20 May 2008

On days when I forget the camera, it’s a good thing I have an extraordinarily photogenic cat.

Late night working, and she got comfortable on a stack of fabric and went to sleep.  The first photo I took shows her asleep, and this is the one I got just after she opened her eyes.  Beautiful green eyes.

I was worried ’cause I hadn’t seen her in a few hours, but as of morning, 21 May, Mama bird is still roosting.

And for anyone wishing to keep track of Donny and Mary’s challenges this week, her parents are both doing better.  The other woman in the car has been released from the hospital, but the sad, sad news is that the driver of the car did not make it.  Mary’s mom is actually up and around, despite some broken ribs and other issues. Her dad has finally been giving a feeding tube rather than just an i.v.  He has also been observed mouthing the words “I love you” to his wife!  His future is still uncertain, but more positive than it has been.  Mary says all our prayers and warm wishes are working!  Keep it up!

~MB

17 May 2008
Oh what a day! I’ve never seen so many people at SF (at least recently) and the sales were amazing. I had arranged to take the day off to spend with friends in for the day, so my manager and his primary sales assistant went to it. What a team they are. When we looked at the days results that evening it was a record-breaker! So, thanks Bill & Marcus for letting me out of the shop and for doing a bang-up job in my absence.
While I was out of the shop, I took opportunity to do things I haven’t done in years (in some cases, a decade or more). One of those was watch the joust. It amazes me still how hard those guys hit & fall. I know it’s all scripted and choreographed (sometimes it’s painfully obvious), but there’s still a great deal of talent underneath that show.

Then, when you look at the amount of money, time & skill that goes into making the armour, the entire experience takes on a new shine.
This evening, we had good wine, good company, & great jewelry. Thanks, Allyson, for yet another successful trunk show for Beading Dreams.
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 19 May 200

Listening to:
Rainbow by Ween
from Chef Aid: The South Park Album

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.002 sec (1/500)
Aperture: f/5.5
Focal Length: 23.2 mm
ISO Speed: 400
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire, auto mode

16 May 2008
Friday’s during faire season are hard. Very hard. There’s the daily grind at work, followed by the frantic/frenetic packing dance, then last minute errands to the stores for weekend necessities, followed by the inevitable trip to petrol station. By the time all this happens, it’s frequently late and I will have, again, forgotten to get a photo. What should make this Friday any different? Nothing, except, we didn’t stop for petrol. Yep, no photo for Friday again…but, since I was still up at 00:58 when I took this photo, I’m counting it.

My black hairbrush, with black bristles at night in a darkened shop lit only by strings of decorative Christmas lights. Huh. Making the mundane beautiful, or at least interesting. That’s me.
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 19 May 2008 )

Listening to:
Marble House by The Knife
from SILENT SHOUT

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 1 sec (1)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

15 May 2008
We’ve long since established I’m a collector. I am NOT a pack-rat, I don’t keep everything no matter what. I am, however, a collector which means I have a lot of esoteric stuff with the emphasis on the stuff. I bought this guy on my first trip to Epcot many years ago. I had intended to build a collection around him because I found him very, very cool.

However, after bringing him home, I found that many other people also collect these hideous little trolls and thus the prices are unreasonably high. I forewent my desire to collect them, and have just established him on my desk as my personal mascot.
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 19 May 200

Listening to:
Competition Smile by Gin Blossoms
from Congratulations I’m Sorry

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.4 sec (2/5)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

19 May 2008

Another case of “it looked so much better in my mind’s eye.”  The glassware that hangs over our kitchen counter.  Pretty and reflective, it is much more pleasing to the eye in person than in this photo.

I had all my reports and paperwork done by about noon and by 1:20 I was out to lunch with Sharon Hickey.  We bank erranded and Quizno-ed and were back at home sorting through fabric by about three.  We solved some mysteries, and figured out where we were, and got stuff all organized for her projects.  I even built her a stomacher while we talked!

After she was on her way back to Jim, and I’d gone for a Jack in the Box supper run, Kyle and I sat down with our meals and the TV remote!  We watched a couple of things we’d had taped, cuddled, and headed to bed around ten o’clock.  Of course, it’s nearly midnight, now, and I’m still typing!

Mama Bird is still roosting.

~MB

18 May 2008

I cannot remember the last time a faire day passed so slowly!  And so bizarrely.  Hot, humid.  No Donny. No Mary.  Dull and slow, but after all was said and done, business didn’t suck.  We actually did better this Sunday than the last couple of Sundays!  Go figure!

I chalk some of it up to the help I got from Stephen!  He agreed to come in and help fill the void left by Donny and Mary’s absence.  I figured he’d be able to greet people and answer some basic questions—he certainly knows the history and has been a costumer for longer than I have!  But, as it turned out, he made some pretty good sales happen! 

Next weekend, I’ll have help from Allyson on Saturday, and I’m not sure yet what the rest of the weekend will bring!  Donny is hoping he can be at faire, but we’re pretty sure Mary will not make it back this season.  She is where she needs to be, with her family, and she has the gift of lots of “time off” accrued from her government job.  What a blessing that is!  So, our warm thoughts and prayers continue to be funnelled toward her and her folks in a Tyler hospital . . . the coming days and weeks will be hard.

All day at faire in the heat meant those icy margaritas were calling our names at the end of the day.  We stopped and had a great Tex Mex meal with Denise and Ken and Janet and Rod and Amy and Stephen.  Yum.  Home again, and doing reports and such before I realized there’d been no photography in my slow, dull day.  <sigh>  So, one of the hats I recently wrote about—up close.  Cool knitted straw patterns . . . lines and curves . . . kinda fun.

~MB

17 May 2008

What a day!  Busy, busy, busy day at faire!  It is Pirate Weekend at Scarborough Renaissance Festival, and the crowd was very big, today.  It’s like our little festival is finally growing up!  We heard stories of a three-mile back-up on the freeway leading up to the exit for the faire; of parking rows being created in fields never before used for parking; of folks arriving an hour and a half later than they’d planned just because of traffic and such.  It is very exciting—I do so wish they would share a gate count with us, so we could judge how our individual businesses are doing in comparison to the size of the crowd.

All we know is that we were busy!  We worked our little butts off in both the Pendragon and East Wind Games shoppes.  And both shoppes had great days!  In fact, once again, East Wind Games had a record day—and subsequently a record weekend!  Woo hoo!

At one point in the day, a friend came in, and with him was a friend who had just decided to “invest” in a project for the next six weeks or so—hopefully.  I was amazed, and so had to take this photo.  I wish now, that I had included some familiar object for scale.  He is lying on a washcloth, and you can discern the heel of the hand holding him.  This is a one-day old kitten.  So young and tiny it looks more alien than feline, but apparently it was rescued from the clutches of a tom cat.  Who knows if the tom had actually attacked, or if he was just trying to eliminate the runt from the rest of the litter, to give the others more of a chance?  But, this little creature seems to have the will to live.  Given the warmth and protection of a human woman with the willingness to set an alarm clock and awake every two hours for feedings, and rub him with a wet finger to make him pee and poo—he just might have a chance!  It will be days before his eyes should open, and he even really begins to hear.  He is completely helpless, and yet able to wiggle and sort of crawl around.  He emits a teeny little mew every now and then, and the news on his second day, was that he had actually gained some weight!  So, rock on, little guy!  Hang in there!

I’d never seen a kitten so young and small . . . we had baby gerbils once when I was a kid . . . not much different, really! <grin> Just smaller! 

Saturday evening saw lots of wonderful folks gather at our shoppe to enjoy each other’s company, some wine and cheese, and most importantly, Allyson’s beautiful jewelry creations.  The trunk show was successful, and we had a great time.  Lots of people went home with new sparklies!

We did say a hasty farewell to our beloved Donny and Mary Saturday night, as they received news of Mary’s parents having suffered a bad car accident.  We heard words like “ambulance” and “care-flight” and “hospital” and hugged them goodbye.  They headed to east Texas where they are now, and where the news is slightly more encouraging than we had originally feared.  Our thoughts and prayers will continue to be with them through the week, as the medical adventures continue.

~MB

16 May 2008

We’re treading softly on our front porch these days.  We don’t want to frighten away our new resident!

We think she’s a Red-Breasted Nuthatch.  It took quite a bit of research to figure that out, and still, we’re not really sure.  But what we do know is that she’s a beautiful little bird and that while we weren’t paying attention, she built this nest in the corner of our front porch, on top of Kyle’s soccer net.  One day it was just there!  We first became aware of it, while we were standing on the porch and she flew out of the nest past our heads and scared us half to death!  We were afraid then, that she’d abandon all the hard work a lovely nest represents and stay gone. But, she not only came back—she laid what appears to be three beautiful little eggs in the nest, and has continued to put up with our comings and goings.

I talk to her every day—one website I read indicated that nuthatches are actually rather tame and can even be trained to eat from a hand!  I don’t know if we’ll accomplish that, but at least, I want her to feel comfortable with our voices and our movements. 

So, if you come to our house, be quiet on the front porch!

~MB

15 May 2008

This photo almost works for a “what is it?” game!  As I was taking the photo in my closet the other day, I happened to look up and realize that there was another photo opportunity above me.  I had no idea that I’d need to go back and shoot that only two days later!  I hope it makes Jill feel better to know that these multi-coloured hangers are the ones NOT being used at the moment! ;-)  In fact, it might restore her faith in my organizational skills to know that although the hangers in the closet are not all the same colour, they do most of the time, correspond in colour to the garment hanging upon them. 

Thursday—a work day cut short by an unplanned trip to faire and back to retrieve a forgotten item.  I guess that worked out okay, though, ’cause I got to do a couple of things at the booth I’d been meaning to do, but hadn’t gotten around to actually doing.  As always—seven weeks into faire and I’m almost ready for it to start! <grin>

~MB

14 May 2008
Have I mentioned that my wife is talented? She’ll take this bunch of geegaws

and turn it into works of art that she will then sell. I love what she does.
~KR (Written on 15 May 2008 )

Listening to:
Pay Me My Money Down by Bruce Springsteen
from We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.1 sec (1/10)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire