BIKINIS and COVERT OPS with Georges Le Soq

I am off to the store yesterday and feel something oversize in my pocket.
NOT gloves. I am looking in there, and see a beret. I sigh. There is no use complaining. When my rotton French sock monkey Georges Le Soq wants to go somewhere, he GOES.
I pull him out. Georges is like
"how you find me? Ees, how you say, COVERT OPS. I sneak out to the store with you" and I am like
"oh, BIG surprise Georges" and as we near the produce he is out on top of the bananas wriggling and writhing and...I bought apples. Ick, I wasn't gonna buy bananas after he had his way with them.

Speaking of wild animals, I wanted to make a zebra bowl, and dang it looks good. I am cooking up zebra mugs today, they shall look good too.
Zebra = my favorite :)

the occaisional post about pottery....

(teapots by Gary Rith)
I started drawing up a list of dynamic shapes I like to make, then I made more of them. The blue-green teapot in front is a direction I am super excited about, making a twisted sort of shape. And the one in back seems dynamic in an architectural way. Gosh, there is just so much fun you can have with clay :)

Gorgeous new things like cow mugs at my etsy shop, get you some!

when bloggers are busy are their posts boring?

(Penny shares a quote by Oscar Wilde)
I am never boring, of course, but yesterday was super super SUPER busy and then, with a relative moving, I was inspired to dream the night away about our last move...moving stinks, you know? I mean, I am glad we moved, love it here, but its an exhausting process.
So that's it for now, back later :)

only a blogger goes into the bathroom with a camera

I was, how do you put this? Lurking around in my own bathroom which was satisfyingly steamy, and, if you are a guy married to a s3xpot, you know, you want to get a peek at...do I have to spell this out? I do not.
So, as I say, after my own morning's shower and tooth brushing and such, I REturned, to see what I could see, in case, you know, anybody else was having a shower*, and the glasses happened to be on my face, which I thought was hilarious, and they totally fog up, and so I had to get the camera and get pictures of my steamed up self...well anyway.
*NO I did not turn the camera that way you filthy preverts and as you can see I was even wearing my favorite sweater!

my tombstone

I think that if I had a tombstone, and I won't*, I would want it to say
"he could bake up a storm".
It would not say
"Gary was a master of shiny and clean floors" because I do an adequate job on them and it would not say
"Gary loved washing dishes" but it could say
"Gary cleaned the bathroom his whole adult life and the result wasn't as bad as it could be".
One thing I like to make is scones. Then, at breakfast time, if you set up the coffee the previous night, you just hit the coffee button, pull out plates and scones and eat. I mean, bagels are not rocket science, but there is slicing and toasting and schmearing, right?
I was out of dried cranberries and nuts Sunday, which make very good scones, but I baked anyway. With cinnamon sugar on top. I told the wife they were like giant snicker doodles...and they are :) The wife wanted to do yardwork Sunday, bless her because I hate yard work like I hate house work, and I told her I would bake her cookies. She is a skinny little thing and needs treats and rewards which I happily provide.

*Tombstones? I wouldn't want anybody wasting their money. Just cremate me and sprinkle my ashes around somewhere. There IS a family burial plot waiting for me, I am told, in Kansas City. The wife's family has some spots left, and we are the end of the family line (her family is bruied there, going back to the Civil War). I s'pose if she wanted to, she could dump my ashes in Kansas City....

Dino

Me and the wife drove the hour north to Syracuse to fill the car with clay (me and Andrew there at Clayscapes) before the snow flies. Went to Dinosaur BBQ, where YES, vegetarians are welcome. You don't have to be a badass to go to Dino, but you KNOW I have to dress up like a badass from time to time.
Then, you know, we got home and it was like so warm, we had to grab the beagle and go for the major hike.....

interview with a sock monkey part 3: partying with Lindsey and......

I get a phone call the other morning from my rotton French sock monkey Georges Le Soq who is down at the police station, under arrest. I wonder if he was partying with Charlie again...but NO, not this time, he tells me had a date with Lindsey L0han...and things got a little out of hand....

Q-Georges, good GOD what now?
A-mon ami, at least she is over 21....
Q-yeah, but Georges, what about here at home, I thought you were making a play for Winnie the bear?
A-well, we keep this between us gentlemen, oui?
Q-mmmmm, maybe, but it will cost you...
A- I have champagne, I give you some, no?
Q-mmm....alright....anyway, Georges, what did you get arrested for?
A--ees my library books! They tell me ees overdue!
Q-oh Georges.....



Stay tuned--will Georges be true to Winnie???? Should Winnie stay away from Georges???? he might have germs! (thanks once again to Kasey for the awesome photo work!)

follow your bliss....

(pottery by Gary Rith, and YES, that is a baby)
Follow your bliss, right out the door if that is where it takes you. Thursday was mega-super, wasn't it? I had all these items come outta the kiln the first thing, including this pair of teapots. I am working on this six sided idea, and I am very pleased with the result. Then got some work done, a lot of work done, and grabbed the beagle and went for a hike. How many warm sunny days do you get in November? Maybe not too many :)

BIZARRE love triangle....

So, as I said, Winnie is in the gutter last saturday, a soggy and stinky bear, and we rescue her, bring her home. She gets the SPIN CYCLE and the HEAVY DUTY WASH and she is cleaner...and does not smell as bad....
My rotton sock monkey Georges Le Soq, who has kinky, continental tastes, as you might expect from a Frenchman is all over her...


Georges is like:
"you wear dis, you be beautiful sock monkey" and she is like, skeptical, thinking it makes her look like an idiot
"OH I don't know, Monsieur Le Soq, I really don't..."

Spike cat comes along, sniffs her over. He is like
"she smells a little like the gutter, you know?"

Emily cat is a sweetie, and she and Winnie share secrets and a nap. I think its a good thing the cats try to steer Winnie away from that Naughty Georges...


Later still, I see Winnie has met Rumpole. I found Rumpole in a snow bank in 1996. I found Winnie in a gutter in 2010. I think they have a lot in common. He really likes her, she seems happy for the first time....Georges is back in his closet, sulking....

Post of the week?

(pottery by Gary Rith)
Gotta dig these glazes--new glazes from the Cornell studios, and I am gonna sneak around and try to get a copy of those recipes so I can use them in the home studio too. These 2 teapots were demos I had made for my class, then tested the glazes: superb!
The Smitten Image made me a Post of the Week, how about that? Makes me feel like I have to TOP yesterday morning's winning post, except my mind is mush at the moment.
Yesterday Penny and I got bored of our usual walks and took a late afternoon hike at Cornell Plantations. Nice days, but November is a bit grey looking isn't it?

love and death....

I wanted to go to the cemetery down the street from our house and get a couple of photos. This stone in particular. Its covered with hearts.


It is old and faded, but what you read is that Catherine was 25 and died the day her baby was born. Then the baby died just over a month later. Can you imagine that tragedy? Common before modern medicine, but horrible then or now. Mr. Buchanan loved them so much he put hearts all over the tombstone.
This stone is pretty awesome: just a rock with a plaque! But you read it and find that this woman and man were born a month apart, lived 70 or so years together, and died the same summer! There is an old building a couple of miles away with his name on it, their insurance business still going....


Spooky place.
We the living are like little 4 year old kids. We imagine what school is like but don't know until we get there. When you think about death that is. Kids in school know what its like, dead people know what its like, we can only guess. And make pizza and live life fully and love each other.

Sad Keanoo, Georges Le Soq and me....

Me, Georges, Keanoo looking SAD in New York.....
(do you know the Sad Keanoo story? purposely mispelled here....)
(thanks for the photo Kasey!)

starring Charlie Sheen: interview with a sock monkey, part two in an ongoing series

(Georges Le Soq and Charlie Sheen)
Thursday afternoon, a limo pulls up out front, my rotton sock monkey Georges grabs a six pack out of the fridge and runs out and disappears into the waiting limo. I see what looks like 3 super models in the back seat with him, and, can it be? Charlie Sheen???? 3am today I hear the back door open, and there is the sound of French accented singing Paul McCartney and Wings in the kitchen, punctuated with hiccups.

"Some people vant to fill the world *hic* with zilly *hic* love songs...what's wrong with that *hic* I'd like to know...." and he trips over the cat and falls asleep on the floor.

I get up later and ask the heap on the floor a few questions:

Q-busy weekend, eh Georges?
A--*moan*
Q-here, lemme turn the LIGHTS on!
A--nooo!
Q--was that who I thought it was, in the limo???
A- ees Charlie and some lady friends, was good weekend, except, how you say, Charlie ees framed by polices
Q--framed?????
A--well, maybe Charlie, he no hold his liquor well
Q--they didn't catch you??
A--no, I small, I sleeping behind dumpster, awake, see it all, ees embarassing for Charlie, for Me? More chicks. I no have to share anymore :)

And with that, he falls asleep again, still on the floor by the fridge...

(thanks Kasey for the photo :)

le cows :)

(pottery by Gary Rith)

Coop

When you visit Cooperstown, as we have done 4 times in the last few months, you are thinking "except for the millions of tourists and maybe a little too much baseball crap, this is probably the PRETTIEST TOWN in the United States." In the middle of all these big hills with this big pretty lake and the nicest houses and buildings, beautifully kept up. Just wonderful. About 100 long hilly miles from home, 2+ hour drive each way.
Cooperstown seems to like me. In August I was asked to be in the NY state vessel invitational at the Cooperstown Art Association, then they asked me to join their Christmas thing, which is why we were there yesterday with 42 pots, and I got a message Friday from a Cooperstown store asking if I would show there in the future, and I was like HECK YEAH and "we can stop in, glad to you contacted us BEFORE we visited and not next week". Nice coincidence. As the wife says, knowingly, "there is MONEY in Cooperstown" which is where you want your pots to be....
So, you know, we drive over with the cute little beagle, deliver the pots, go to a meeting at this new potential store...and find this Swedish bear in the gutter....it was pretty wet and dirty, laundered now and clean smelling, drying over the heater.....
(below, the wife in front of the baseball museum with Penny and the bear)