CPAP Run, Run, PAP, Run

In the never-ending battle to get a good night's sleep, I have now been armed with a CPAP machine.

CPAP stands for Continuous Positive Air Pressure (although my CPAP machine isn't actually Continuous, since it "breathes" with me.)

It's sort of a glorified fan which sends slightly pressurized air into a mask (and into me) at night, so that my airways don't close. It hasn't helped with the getting to sleep, but it seems to be helping with the staying asleep.

I've been on it two weeks, and now I'm finally not having dreams of scuba diving. (Although I am having really weird dreams about high school and the SCA.

And, while I do wake up with a slight headache about half the time, my concentration seems to have improved enough for me to start creating the "odd but pretty" jewelry that forms the "Amy half" of Piece by Piece.

The other big project, of course, is my sister's web site, Sport & Spool Antiques. It's still in the programming stages, but I now have hope that I will be able to muster the intelligence to do the javascript programming needed to go live in the next month (or two.)

Now, if I could only squeeze Piece by Piece's web site update in between S&P and the Puppet Showplace Theatre's updates. Oh, and adding new content to Rafael Sabatini, as well (though, poor old Raf has gotten pushed to the bottom of the todo list these days.

I've also taking to actually updating my etsy site, which, of course means new photographs. 

After trolling the internet looking for information on how to take better product photographs, I finally took the suggestion that I a) buy a tripod, and b) take some shots outdoors.

The results were somewhat less than spectacular given that the day was overcast, and I didn't like the way the earrings looked on the earring cards.  

However, I will probably upload the first photos to my etsy store within a few days. So look out.

But now, I'm running to the store, and then taking Peg to therapy (occupational, this time, although she's been doing physical for the last several weeks.

...And that's all she wrote.

Welcome to the Land of Shiny (and not-quite-so) Things

My apartment is in chaos (although my patio looks pretty good.)

My cats hate the way I have rearranged my bedroom (even though it is now CLEAN...I must have vacuumed two cats worth of hair from the rug.)

And I have to take stuff to the storage until soon, or there will be no way to walk from the center of the apartment to the patio or the door.

So, what am I doing? Straightening? Cleaning? No. I'm playing with beads, of course.

It was a week ago that Rings and Things had their road show in Burlington. Peggy and I were (naturally) there, with bells on (figuratively, although it could have been literally, knowing us.)

Every time I go to these shows I spend more money each time. This time, I decided just to buy what "called to me" and figured that since I have an enormous credit limit on my card (I have to call the bank and reduce it soon) I'd just not worry about it.

Well, true to form, I spent more money this time than last, but I found it much more enjoyable shopping without a budget, so to speak. And it's not as though I went way, way over what I thought I was going to spend, anyway.

Maybe my mind just calculates as I go, and I don't even know it and it signals that it's time to stop by making the stuff I'm looking at uninteresting.  Good kind of mind to have, but I'd prefer if I could do that consciously rather than un-.

So, now my apartment's a wreck and I have all these new beads to put away, and no "away" to put them.  I'm thinking of buying another bookcase, but my apartment is pretty much wall to wall bookcases filled with actual, you know, books. (And, of course, after 20 years collecting them, I'd just as soon part with the cats and the books...okay, the cats edge out the books, but it's close, and you know what I'm saying.)

Anyone out there who has ideas storage ideas that don't involve ousting my books, drop me an email. Otherwise, I'm really going to have to think of SOMETHING I can part with (at least to put into storage) so that I can get to the grocery store.

Diggin' It

During the Great Gap in my blog (May 20 through June 12), I went to visit my parents outside of Pittsburgh, PA. Since I live in Massachusetts, this should actually not be a big deal, but the airlines always seem to make it so.

There are no direct flights, and the options to layover are Philadelphia (which was kind of a dive of an airport last time I was there), LaGuardia (really, really busy, and no fun to be stranded at), and Newark.  (Also Detroit and Washington Dulles, but I just can see flying all the way past Pittsburgh only to get on another flight to, essentially, backtrack.)

This time I chose Newark and had beautiful weather and no problems with delays.

I go to visit my parents once a year. It used to be at Christmas, but I hate traveling in the winter, and with the craziness of the holidays, I prefer just to hide until the groundhog sees his shadow (or not.)

This, of course, means that "lists get generated." Lists of things I need to do when I'm there, things I need to bring, things I need to fix, things I need to teach them, places we want to go to, shopping trips, museums, etc.

I'm usually only there for a week or less, but to finish any of these lists would probably take much longer than that, and I really just want to hang out with my parents and take up space.

Well, this year, we had a warm spring, and I was itching to plant, but couldn't because I knew I was going to visit my parents in June.

I did manage to restrain myself, but then my mother decided to unleash the planting frenzy while I was visiting. I did all their containers, and, returned to Massachusetts in a dither to plant all MY containers.

I have alot of containers.

Today I finally finished (I think...I have a couple more 6 in pots that don't have plants in them, but I'm not sure where I can put them...) 

I have a new planting strategy.  Just one tomato plant (since I can't eat them raw), two kinds of Basil (spicy globe, and Tulsi), thyme, rosemary, Roman chamomile, and flowers.

But, I couldn't leave well enough alone. I planted ornamental grass to block some of the sun from the porch which gets really hot in the afternoon, in addition to morning glories on trellises. And flowers.

Did I mention flowers?

I hope to have a better picture of the whole porch when everything gets sorted, but at the moment, I'm a bit tired...kinda frenzied out.

I Can See Clearly Now...

Lots of stuff has been happening to me recently, so many, in fact, I haven't been able to sit down and blog about them. So, bit by bit, I'll try and catch you up.

The most obvious thing, if you look at me, is that I'm sporting some nifty new glasses when I drive.

Yes, it turns out I was slowing going blind (well fuzzy) in one eye and the other was compensating. I just didn't know.

In fact, I found out that I was exceedingly burry at the Registry when I went to get my new driver's license before going to visit my parents in Pennsylvannia.  

There are three section you have to look at a little scope and read letters. The left side was completely unreadable, but the other two (front and right) were clear. The clerk was merciful and let me go with a "get your eyes checked," but for a couple of weeks, I lived in dread that I had glaucoma, like my Dad.

So, all through my visit, I'm asking my Dad questions about getting his glaucoma under control (he says it's easy because he just uses drops, but you have to catch it early or you can damage your optic nerve and then your eyesight never improves after that.)

So, when I returned, I went to the ophthalmologist, who said I didn't have glaucoma (Yay!), but I did need glasses.

I picked them up on Tuesday, and have been getting used to them ever since. What a difference! Who knew that blurry blue car with the flashing light was actually a police car? Or that truck with the lights was an ambulance?  

(Just kidding, it was never that bad...I just had to be closer to the signs on the highway to read them, which made getting off at the proper exit a greater exercise in automotive dexterity than it should have been.)

The only problem I've been having so far is that I can really only use them in the car. If I try to use them in the store, I look down and can't read anything like labels or something because I'm blurry up close. (I have other glasses for the really close jewelry work.) I just have to remember NOT to push them up on my head, like I used to do with the cheap sunglasses.

Anyway, it's a whole new world out there and I can see it now.

Amy, Joey, and Katie go on an Adventure

I had meant to post about Brimfield on Sunday, but things kept popping up.

Katie, my friend from NYC (how posh does that sound?) came up to visit on Friday, and we had fun looking at the Piece by Piece jewelry she hadn't seen (or hadn't seen in a while.) We went out to dinner and to bed fairly early because we were to meet Joey in Brookline at 8am.

That doesn't sound early, I know, but I usually leave at least an hour to drive from Lowell to Brookline, although usually the traffic on a Saturday is not too bad. As it was, we left late, we stopped for breakfast, and we still made it on time.  I guess, if I had been on Amy-time I probably would have been a half-hour early. Katie-time is a little more nerve-wracking for me, but probably more efficient.

We called Joe from the car because I was carrying books for my sister and I didn't want to walk up three flights of stairs with them if I didn't have to. Then we piled into Joey's car and opened presents. We haven't seen each other since last Brimfield, so Joe had Katie's Christmas present and Katie had Joe's birthday present.

Then off we went to Brimfield.  Traffic was light, and we got a good parking place at May's. I think people might have been put off by the rain the night before, but we had listened to the radio and heard that it would stop in the morning, probably before we got there.

That happened to be the case, so we got to shop without the Brimfield dust, but with some of the Brimfield mud holes. A fine time was had by all.

I was very circumspect in my purchases, though. With Intergem last week and my trip to Pittsburgh, next week, I felt I had to show some restraint. In the end I got a nice vintage crystal necklace (which I am presently in the process of cleaning and restoring), and a couple of cigar boxes to be transformed in to display pieces.

We didn't make it to the J&J field until it had closed for the day, but we did have a nice visit with my sister and brother-in-law (Sport & Spool Antiques, picture above) while they were packing up.

It just seemed like an extremely short day, even though I got up at 5:30 and didn't return home until after 9.

Surrounded by Sparklies

It's been an eventful week. Smashed in between was Mother's Day. As a childless, single person, I felt I had to call all my childless, single friends and wish them a Happy Mother's Day. (Oh, and I also called my mother, who got my card so I'm still in the will...just kidding.) I think this may become a tradition for me. It costs very little to call someone on the phone and we all got a giggle about getting a mother's day call when we aren't.

It's not that we don't appreciate what those of our friends who have become mothers have done, will do and are, it's just we chose a different way and are fine with it. I guess it's hard to explain if you're not someone of "a certain age" who has made that choice. I used to regret it, but I find the older I get, the more I don't. Weird, huh?

Enough sermonizing....on to the jewels.

We went to InterGem on Friday. I should say we spent ALL DAY at InterGem on Friday. I don't think we've ever spent that long or that much at a show. Every muscle in my body hurt (and I couldn't help thanking my lucky stars that Brimfield in NEXT week.)

Yes, you read that right, I was totally done in at the end, but it was fun. First we went to the "wholesale" side where you have to have a resale license to get in (or sneak in...but we have a resale license, so we got in legitimately.)

Peggy's new "thing" is facetted gemstones, so we were looking for nice stuff at a good price and we did find that...unfortunately, a "good price" is still more than semi-precious beads, and I think we spent more than we did at our first three bead shows, combined!

We struck the mother lode early on  when we bought some really nice apatite, aquamarine, kyanite (a really nice stone which is a dark blue, like sapphire, but a little purpler) and Ametrine (which is different colors all mixed up in the same stone...very nice.) Later we shopped several vendor's "bargain bins", and ended up with some very sweet little rubies (probably about 3mm round), some heart-shaped green topaz, the london blue topaz we kept trying to order from Fire Mountain (but they were always out of stock), and, yes, some sapphires...FINALLY.

Where we struck out was the settings and the chain. I only found one nice delicate, thin chain in sterling, and one interesting, heavy one in copper. Of course, we ended up with the usual headpins and bits and bobs we pick up when we see them because we can always use them. I can see I'll have to go back to the catalogues after I've been "economically stimulated."

Elated and depressed, how can that happen?

Luckily, our order from Fire Mountain came today (Tuesday) with the settings we didn't find at Intergem. It took four hours to process everything, check it off the order and put it in it's little baggie or box cell. I'm almost as tired as when I went to InterGem.

The other fun thing that happened last week is that my sister and brother-in-law are starting a web site for their business, and I'm working on it. I may be in over my head, but I figure with the three of us, we'll probably be able to make it work.

Right now, it's just a temporary page, but you can check it out at Sport and Spool Antiques. One of their pictures is over to the left.

I wouldn't expect it to be up and functioning for a bit. They will be at Brimfield this week and off and on the road for a while. I will be visiting my parents at the end of the month for my birthday. Getting an ecommerce site up and off the ground when we're all going hither and yon like that will be a challenge. In the meantime, if you're in New England, visit them at J&J during Brimfield. (Unfortunately, I don't have their booth number, but you'll know them when you see them.)

Slow Day in Princetonville

I'm kind of enjoying a slow day today since the past couple of weeks have been filled with crises of one kind or another.

Peg's Tegretol levels came back okay, but since her symptoms were as bad as they were when she fell, we prevailed upon the neurologist to represcribe her Keppra. In a day, the change is astonishing. 

Before she was depressed, forgetful, complaining about spasms in her leg and tightness in her arm. She was barely talking, very frustrated and didn't know whether she wanted to stay at home or go out just to get out.

Now, it's as if a light were switched on again. She's talking (so much so that I can't concentrate to read my new book on thyroid problems so *I* can figure out how to help me concentrate better.) She cooked something complex, it's astonishing.

In fact, she's been following me around looking for me to provide entertainment. I'm sure she's got plans for me to take her hither and yon (mostly yon, since gas is so pricey these days.) Unfortunately, watching me program in HTML for the Puppet Showplace isn't much in the way of entertainment, even if it does pay some of the bills.

By the way, in HTML-land, when it rains, it pours, it seems.

My sister and brother-in-law decided to set up a web site to add to their antiques business and consulted me about how this is done. I know one shouldn't work for relatives, but it could be fun. I just hope my skills are up to the task.

Talking to them reminded me that Piece by Piece's web site could use an upgrade (or at least new photography), and I'm STILL upgrading Sabatini's site with the new look.

Add to that I have my friend, Katie, coming to stay prior to Brimfield (for which "much cleaning needs to occur") and we will be seeing doctors, there's a bead show (InterGem, this weekend), Brimfield itself on the 17th (hi Diane!), and then I'm off to visit the parents in Pittsburgh (or just "off".) Maybe I should just savor this slow day...