January 10, 2010

The first week of work after the break is behind us and we survived going back. Not to say it wasn't difficult but we managed. Fortunately we both had relatively calm weeks and Joann was in town. The bigger struggle this week was with the weather. Like the rest of the nation we have had several days of frigid weather. The cold weather keeps the snow that is on the edges of the road and sidewalks from clearing off making it difficult for us to get our evening runs in. So we have been confined to either just running loops in our neighborhood or working out on indoor cardio equipment. Even with all those hurdles, we got our exercising in each evening although I'm nursing both a sore ankle and shoulder. Oh the fun of aging.

On the home front, we continued our re-invigoration of pottery. We spent the evenings this week getting clay prepared for upcoming projects along with moving the pots that were thrown into their next stage - compare the photos from the last post to this one, there are only three pots now since one pot didn't survive the footing process. Next up is to start glazing again. This takes a lot more concentration and you need to have your artistic juices flowing since you have to be in the mood to create the artist pattern and decide on the color palette. To be honest, it has never been my favorite part of doing pottery. I much prefer the creation of the basic piece. But the glazing is what really makes the pot work - or not in the case of a poor glazing choice.

The upcoming holds travel to New Jersey for Jo and my final discussion with the doctor on my shoulder surgery for me. Also need to begin to think about taxes for 2009. So lots of fun activities on tap. Fortunately, the early weather forecasts show some warming up later in the week. Also something cheery to look forward to.

In case you were curious on how Wilson was doing (our snowperson), we had one day of warmer temperatures which has encourage Wilson to imitate the leaning tower of Pisa. Or he is a great example of what happens when the sun only hits one side of your snowperson. Fortunately the cold snap is preserving him from completely toppling over for now.