Pottery Trail

Well I only managed to make it to two studios this weekend but I got out to my favorite studio from last year, Blue Moon, & purchased this beautiful saggar fired porcelain vase. Brenda McMahon has some amazing pieces that incorporate wood, carving, and beadwork but the majority of her work sells in the hundreds of dollars & as a budding collector I can't quite afford them ... The trail is made up of five local potters. You can go to their studios, watch them work, ask questions about technique, all while munching on wine & cheese. I love the small art community I have been introduced to here. Next weekend is a pottery fest that many of the Clay Guild members are participating in so I am excited to see some of their creations as well..


This is the flower vase
that Jason won last year
on the trail


In other *very exciting* news I just learned that one of my oldest & best friends had a healthy baby boy born yesterday!! I am so excited for her & am even more excited for my trip back to Boise this July.

Before & After

April running mileage: 31

I finally finished staining my peg boards and put it them use. Not sure I like how far apart we ended up hanging them but do like how the mugs look. This coming weekend is the annual area 'pottery trail'. I dragged Jason around to it last year and it was pretty fun. He even ended up winning one of the donated pieces. This year my teacher has decided not to participate ... but I will probably end up checking out at least the closer studios.

The weather has cooled off but we've still been getting out running. Starting next week we decided to start running in the morning instead of after work, mostly to spare Riley from the heat. I had a bad run earlier in the week and hit my wall pretty early, but today I felt really good and we finished in 25 min. Also the other night we found a tick on Riley so we started combing him top to bottem and in the last two days have found no less than 15 ticks! I don't know if he picked them up when we went to the preserve over the weekend or if he's had them longer. I forget how epidemic they are here ... so he has a vet appointment next week to get tested for lymes disease and get shots. Ticks are such disgusting bugs, and my scalp has been itching ever since.

Weekend Project

April running mileage: 25

Today Jason & I woke up and decided to go for a quick hike before he had to leave for his flight. I thought we would check out the Pine Bush Preserve that I had heard about since it was so close. Maybe I didn't do enough homework on it because our trail lead us directly alongside the freeway for most of our walk. According to the site there are over 18 miles of trails but we only found two ... regardless it was nice to get out, wear shorts, and take the dog for a swim.

My weekend project led me to the local greenhouse. This will be round two in Melissa vs the Squirrels. Armed with 'wild animal repellent' I set out to fill some summer deck planters. This is a pay as I go kind of project, plus I want to see if these plants will last as long as the animal repellent is supposed to ...

South Park

At work today we spent most of the morning laughing over the following clips:
(unfortunately you would have to work at AMC to find these as funny as I do)

In Limbo

The last two weeks have been beyond depressing. Temperatures fell, rain has been non-stop, and today we got the tail end of a "storm of the century" (whatever that means ... we've had three of these warnings this spring) which brought wet slush-rain and wind. Meanwhile I have spring fever and I have it bad! So I haven't been particularly motivated to do much. What has been going on? Well for starters I have logged 15 miles so far towards my 5k preperation. Doesn't sound like much, and sadder still is that I haven't been able to run the entire route yet. But I feel better each time I do it, a little faster & a little stronger. It's been snowing the last couple times I've run though ... so I'm impressed that I even talked myself into going outside.

I also found out this week that I got accepted to the SUNY Albany Graduate of Business Program. As of now I am a non-degree student, because I haven't taken the GMAT's yet. Classes start up at the end of May ... along with a very cool sounding raku program through Skidmore College in Saratoga. Jason & I went and saw Son Volt last night. Pretty good show, not especially my type of music - but anytime you see a live show is a good time. We also found an excellent dim sum restaurant designed to replicate a buddhist temple. I love dim sum!

April Fool's

I completed my first 'run-walk' today. Jason & I took Riley on his normal 3 mile loop this morning. I think we ran 3/4 of it, which wasn't quite as bad as I thought it might be considering this was my first run of the year. I have six weeks until the Corporate Challenge on May 17. Once I run it a few times I will have to check my time & see how much I can improve. So that is my new fitness challenge.

The weather has consistently hit 50 this week, which means we went from 3 feet of snow over St Paddy's day to the great thaw we are currently experiencing. Swampy grass, huge puddles, lots of slush. I can't wait until it starts turning green. I took a quick picture of the backyard, which looks a hundred times better than it did last year, to track the changes. The squirrels are already out in full force ...