Last week: Met a new artist Sharon Henson

Well, she is not so new, but I did meet her at a festival last weekend. She does daily paintings and puts them up on her blog so they can meet the world. I really like her tiny paintings of food, but that might be because I like to eat all the time.

I talked to Sharon for a while and tried to convince her to come and check out Etsy as a platform for selling her work. She had never really looked at it before. Check out her blog and tell her how groovy she is! http://dailypetitepaintings.blogspot.com/

Headed to the Coffee Shop

I'm headed over to Starbucks to fill them in about the wrap thing yesterday. My main concern is if this happened to someone with a food allergy, it could be REALLY bad, not just icky like for me.

I'll fill you in on what happens!

UPDATE:

I went to the Starbucks, explained what happened in a very calm way. They filled out an incident report and brought me a free coffee as we talked (the assistant manager and I). They didn't have to do that vis a vis the coffee, BTW. She said the report would be sent to Seattle headquarters and that they would get back to me.

She asked if there was anything they could do to make things right or to restore my confidence in the shop. I told her that I didn't want anything, that simply listening and filing the report so that it would not happen again was enough. I told her that I come in almost every Saturday for my coffee and that would not change. I simply wanted to let them know what happened.

I honestly think that she was taken aback when I didn't ask for anything. I got the feeling that she didn't know what to do next. Asking for someone to "pay" for a mistake just isn't my style. However, I get the sense that most folks do expect financial retribution or merchandise.

Hopefully, they will either eventually make the wraps open on one end so you see what you get, or label them more clearly so the barissta's won't make such an obvious mistake again.

Starbucks Mishap

I was just poisoned by Starbucks:

I went there during my usual Saturday morning town stroll, and decided that in addition to my standard Grande Hazelnut Latte, that I would try one of their new breakfast sandwiches, as it might be a nice change from the egg on English muffin that I normally get at the bagel place.

Well, I ordered the Spinach and Feta with Roasted Tomato Wrap, as that is the only item in the category that is meatless. You see, I have been a Vegetarian since I was 14, so that makes me totally meat free for over 21 years now.

They gave me my sandwich and drink, after messing up my order a little bit on the drink (evidently the H was misinterpreted as an A so they made an almond latte the first time around), and I headed home, as it had started to rain.

I got home, settled in with the mail and opened the bag with my sandwich and happily started to chomp away. Something wasn't right....it tasted kind of funny.

I took another bite, figuring it was just in my head. It still tasted very strange. I looked down into the wrap and saw that there was something pink inside, and it wasn't a tomato. It was bacon. I had been given an avocado, egg, and turkey bacon wrap instead.

I spit out what was in my mouth, drank a bunch of water, and am now sitting here with the wrap in its bag, my hands shaking and some terribly awesome stomach cramps.

What would you do next?

Do I take it back and complain? Do I just chalk it up to experience and never eat anything that I can't see the insides of again? What do I do?

Parade Day

I love this costume.

The idea of disguising a dog as another type of dog...

brilliant.

I was roaming the town festival today and took many awesome shots of our annual Halloween parade...which is a bit more like a disorganized stroll, but who is checking on these things, really.

I thought that I would post a few up, in particular the ones that didn't look so stalker-ish. Nothing says weirdo like standing on the side of the street, taking pictures of other people's kids.

Tiny Jack Sparrow and Tiny Policeman, hand in hand.

Who says there can't be peace in the middle east?

Seriously Dude.

This is bull....ballerina bull.

I had MANY more pictures, but for privacy reasons, didn't want to put them up for the world to see. If you were at the parade or walking in it and can describe your costume or your child's costume I shall happily go through the pictures I took today and email any that might be of your family to you! I feel so luck to live in a town where we still do such lovely fun little things like this...

Time Travelling again...

Sew, Saturday was a day for making things historic and Sunday was a day for wearing them. For a long time now I have volunteered with a local historical society to teach and demonstrate some of the finer points (or not so fine points) of colonial living. This means demonstrating things that were chores, not pretty foofy things...so I don't wear pretty foofy things.



Sunday was meant to be chilly up here in New York, so I wanted to make a warm jacket that I could wear with my colonial get-up. I have four petticoats and thick stockings already, so keeping my lower half warm wasn't an issue, but I often only wore my chemise and leather jumps on my upper half, and that could be cold.



I dug out a historically correct pattern that I had ordered ages ago for a Carraco Jacket and some variations thereof, and rendered it in a fine red wool herringbone tweed. I didn't have time to finish the sleeve edges, as the pattern called for a winged sleeve, but with all the activity I do while wearing it, I am afraid that it would rip, so I think I will just hem them later.



This is what I ended up with. The back looks a little lumpy, but that is because you are seeing some of my corset lacing through the back, and I just drove home. (That tend to wrinkle things a bit). I really should steam the thing and take another photo.



I would also like to make one that is open fronted with a stomacher in a lovely cotton or silk brocade so I finally do have something "pretty"....not that the Historical Society will ever put me in a position to wear it. I shall never be the lady of the house, always the scullery maid and fish wife.

Figs aren't just for wearing any more

Figs...

You can only eat so many in a day...or else one suffers the consequences, which I shall not detail here. The question then becomes, what do you do with the multitudes of figgy delights which are rapidly ripening outside your door? Fig Jam of course! So last weekend (not this one, which was the weekend of pneumonia) was the fig jam extravaganza, as well as the day of canned figs....for a proper figgy pudding at christmas.

Here are some photos of Fig-i-licious-ness:

Other Writing: Books and the Reviews of them

BTW: I don't just write here...I sometimes write reviews for a site called Metapsychology.

My newest review for them, of "The Consciousness Plague", is currently on their front page. Check it out. You can also do a search for my other reviews, if you are interested.

Cheers.

Down for the count...

OK folks...I'm not teaching today. I'm down for the count as the millions of bacteria currently inhabiting my lungage have decided to have a party and use my alveoli for punch bowls. "I gots the pneumonia", as my sainted Grans would have said. So, I'm not planning on spreading it to the kiddies and my fellow teachers today. I shall leave that till tomorrow.

I am glad that I got to the doctor quite quickly on this one, as it came on as suddenly as a firestorm in a toothpick factory. Went to bed feeling a tiny bit under the weather; woke up yesterday with a hacking wet cough. I worked out my teaching day and then immediately sought Hippocratic relief. She called it "Community Bourne Pneumonia" which is just a fancy way of saying that I caught it directly from someone, instead of the bugs setting up house after weeks of suffering with a cold and then a cough.

It's no fun either way, although this way does have it's benefits:

1. No runny nose to get red and raw

2. The cough sounds REALLY impressive

3. I can do a fabu warthog impersonation

4. My fever, when graphed, could be used for rollercoaster design

5. I got an inhaler prescribed so I can pretend to be Urkle

6. The antibiotics make me so nauseous that I will probably lose 10 pounds

7. Cause I'm not sneezing, I can play with glitter if I want.