I just got home last night from the Netherlands show, and leave for Kansas to help move Creighton's parents tomorrow morning, but I wanted to at least post this peculiar way to display childrens' hoodies at the Amsterdam open market.

The stamping world has said good-bye to Norm of Polly's Pals. Norm had been one of the "regulars" at the stamp shows for many years, and was on the road to the Portland show when it was time to leave us. His smile and kindness will not be forgotten. Norm, I wish you a safe journey to your next destination.

Our condolences to Norm's family.

Another quick entry. I got back from Portland late last night and have been frantically packing for the next shows. I don't know why I thought that 7 shows in 4 weeks was a Good Idea, and many thanks to Tami (Allentown, PA), Adrien (Sacramento, CA), and Sandi(Ocean City, MD) for all their help.
Backing up a bit....I was in Albuquerque two weekends ago for the stamp show, and stayed a couple extra days to teach a Visual Journaling class at China Phoenix 2.
That's owner, Nancy, and resident cat, in the back row.
The class was more successful than I'd dared hope, and I'm planning a repeat performance at China Phoenix 2 maybe in October.
And I got to spend some quality time with my BFs, Paula and Teresa (www.paulabest.com). YAYYY!! Paula even was at my class for the first day, but the pic is from Day Two.
I'm at the Coeur d'Alene show this weekend, but will also have a booth at the show, so stop by and say Hi to me, or Sandi in Ocean City.

More on Indy...We're trying to eat healthier so hitting the better grocery stores rather than fast food. I spotted this

Sounds healthy, and should be good on a salad....but this is what's inside.....


CAT FOOD!!! I would have been better off, certainly cheaper, to have just gone straight for the Fancy Feast. YUCK!!

I'[ve gotten seriously behind in my blogging (again). well, I've been to Indianapolis for a show. Remember this pic? Well, I did it again. Indianapolis is like part of the Bermuda Triangle. I think they move or rename the streets every year, and my GPS squawks useful directions "Get in the left land and turn right" and "Sharp right turn" when I'm on the freeway. I'd only gotten a couple of miles away from the airport and was already lost, it was after midnight, cold and rainy, and I noticed the rental gas gauge wasn't full. There was no way I could get back to the airport car rental lot, so I took this video of the gas gauge the odometer and the clock. The next morning I called the car rental Customer Support with my story. They thought it was very funny, and didn't charge me for the missing gas. I was so very proud of myself. Well, this gets me caught up a bit. I'll try to write more before I head for Portland this weekend.
...Hours later....Shit! I've tried 4 times to get the video to load. It's only 5 seconds long, and I don't know what the problem is, so I'm going to bed.

I was packing for the two shows next weekend, and was completely out of any horizontal space in the house...until I remember the obsolete ironing board. Luckily we could still find it.

Well, I'm back from the San Jose show, with a side trip to see Adrien, Dakota and my mother. I thought I'd dispense a couple of mini Darwin awards this week. The first one goes to Adrien, who had somehow tipped a hot serving spoon onto his arm.
It had a hole in the center, giving him this goofy circular burn, which he slightly humorously calls his "third eye".
The other award goes to myself, but you're spared a pic. My lips are chapped from the cold weather, and when I was packing up the boxes after the show, I bit off the end of the packing tape with my teeth, but the tape stuck to my lip and pulled off the chapped layer....duh...and OUCH! Almost as stupid as licking a cold telephone pole LOL
The weather's kinda icky for a few days, but we plan another ski day later this week, and I hope to get some funny video.

Happy Valentine's Day!
Roses, Reeses peanutbutter cups, and chocolatechip cookie dough!

And he's up!!!
We've recently taken 3 play afternoons to go cross-country skiing. The picture is not good because I was so clumsey with the gloves -- couldn't really see the viewfinder. Actually took several pics of my palm, one of my ski tips, and even a 1/2 second video (NO idea how that happened LOL). It's crappy weather this week, so we're back to the usual work schedule, but will be back on the mountain after the San Jose show next weekend.

I guess it's time to bring an end to our sad little tale of injustice and conspiracy inside the Nevada Highway Patrol. Briefly, Mary Kay and I were rear-ended in a hit-and-run accident on our way to the Las Vegas show a couple of months ago. We called the Nevada Highway Patrol, had the car towed, and completed our part of the report, including the license number. Meanwhile, another officer further down the road stopped by and told us he'd had two witnesses stop him with information on our accident, and from both, he read the same license number and car description from his notes. He also mentioned a call to 911. The trooper told me he'd get right on the case (hit-and-run IS a felony!), and would call me in a couple of days, and to expect the completed accident report in 10 days. Here we are, riding to the venue in the back of the NHP car, absolutely clueless on how badly things are going to get.

Well, no call from the trooper, and he doesn't return my calls. Days and weeks pass, and there's no completed accident report. I talk to the trooper's sargent, who says he'll get right back to me, but then also never returns my calls. Finally, more than 6 weeks after the accident, the trooper finally looks at the car that at least 3 of us have identified. There's evidence of front-end damage and repair, but the owner says that this is from a previous un-reported accident....and those two eye-witness reports? They're gone. Now the trooper claims that the witnesses just said "there's an accident back there", and kept on going. And the dispatch call has disappeared. My cousin, who's an accident lawyer, concludes that we had the bad luck to be hit by a girlfriend or relative of the Highway Patrol. He was only surprised that it happened at a State level. Apparently this type of coverup is more common at the City level. Bottom line -- my word against the NHP, so guess who lost. The moral of the story is that just because they wear a uniform, have shiny shoes, and call you "ma'am" doesn't mean they can be trusted. I doubt I'll be contribuing to any future Policemens' Benefits.