I go to a pottery evening class each week and I tend to use the college kilns rather than my own - it's a bit cheaper on the electricity! I've only fired my own up twice, although I have to make the effort to fire it up again this summer as I've got a nice looking glaze that I can't use at the college as it has a lower firing temperature. I'm only planning to use my kiln for earthenware as I think it'll last longer that way.

Do you make a lot of porcelain ware? I'd love to see some pics. I've never tried porcelain myself, I've read that it's harder to work with than clay because of being less flexible, and the need to keep it thin to get the translucence.

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Mallanox : "My mother was Irish and my father was an alien. I was an only child and I dress funny."

The thing with the wheel is that most kids just wouldn't have the strength to work the clay on it. If the clay is soft, then it's hard to work on the wheel because it flops over. If the clay is a bit tougher, it holds its shape better but it takes more strength to work it. My daughter had a go on the college kick wheel a couple of weeks back and was quite happy with the vaguely circular lump she produced, but she really didn't have a hope of controlling the clay.

I have also been gardening. We hope to try to sell this house and move next year, so this year I'm trying to get the garden in shape to make it more attractive to buyers. But we're also growing tomatoes, chillies and strawberries in the hope of getting some kind of fruit off them (as long as we remember to water them enough!).

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Mallanox : "My mother was Irish and my father was an alien. I was an only child and I dress funny."

Our chicks are hatching.

For the last 21 days our grade one classes have been egg sitting a dozen egg. At this time three chicks have hatched and it looks like 5 more to come.

Whee!
Even I am excited. We were not sure if this would work. The children are going to have a very hard time focusing for this last month of school.

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Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.

I found that I can watch whole episodes of my favourite programmes, excluding the new BSG on YouTube. At the moment I have decided to watch Blake 7.

I can now go and die happy.

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Eagle in Residence
Tempory Frisker

For some reason torrent and my computer don't like each other but I will try it, thanks.

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Eagle in Residence
Tempory Frisker

WOOHOO! Today was my last day of school...it's great to be off for a while...and better yet...I'm meeting Transmute Jun and her family tomorrow in New York ...and we're going on a Carribean cruise together...how dangerous is that???


awwww. clouddancer ...I'm sorry to hear about the furnace...I do hope you will do something fun this summer. I have to say I can identify with you....many of my summers end up the same way for one reason or another. But at least we have our Gatchaman stuff to keep us happy!

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There is no problem that cannot be solved with time, patience, and a judicious amount of high explosives.

Happy observation:

The bunnies prefer our pesticide-free lawn and garden over the neighbours' unknown lawns. (Well, ours was likely under lawn care until last year, but it's now p-free.) We haven't planted anything the bunnies are likely to destroy this year; sticking with tomatoes rather than peppers and lettuce.

Also, insulating son's floor was easier than we'd feared. His room hangs out over the porch, and there's a very noticeable difference as you walk across the floor -- like within four inches. So we took down a sheet of plywood (ugh, pulling nails from overhead). The 4 inches of pink was right on the bottom of the space, meaning air right against his floor would be cold. And the pipe carrying warm air went through that space. But only about 2 ft needed doing. $35 of pink insulation and two hours later, and it's packed in just the way the package says to.

Now, to see why turning the air conditioner on this weekend made no difference. It worked earlier this year. Still under warranty.

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Between stimulus and response there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our freedom.

- Viktor E. Frankl

Katze is sending me the first three eps. of Gatch F.

God, Katze, I thank you!

#bows in front of the mighty lord Katze and kiss his feet#

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It is the tiny spark of humanity that adds blaze to a villain

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Despite the day going worong, I am happy (again) because despite my supervisor told me to do, which is to do 2 bays of overs and 1 bay of paint overs, within the 21 hour week I have and which will finished tomorrow at 2 pm.

Now, this means that any stock that can't go onto the shopfloor needs to be looged into the computer system as "overs" and put in bays for each department, eg paint/wallpaper, cookshop/cleaning, electricl, tiles/bathroom accessories, etc, which all have about 3 or 4 shelf per bay.

Now I have done 2 AND HALF bays and 1 paint bay in 16 hours or 2 days.

In other words, I did do what my supervisor told me to do and then some.

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Eagle in Residence
Tempory Frisker