Elastic Marbles

**Tropical TAILS
Things went decently Saturday night. I just have to keep remembering that this was not solely a promotional event staged just for me, and that the economy is in the tank. Did my egotistical fantasy of a bidding war reaching into the hundreds of dollars come true? Um, no. Did I have the most interesting item at the auction? Not when you find yourself up against a pile of I-Pods. Did the piece go for what I estimated was it's retail value? Not quite. In the end, it went out the door for $131, I believe. Will I end up doing it next year? Probably. It became pretty clear that people were not aware of the fact that I had actually caved the tiki myself. I think that will be an error I will not make next year. If I manage to continue to increase my output of finished work, this event could be a handy outlet for clearing the shelves as well as helping out TAILS. I have also been toying with the idea of venturing out onto E-Bay in an effort to expand my horizons.
But, back to the event. In a nutshell, the people were fantastic, the food was superb, the decor was pretty good, but the music sucked. I think we'll most likely be going again next year, and may even participate in planning/setting up the event.
If you're interested in learning more about TAILS and the work they do, check them out at http://tailshumanesociety.org/

**On the rough idea of tropical things, I had occasion to discover that the hardy banana plant I am overwintering in the house has managed to poke it's roots through the bottom of it's pot and down into the drip tray underneath. The manner in which I can extricate it intact remains a mystery to me at this point in time.

**Jo's Dragon
Things seem to be progressing along nicely with this custom piece. Not sure what the ending time frame will be, but I don't think it's unreasonable to hope for completion by the first week of April. Yo, Cromag! Check it out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/13158516@N03/sets/72157614390191748/

**Bounce
Friday of last week had me feeling pretty low. Not sure why really. I'd like to be able to blame it all on work, but that could lead to the "Well, if you're not happy here...." speech. Oh, yes, exactly-and being unemployed would just make me freakin orgasmically ecstatic. I was just off. Even though it's been pissy cold the past couple of days, the fact that it's been pretty sunny has been quite a mood lifter. Just need to find some way to break out of the mental rut I find myself in at work. Could it be that it's as simple as what Deb said the other day, and work just isn't fun anymore? That may not be the whole of the situation, but it sure is an aspect of it. Realizing what part of the problem is doesn't grant me any great insight into fixing it though...

**Hmmmm....
So far I have managed to stay alive in my most recent chess game with the esteemed Mr. Koch. I currently find myself contemplating the best way to press the slight advantage I have manged to acquire.

**Do Over!!
As silly as it seems, I think I have given up on Picasa after all the work I did to get my pictures posted and annotated there. I think I'm going to redo all the work already done over on Flickr. As much as that truly does indeed suck from a repetition of work standpoint, I just like the whole flow and feel of Flickr. Plus, it seems to run faster, the interface is more intuitive, and the content actually shows better there, in my opinion. I guess if nothing else, I will be getting more practice using the camera. Once I get done rereading the manual so I can take a halfway decent picture on occasion. So, as soon as I get those albums uploaded and ready for viewing, I'll switch over the links posted here and scrap the Picasa stuff. *SIGH* I suppose that's what I get for not checking things out more completely beforehand.

**Good to see Kittyluv back out on the web!

**The sun no longer reaches out into the hall. The midday sunny spots in the house continue to shrink as the sun keeps climbing higher into the sky. The days continue to lengthen, or so I'm told. It's still pitch black outside by the time I sit down to dinner at work. Yet, I find myself getting a bit eager for spring. Maybe I will manage to survive this winter. Don't much care for my options beyond that.

**I would have loved to be in Rio for Carnival like the folks are currently. I am just betting that Pat is going to come back and say that it just wasn't as nice as Provance.