My favorite part of the day

Rainy Day Rearview Mirror
Finding the Rose in the rainy day Thorn on 1/5/12

"Toto, we aren't in Kansas anymore,"  exclaims Dorothy as she lands at
the Emerald City Port Entrance.  Follow the torn up brick road (viaduct),
she sings as she wonders about the tower with Mermaids above the clocks. 
Perhaps she's about to try her first double tall skinny with no foam latte.
My FPOD on 1/6/12 - Getting to go into the city for the day - lunch with SISU Bill and flawlessly nagivating my way through the crazy viaduct and tunnel construction zone to Seattle Pottery Supply.

Around the dinner table most nights, one of us calls for our "Favorite Part of the Day" or sometimes it's the "Rose and Thorn".  On long days, I tend to prefer the Favorite Part of the Day as it doesn't end on a downer note that the Thorn sometimes brings.  Usually, I like the Rose and Thorn better as it's truly a better barometer of our days. 


Last night, my oldest son called for the "Favorite Part of the Day" at dinner.   He said his FPOD was the breakfast of Voget's sausage and scrambled eggs that I'd made for him that morning.  My kid's call the sausage "Christmas sausage" as we have a large order of it shipped up from Hubbard, Oregon annually at Christmas.  It's a real treat for them and it evokes so many sense memories of Christmas' gone by for me.  Now that the house has risen from their sleep this morning, we are enjoying the last of the Christmas sausage.  Not to be enjoyed again, until next December. 


I love hearing what those FPOD or RAT moments are for each of the kids and SISU Bill, as it's often a window into their days and their perspective.

Last night I said my FPOD was waking up before everyone and reading a great book in the quiet of the morning with a hot cup of coffee.

I've historically been a night owl.  Ask anyone who's lived with me over the years.  I like to stay up late and sleep in.  I think it's a family trait, as most of my family likes to do the same.  I remember staying up to watch the "Tonight Show" with my dad or siblings in the summer time when I was a kid.

As I get older, I'm discovering that I really do like waking up early so I can enjoy the quiet moments in the morning before everyone gets up. The kids are finally old enough to enjoy sleeping in.  Gone are the 5 am surprise wake ups or the shouts of "it's seven zero zero" crackling through the baby monitors, letting us know that the time limit of having to stay in their cribs had been spotted on the glowing numbers of the digital clock.  I used to relish every extra minute that I could sleep in. 

I guess it's symbolic of some sort of parenting milestone, that I now enjoy waking up before the rest of the house and watching the northwest grey skies turn a lighter shade of grey.

Coming Out of the Weeds

I've been in the weeds for the last couple of weeks with a custom order that was timed tight even under the best circumstances.  I was humbly reminded that there are so many opportunties for things to go wrong with ceramics.  I typically pride myself in avoiding potential problems given the experiences I've had over the last 20 years. 

Sadly, experience didn't serve me well this time around, as I lost over HALF of a 60 piece custom pie plate order with two different disasters.  Frankly, it kind of makes me sick to even quantify it that way. 

I lost a kiln load of plates when they literally exploded into a million little pieces when the pre-heat cycle on my kiln didn't run.  They were scheduled to "pre-heat" at 180* for 12 hours before ramping up to a bisque fire.  The pre-heat removes any extra moisture from they clay and prevents pieces from cracking or even worse, exploding.  Read the "Rose and Thorn" entry for the resulting images from the explosion that happened over Thanksgiving.  I have no desire to re-post that sad image.

After suffering a loss of 20 some plates, I needed to crank it up fast since I was back to the beginning on the order. 

We've had one of the coldest and driest Decembers on record here in the Seattle area, which means low humidity. Normally, dry weather is a cause for celebration around these parts.  Typically, having pots dry too fast is not a problem here, as we are famous for our wet, rainy and humid weather patterns.  It was so dry last week, that I lost 9 plates to cracking while drying.  *sigh*  I had made 5 extra plates just in case I suffered some problems.  Never did I imagine I would lose 9 out of a batch of 26 plates.  In my sleep deprived state, this was my low point!   *sob*

Nine Cracked Pie Plates

Fortunately, I'm coming out of the weeds and the end is in sight.  My family is happy, as they've gone through all their socks and underwear.  Laundry and Christmas - here I come!

Rose and Thorn

At dinner most every night, we go around the table and share our "rose and thorn" from the happenings in our day.  This was clearly my thorn.  The picture is worth a thousand words. 

The pre-heat on my kiln failed - so sadly, I lost a batch of pie plates for a custom order with a tight deadline.  *sob*