relaxing — everything a honeymoon should be, but with miniature golf. And dinosaurs. All together.

A great way to start the summer…