While unemployment can be a time of reflection and contemplation, you can only do so much to find work each day. A close friend who is a therapist counsels her out of work patients to create a daily routine, spend two or three hours each morning applying and finding potential jobs. Then, you should spend time doing things that matter to you personally, or things that have laid around undone. And, at least once a day, do something that you think is fun.

Under the circumstances, “fun” is not part of my vocabularly, unfortunately.

After I bitched about my spontaneous bathroom remodel at lunch last month, my friend convinced me that these projects were important to my way of creating things and managing stress. She encouraged me to keep plugging away at things that made me happy or things that needed to be done.

Of course, I came away from lunch thinking about something I’ve wanted to try for a long time and I even had a spot for it in my kitchen.

Yes, I entered the strange and wonderful world of Leaded Glass!

Problem:

 Got all through with a kitchen remodel two years ago and the space above then sink around the track lights looked unfinished. I started day-dreaming about some kind of glass panel spanning the space. I gathered some samples last year and sat down with the designer at a local glass shop and came up with a design and price.

And I would buy a nice, good quality acoustic guitar before I spent $450 on a stained glass panel for my kitchen!

So, it sat. And sat.  And like Poe’s Tell Tale Heart, beat in the background whenever I walked into the kitchen.

I scoured web sites and glass stores for a day or two and dove in. I made a pattern from several ideas I got off the web, went to the glass store where a nice woman helped me through the baby steps of what I was about to undertake and I launched!

Of course, she wanted me to buy an $60 soldering iron because my old one was only 25 watts and “you really need 50 watts ” to solder lead glass properly. Bunk! I said the same thing, to myself, of course, when she suggested the $12 lead snips. I had seen a site where the artist used a carpet knife for clean, straight cuts and that’s what I used, my trusty Stanely carpenter’s cutter.

So, I laid out the pattern, and started cutting glass.

I had the glass store clerk cut the really thick, heavily featured glass  and I did all the squares. I think she felt sorry for me and offered to do the long pieces for me at the shop.

I made suprising progress in a short amount of time. See, it made me very happy for about 2 or 3 minutes!

Mind you, I went about this the way I do everything: Hurry! It’s a project and it needs to be done! Hurry! Keep working, keep cutting and grinding and fitting! Hurry! Hobbies are for old people! This is a project!

Lay out and prep the frame in the cabinet area:

Finish up with the glass and lead soldering:

Cleaned and mounted!

Now, what I learned:

1-You can make a $450 panel for $100 in materials and your labor. This translates to a lot of projects.

2-I don’t have the capacity to have hobbies. I have projects and jobs to do. This project, once I had a pattern, took from Friday afternoon, off and on, until Sunday afternoon. It became a thing that I had to do, which is counter-hobbiest thinking. Fun, but not very relaxing, honestly.

3-The key to finishing a project in a short amount of time is to do it in an area where your family has to step around it, fix food near it, try to use the phone near the lay-out, etc. If you do it in the garage or basement area, there’s no incentive to stay on mission. Out of sight, out of mind.

4-I need to find work, outside my home, soon, before I remodel or modify the whole house! I need an intervention from the This Old House dudes!

Cheers!

That special time of year has come again……. a time of Family, Friends and fun. A time to put aside petty differences and celebrate life. A time to eat, drink and be merry.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

from

Heather            Randy           Vivian

Tuffy                Annie

Business Pundit has published a list of the 75 Best Business Blogs of 2009. Rather than copy/paste the text here (it’s quite long) I thought I’d just post a link to their article.

The list is broken down into 36 different categories – ranging from advertising, economics and entrepreneurship to franchising, marketing and sports business. There’s a little something for everyone.

I found it rather interesting, and wanted to share it with you.

At 23 years young, Joanne Shaw Taylor’s debut offering White Sugar reminds me why I love guitar-based, power-trio electric blues.

Recorded in Jim Gaines Studio in Memphis, White Sugar features 10 tracks, 9 of which being Taylor originals. Joining Joanne in studio were Steve Potts on Drums and Dave Smith on bass.

White Sugar is a no-nonsense, stripped down and invigorating brand of electric blues, showing Joanne’s named influences of SRV, Albert Collins and Jimi Hendrix.  Taylor, who started playing guitar at age 8, handles her Telecaster with ease — guiding it through gentle passages, funky chops, soulful chords and blistering solos — all without a hint of pretense.

Joanne is equal to the task on vocals. Smokey yet silky smooth and articulate. Imagine a mature Susan Tedeschi…somewhat softened and without the hard edge, yet with plenty of power and emotion.

A real bonus to this CD is the light-handed approach to production and engineering. Someone got it right. Rather than put out an overly-balanced and compressed uni-level recording that promotes passive listening and which holds the listener at arms length, White Sugar is a very live sounding record that invites the listener in. There’s a lot of open space on this CD where one can crawl inside and get comfortable with it, and other places where you just hang on and enjoy the ride. The end result is a living, breathing musical experience that plays for and with you, not at you.

As debut albums go, White Sugar compares favorably to Joe Bonamassa’s debut release, A New Day Yesterday – albeit lacking some of Joe’s fretboard prowess. But that’s not what Joanne Taylor Shaw is about. Her guitar playing is great, but it’s more about the overall vibe and feel with her…and it feels really, really good.

I’m half tempted to fire up the whole Street Team thing again. We’ll see. 

White Sugar was released on Germany’s Ruf Records (pronounced “roof”) in February 2009 — the same label as Anysley Lister, Coco Montoya, Ana Popovic, Walter Trout, Robin Trower, the late Jeff Healey and others.

Pick up a copy - you’ll be glad you did.

It was 8 degrees when I got to work this morning.

8 degrees? Are you kidding me? It could warm up another 20 degrees and still be below freezing. Bullshit! If I wanted to live in North Dakota, or the Yukon for that matter, I’d move there.

Enough already. It’s not even Winter yet. Fuck!!!

Received this note from Cindy Alexander as a result of being subscribed to Cindy’s Yahoo Group. As most of you know, I’ve been a huge fan of hers ever since I saw her open for Joe Bonamassa in Seattle several years ago.

Just wanted to clue in the most special group of people to the home made EP “Bootie Legs” – it’s a collection of 5 of the very first songs Paul and I ever wrote (15 years ago)- live, one take & acoustic (but of course the only people that were there to clap were Paul and I so we didn’t do that…..).

I felt so disconnected from my creative life, being so bogged down in Mommyhood, that I begged Paul to let me come into his studio in between baby feedings in early November.  The result is Bootie Legs and the cd’s are burned on my Mac- nothing fancy but I promise you I made a cute little arts and crafts package ;)  Paul and I signed them and we wanted to offer them to you since they are a VERY limited edition. 

The only song that you will recognize is Time Falling Down – the other 4 have never been recorded.  We purposely made a MELLOW cd because I wanted something that I could play for Jette & Perry when they go to sleep. 

Anyway, if you’d like a copy, they are $5 plus shipping.  You can paypal me at pnutsings@aol.com or send a check – the address is below.  I just got back from the postal store since I had to get a new PO Box….. and it costs me $2.66 to mail a cd (I remember when it was less than half of that….).  So if you’d like it mailed to you, please send me $7.50 (I don’t care about the 16 cents).

Hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving and I look forward to getting back in touch with you more often.  I miss our exchanges. Just know that Jette & Perry keep me wonderfully busy but I love every minute of it.  Well almost every minute.  There have been a few diaper explosions I could have done without ;)

XO
pnut

Cindy Alexander
JamCat Records
2658 Griffith Park Blvd. #829
Los Angeles, CA  90039

My oh my!!! I just “discovered” this artist this morning, watched a couple youtube clips and had to throw this up on the blog. I will be checking out more of her stuff in the immediate future, but if these clips are accurate representations of her music, count me in!!! Wow!!!

I had forgotten we enabled the BS BLOG’s snow machine last year until I logged on today and saw the flakes falling once again! I still think it’s a little cheesy as noted in last year’s post, but I’m still of the mind to leave it on.

This holiday season is going to be a little different. We lost my wife’s father around this time last year, and this year my mom’s health is not so good. We’ve been in and out of the hospital a couple times in recent months, and there’s a very real possibility we’ll either be moving in with her (or having her move in with us) in the not-too-distant future.

A nursing home is not an option for mom. Well, maybe I should say it’s not an option for me. I will not allow it. Mom cared for Dad after his stroke until he passed 6 months later, literally to the detriment of her own health at the time. He was able to pass at home, in the company of his wife; not alone and neglected at the end of some stark, white and stinking-of-urine linoleum hallway. I’ll be damned if I show my thanks by putting her in some rest home. Not happening.

Wow…sorry for the rant. This started out as a pleasant little holiday post but it turned a little dark. My bad.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to you all.

So, my golf hero has feet made of clay.

No matter how much success, how much fame, how much money people attain, money cannot buy love or guarantee happiness and bliss.

Tiger Woods did not suffer facial lacerations from a car accident. They were inflicted by his wife, Elin Nordegren — according to a conversation Woods had Friday after the accident.

TMX.com reports that Tiger said his wife had confronted him about reports that he was seeing another woman. The argument got heated and, according to our source, she scratched his face up. We’re told it was then Woods beat a hasty retreat to his SUV — but according to a source, Woods says his wife followed behind with a golf club (“No, no, please! I can’t take it!)

 As Tiger drove away, she struck the vehicle several times with the club.

The police report says Woods became “distracted,” thought the vehicle was stopped, and looked to see what had happened. At that point the SUV hit the fire hydrant and then hit a tree. 

Woods had said during a conversation afterwards on Friday he had been taking prescription pain medication for an injury, which could explain why he seemed” somewhat out of it at the scene.”

The irony is too thick! Can’t breathe! Tiger Woods’ wife takes a golf club to his Escalade!?!

Was it an iron or a wood? Was she “teed-off?” Did she give Woody the wood or did Woody put his ball in the cup where the greens are greener? Did he use a stiff shaft or something with a little more ”give?” 

Really, I’m with Buick. Screw the “other woman” thing. I want to know what the Hell he was doing driving a Cadillac with his multi-million dollar Buick endorsement?

I was listening to the Bob Rivers radio program on the way to work this morning, and heard a singer/songwriter by the name of Meiko. She was a guest on Bob’s show, and performed a few songs live in-studio.

I love female vocalists as you know. I’ve had links to two of my favorites, Duffy Bishop and Cindy Alexander, right here on the BS BLOG for some time.

I’ve just added a third.

I was quite taken by what I heard on the radio, and went to the Bob Rivers Show website as soon as I got to my desk. I was thrilled to find 4 videos of her in-studio performance already uploaded there. Check them out:

Meiko Video #1

Meiko Video #2

Meiko Video #3

Meiko Video #4

Here’s what wiki has on Meiko. You can also see more videos on her myspace page.

I’m interested to learn what you think!