Aardvark Art Glass

We had this orange sky last night. The camera oranged up that first one a bit. This is more like the real color:

Spectacular! The sky was full of those funny round clouds that look like cotton balls. Quite a show. We don’t have much sky to see through all the trees and houses so I hardly even look up anymore. I would have missed the whole thing if Foster hadn’t come over and dragged me out of the store.

On account of the sky, he had this orange glow around him when I answered the door. Don referred to the phenomenon as “Bob’s Orange Nimbus”, which is funny and also an excellent name for a mixed drink. We’ll get right to work on that.

Nothing says the party is over like flaccid balloons. Especially these. I had to fish them out of the garbage and there was cheese dip or Twinkie filling or something on them. Gross. Anyway, we had our opening soiree on Saturday. It was well-attended and probably the most remarkable aspect of it was the amount of alcohol that was consumed. I’m not sayin’ that’s good or bad, I’m just sayin. I decided that I wanted to be like my gift-shop owning brethren in Mexico and give out shots of tequila at the door. That seemed like a really good idea to me. Though I only had two takers, that couple did end up buying something. So I have tentative feelings of rightness as far as that decision went. And almost a whole bottle of tequila left.

Missy made a ring using one of the million dichroic cabs I have sitting ’round the shop. Nice, huh? It’s sterling and titanium. That titanium photographs like no one’s business. Do you like this ring? You can take it home for $65. (Size 6). She does custom work, too.

Well, I’m pretty much all wound up in this store thing. I’m not being very much fun, I don’t think. If my open sign arrives by Thursday, that’s when I’ll open. Scary. I would like to leave finding out how few people are going to come in here up to my imagination.

So far all I’ve done for publicity is send a letter and a Wacky Pill bead to my radio pals Mel and Mr. Pants. Hopefully they will read the letter on their show, which is on WORT, Fridays at 1pm. This is exactly the same narrow marketing strategy I used years ago. The show does not reach a lot of people but the ones it does reach are quality folk who appreciate funny things. Unfortunately, many of them are slacker types so they may not make it in right away. But the price is right. And it works, eventually. Give a listen if you’re in or around Madison–the letter is pretty funny.

Check this out

yike-a-doodle-doo!

I ventured into the basement this morning with the intention of solving the mystery of why water wasn’t coming out of our hose when I met this thing. I thought it was an old pancake at first but then I realized it was living and that it wasn’t alone.

Freakshow, huh? Look at those roots, or whatever the hell they are. This is a more interesting mystery than the water thing, though, attention needs to be paid to that as well because my plants need a drink. Speaking of my plants, I have a funny story to share about lettuce. This is the first time I’ve grown lettuce and I have to say that it is one of the best things ever. It produces like crazy and it’s delicious and pretty. I love lettuce. Anyway, back when my lettuce was just seeds, a pal of ours, Jeanne, came by with a bunch of little plants for me including six tiny lettuces which she had started weeks before. (Jeanne is our organized friend. Also, she knows about gardening.) So I planted her lettuces next to my seeds and away they grew.

I was harvesting leaves from my seed lettuce in no time but the other plants were growing slower. Different variety or something, I guessed. Eventually, hunger and curiosity got the best of me and I pulled a leaf off one of her plants and nipped a little off, just to see what it was like. The leaf tasted alright but they had a very peculiar, fuzzy texture that made it difficult to swallow. “That’s weird lettuce,” I thought. But what do I know?  The likelihood of Jeanne giving us the wrong plant seemed really slim. Of course I tried to involve Don. “These leaves look like lettuce but they’re fuzzy–try one. Does that seem like lettuce to you?”

Long story short, on my birthday Jeanne confirmed that the plants she gave us were not lettuce. She does not know what they are but suspects they are some kind of flower. A non-poisonous flower, luckily. I already knew that I had a tendency to just take people at their word and ignore all signs to the contrary. Gotta work on that, especially when it involves plants.