Coiled Cobalt Meringue Flakes

*Tropical Tails was this past Saturday (the 6th of march). It was quite a nice event. They had changed the layout of things so that traffic in the room flowed better than it did last year. There were still a couple of choke points, though. The PA system was much better, being that it was far less deafening. They had a few odd technical glitches with their AV display, but even that was fairly minor. I think that they need to try something different with the live auction, though. Most people aren't used to following an actual auctioneer, and it got to be really hard at times to tell just what the bid on an item was. There was an unbelievable amount of stuff set out for the silent auction this year, and in the end, I went home with some bird feeders. I think I need to make the point here that as far as music goes, the term 'tropical', while inclusive of Jimmy Buffett as a smallish subset, is in no way defined by that smallish subset. The tropics do follow the Equator all the way around the freakin world. Maybe for next year's event I can contribute some of the music. Or, I can just let the people have the escape they want. I had also thought of building a Tiki bar as something to donate for one of the auctions next year. As far as what I donated this year, I'm not quite sure how I did. Given, it was a charity event, and I really shouldn't have been keeping track, but I was. The reason I can't say how I did was I'm not sure what set of numbers to use. If I go by the little scribbled notes I have, the pieces I donated went for a tiny bit more in total than I said they were worth. If I go by the receipt I was given, they overshot on their tax estimate by a bit. Overall, I seem to have hit the saleable value pretty close to the mark, at least for this type of crowd. A part of me thinks that sucks. Of course I wanted them to go for way more than I valued them for, regardless of just how unrealistic that thought is. If I continue to think my way around it, though, had I priced them high and then they ended up getting no bids, I would have been severely pissy about that. As a group, they went for just a hair more than I said they were worth. What's wrong with that? Nothing. But that part of me that clamors for attention and recognition is sitting in the corner sulking. Something to consider a bit further is that had I been at a Tiki convention/gathering of some sort, I most likely would have had my ass handed to me in the sales department by the other carvers. Moral of the story? Get back in the studio, and get to work.

*On the turntable: The Smothers Brothers, Foghat (I am really digging this!), and Robin Williams. In the car: The Funk Box.

*It's always odd to have it rain when there's still snow on the ground. Makes the juxtaposition of the mud and snow all that much more sharp. Fortunately, none of the mud seems to have made it into the house yet.

*Even though we left the TAILS event at a more than reasonable time, when the alarm went off at 0630 the next morning, I found myself less than motivated to get up. The idea was to get up and go out to the Kane Co. Flea Market before I had to head out to work. The Boss wasn't really motivated either, as she was sleeping off the effects of a near-miss migraine from the previous night. It was also cold, cloudy and wet outside, so I burrowed back under the covers and went back to sleep. Of course, that means that King Tiki, owner of all things Tiki in the history of this universe or any other was there at the flea market today, having his $1 'Getting Out of the Business' sale. I hate that thought. Just that idea that I could have missed that One Thing I have been looking for for years just because I rolled over and went back to sleep really irks me. Realistically, I know that if I had went, and even if that One Thing was there somewhere, there's no guarantee that I would have seen it, much less have managed to purchase it before anyone else. May have been a long walk in the cold for nothing. Alternately, it could have been the moment when I was catapulted into the heavens of worldwide Tiki royalty for finding that rare and valuable One Thing. Instead, I watched Spongebob and part of 'Harold and Kumar'. Let's hear it for my motivation level. Moral of the story (yet again)? Get back in the studio and get to work.

*Who would have thought that it would be so damn difficult to mount a magnifying lens on an old swing arm lamp base?

*The Boss has decided that we will be leaving the area in mid-April in quest of a warmer climate in which to spend some time. She doesn't care where exactly where we go to find this climate, but it has been deemed necessary that we leave the state of IL since there are people here that simply have no concept of boundaries as far as she is concerned. The question now becomes where are we heading, and how much its gonna cost us. The idea of heading to CA was brought up, but my interest in heading out there is mainly related to tracking down Tiki, which doesn't seem to be centered in any one particular location, and is of no great interest to her. TX has been something that has come up more than once. But, I don't know of any Tiki hotspots there and between the two of us, we don't have any clear indication of where we'd be interested in going. The east coast simply doesn't fit the climate requirement for this trip. FL? Maybe. Definitely not Orlando or the surrounding area. I know I could come up with some Tiki activities in FL, but would have to do some research. HI? In my dreams, unfortunately. That would be a 'Need to Take Out a Loan' trip, and that ain't happening. That leaves us with the fallback destination of Las Vegas. Not an exceptional destination on any one category for us, but average to better than average on enough of the others to be a good contender. I couldn't consider going without seeing BMG in their new home, and I'm pretty sure there's a new Tiki bar open out there. Plus it's pretty damn cheap as far as vacations go. Just need to spend some time surfing around the 'net to see what we can come up with. Oh, by the way, any donations you'd care to make towards this endeavor would be most appreciated.

*And now, News of the Neighborhood! Due to conspicuous outdoor driveway activity this weekend, Sweat Snow Guy will henceforth be known as Sweat Hose Guy. Bart also dragged some very sizeable outdoor furniture out onto their patio, and then promptly took a nap in the sun. None of the regulars, however, were anywhere to be seen.

*Another tangled patch of strange and vivid, but apparently forgettable dreams has been entered into by yours truly lately. The quality of them teeters on that of so called 'waking dreams'. That's the kind of dream you have when you're thinking, but at the same time just about to fall asleep, or just about to wake up. It's when your brain starts to cut loose from all the artificial boundaries it has and moves freely in unusual new directions. But when I wake up, all I can piece together are bits and fragments. I know I had some interesting thoughts, but would be hard pressed to remember any of them, much less put them into any sort of order. And, while the dreams are getting more and more vibrant, my waking mindset appears to be slowly degrading. Maybe it's the change in the weather, maybe I'm just working my way through a sub-clinical cold, maybe I need to be spending more time in the studio, but whatever it is, right now, I just ain't feeling it. I think I'm also gonna blame way too many cookies and way too little exercise as contributing factors. But the moral of the story is (say it with me now), get back in the studio and get to work.

*"If.....(Questions for the Game of Life" is a little book that's been stuck in perpetual limbo atop my 'Need to Read' pile. But it's not really that kind of book. It's actually just page after page of theoretical questions and 'what if' kind of scenarios meant to be icebreakers or conversation starters at various types of social gatherings. I believe this wandered into my hands via one of several people who claim I think too much. Anyway, by way of trying to do it some justice, I will be taking one question at random from the book per posting and answering it as best I can. I would also encourage any of my readers to play along as well, unless reading this has already kept you too long from your quest for internet porn. Anyway, the question in question is from page 97, and is the second from the bottom . It reads as follows, "If you had to change your race, what would you want to be?"

Boy, oh, boy. Nothing like diving right into something that involves all sorts of prejudices, stigmas, and flat-out untruths, eh? If no one plays along on this one, I shall be most put out. OK, where to start? Race. What does that mean to me? Nothing really. It's just an outmoded way of being able to separate 'us' from 'them'. I guess the most widely used meaning of 'race' is based purely on physical appearance. I would consider a race to be a group of people who are physically distinguishable from other groups. Blech. That's a really circular definition. Please allow me to clarify. I'll use M&Ms as an example of how I see race classifications. If you take a bag of plain M&Ms and dump them into a bowl, you can divide them into distinguishable 'races', that being red, brown, yellow, green, etc. It doesn't take into consideration anything other than the physical appearance. So, using that definition, and relying on classic stereotypes/notions of how populations from certain areas of the world appear, I will make my decision. I'm gonna vote for Pacific Islander. Hold on, before you start pissing and moaning, let me clarify my reasoning. Pacific Islanders look similar to what I call a Native American, but are distinguishable from them, mostly. The same goes for what would be considered Asians and South Americans. So, why this particular race? First off, the only real stereotypes I can think of in regards to islanders would be a lazy attitude and an apparent openness to sensuality. Given that these stereotypes came from early Christian missionaries, I think it is quite safe to dismiss them totally and with out further thought. With the stereotypes out of the way, that leaves me with the area in which this race is known to live, and it's general physical appearance. I have always been attracted to dark hair, eyes and skin. The longer I live in IL, the better living on a tropical island sounds. And, on top of that, have you ever know anyone who is violently anti-Pacific Islander? So, there you go. My choice and my reasoning. Who's next?

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