HERE'S LOOKING AT YOU KID

A couple of days ago I was in a really grumpy mood, which is unusual for me -- so unusual that it makes my hubby quite nervous when it happens. I blame it on spending too much time on-line, reading about the horrible things we humans do to one another in the righteous name of religion and patriotism. Anyhoo, like I said, it made my hubby nervous. He remembered hearing me mention that I thought the new "googley eyes on statues" trend was pretty hilarious, so while I was off running errands, he did this.

I scoured the house pretty well, and thought surely I had spotted them all, but then the next morning, as I was reheating my tea in the microwave, I spotted a pair of eyes slithering down the side of my cup -- the cup I had been drinking from all morning! Clearly I'm not nearly as observant as I thought I was. Finally I went to my hubby and said "I give up! Are there any others that I missed?" He sauntered over to the refrigerator with a smirk and a gleam, and flipped the door open with a flourish.

Yep, pretty much everything in there had eyes, and I had been in and out of there numerous times, never noticing a thing! I guess I understand now why "eye witness accounts" are not considered to be all that reliable.
  

SO HAPPY TO MEET YOU!

Did you know that there is a new kind of device which they can implant in people with chronic pain -- one that is a wee bit of a miracle? It doesn't actually cure what ails them. Instead, it somehow manages to block some of those signals the nerves are sending to the brain -- the ones telling it that it's body should be writhing in agony. It doesn't work for everyone, but when it does? Well, it can be life-changing.  

Take our friend Ricky Charles, for instance -- Fiber Woman's hubby.  We never knew him back in the day, when he was making quite the name for himself as a glass artist, with a studio/shop down on the square and a permanent booth at the Renaissance Festival near Houston. We met him much later, after the damage and progressive pain from an old injury had made it a struggle just to get through each day, forcing him to give up his passion -- the glass art that he'd been obsessed with since he was just a kid, and which defined who he was.

So, you can only imagine how astounded my hubby was when Mr. Rick called him up recently and told him to "drop by after dinner, 'cause I've got something cool to show ya", and he arrived to find Rick out in his studio, leaning over a flame, shaping a piece of glass!

John stayed there for several hours, watching the artist at work, and was so blown away with the magic of it all that he went back again this week to take photos. He was happy to report that, not only does Rick still have a gift with glass, but also his gift of gab -- the one that he was known for way back when, earning him the moniker of Storytelling Glass Guy.

You have no idea how grateful we are, to finally get to meet this guy!