No good deed goes unpunished :-)

I did the more enjoyable part of my grocery shopping this morning - Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. More enjoyable because it's much less crowded than anywhere else and there's interesting things to be found. Whole Foods had a bread I really, really like. Unfortunately, I tend to overeat on it and not feel so good afterwards. So, I thought, I'd share with a friend who loves good bread, too.

She lives out in the country, about 15 minutes away along rather bumpy roads, something I forgot when I planned to take little Jerry along (because I felt bad about leaving him in his crate yet again - he is still a little too young to be trusted on his own). I also forgot that he has a problem with motion sickness - after all, he hasn't been sick in months.

So, I cut the bread in half, called her to let her know I was coming, put the dog in his crate into the car and set off. About 12 minutes into the trip there were unmistakable sounds of being sick coming from the backseat. Oh no! Since there was nothing I could do, I delivered the bread, turned right around and drove back. He was sick a few more times along the way.

By the time we pulled into the garage, the crate bottom was very wet, the dog had obviously stepped into it, left footprints on the garage floor and, obviously, couldn't be let loose in the house. So, I bundled him up under my arm and carried him everywhere to get towels, doggie shampoo etc.

Forty-five minutes later, the little dog was clean but damp, there were wet towels in the laundry room, but garage floor, crate and kitchen sink had been scrubbed and everything was back to normal again. Although, I don't think Jerry thinks of me as his best friend right now.

I think I'll rethink taking the dog on errands in the future. Yes, I have motion sickness medicine for him but it needs to be given 2 hours after a meal and I then have to wait another 2 hours before going anywhere. Doesn't exactly lend itself to anything spontaneous :-(

I'm having fun!

Last Sunday, I took a class called "Metal Manipulation" from Kriss Silva. Among other things, I learned to use bezel wire as a decorative element and how to make rivets using wire. My riveted pieces look a little too wonky to show the general public but I'm quite proud of my bezel-embellished bead. I plan on making more.

This morning I decided to finally use what I learned in a class last year and make spiral rings. Lisa Claxton taught that class and I enjoyed it a lot but never got around to making more than the 2 rings we made in class. Finally, I dug out my instructions, wire, torch and all the tools I needed and spent the whole morning hammering, torching, shaping, oxidizing and polishing. I obviously had too much fun, I almost missed lunch. The rings are tumbling as I type - fine silver is too soft to wear without some form of hardening. I know they won't scan but if I can figure out how to take a good picture, I just might post them here, too.

Update on the baby fish

We released the baby fish - black skirt tetras - from the baby net a couple of days ago. There are about 16 - 18 of them left (they don't exactly stay still for counting), originally there were 30 or so. It took me 3 sessions for a total of 2 hours to scoop as many as I could out of the aquarium into the baby net. A little more than half surviving isn't bad. And they have grown quite a bit, they are now more than 1/2 inch across which should be too big for the adult fish to try and eat them. They used to be little dark blobs with big googly eyes and it took a few weeks before we could tell that they were tetras.