punched out at 2 am....

(teapot by Gary Rith)
Big DAY.
So around 2am I am sound asleep and apparently the wife decides to move the beagle between us slightly and her arm too, and WHACK punches me in the left eye. I awake and am like "OWW!" and receive sleepy apologies.
I toss and turn a bit and then dream of my neighbors the gun nuts....jeeeeeeeeeez...
So then now? As I toast the bagels and warm the espresso and the wife comes down and I say
"would you please look at my left eye?" and there is, I can tell, no recollection on her pretty face and she is like
"WOW! Did somebody punch you in the eye? Did you hit yourself by accident???" and she goes on to say
"it is purplish!"
and I am like
"YOU! You punched me in eye at 2am and then I dreamed of our neighbors the gun nuts! THANKS FOR NOTHING!"
and I get the sweet apologies of course and I put it into my mental bank, like, if I NEED something I can say "remember when you socked me at 2am? Well maybe now you can make up for it...."

On my way with Tom and Tommy and Martha and Carol on a wee little road trip. The weather is good. We are going to a RAKU party in Syracuse, holy cats I am excited!
Got some road music here....

Partay to Partay, drinks with 3 chicks and my new DUH Moines tee....

RIGHT. Well then. Hectic busy day, ya know?
First was glazing a boatload of pots then finishing Santa pots and then OFF to the Cornell studios to glaze more pots and meet 2 gals, my students Carol and Leslie, and OFF to the happy hour at the Chapterhouse and Leslie gets a phone call and she is like, to whoever, "we're at the Chapterhouse, JOIN US!" and the blue car pulls up and Leslie's friend looks FAMILIAR and I am like "golly, where have I seen her before, at the grocery store?" and it turns out Wendy is, of course, one of my customers, I swear this is such a small town sometimes, and so the 4 of us GOSSIP ABOUT YOU for awhile, my missus was at a meeting, and then, you know, off to a party at Nance's gallery, that's her with DEE the artist whose show is opening and Nance's son Wilson was videoing it all.....and you will notice my new red DUH MOINES, Iowa tee, thanks Kasey, you rock.....
My wife is gonna see this and be like "you went out and had beers with a bunch of women?" and I, of course, will be like "YEP!".

FROLICSOME FRIDAYS...

(GORGEOUS flower vases by Gary Rith, the missus gets her azz kicked in 7 card pocket change poker, the wicked beautiful calzone, Buster and Penny dogs, Spike hugs Emily cat)
My cards were all turning up aces last night, and a rare thing: I beat the missus at poker. 2 whole dollars! And isn't that calzone a thing of beauty? The first one we ate and it was UGLY. A mess. Tasted good. The second was a beauty. You gotta watch the sauce, if it seeps out during the making FORGET ABOUT IT.

Frolicsome Friday! Plans? Jeez, I gotta make more Santa mugs, gotta glaze, gotta go out and work with my friends at Cornell ceramics followed by Chapterhouse beers and finally a party at Nance's gallery.....dang, and that is just today---tomorrow I, well, you'll have to see, but tis tres exciting.
What do your weekend plans look like?

beware the CAT

I am trying to make a phone call and Spike goes totally NINJA on the cord....

pair of bowlies!

(bowls by Gary Rith, go to my etsy gallery and buy them now--its a special buy one get one free deal!)

BAMF of the week: Kasey Baker!

New feature here at my third blog, BAMF of the week! In case you don't know what BAMF means, it loosely translates to COOL BEYOND BELIEF, or extreme awesomeness.
Kasey here is an Iowa artist and pal of ours and sent us a surprise Iowa gift bag, and it isn't my birthday and Christmas is weeks away. You absolutely HAVE TO love Iowans, esp. when they send you a CHOCOLATE PIG POP.



In other news we were low on sweets and Penny helped me make the peanut butter chocolate cookies. Penny is a darling wonderful dog, but she kinda gets stepped on by accident when she gets underfoot, but it pays off for her because I am a SUPER MESSY chef. I always drop tasty bits by accident.
yes, this is where, once again, you are jealous of my wife for being married to such an amazing baker....and lets get one thing straight: just like YOU CANNOT BEAT early Van Halen or early Talking Heads, you cannot beat early ELVIS. The man was cool, he could dance....

field trip to Margy's......

(Tommy and Margy, Margy and Michelle...)
Tommy and Carol are my absolute best pals and they have been taking pottery classes with Margy in her studio for awhile. I originally met Tommy and Carol because Margy sent them up to take my class at the Cornell Pot Shop and mess around and all. I had never MET Margy though, although she has sent all these groovy people my way, or at least up to the Cornell studio.
SO this morning I go across town to Margy's studio to Tom and Carol's class there, and there is a third student there, and this being a small town, remember when I got my hair cut yesterday at Rachel's salon? The other stylist at Rachel's salon is...you guessed it...surprise, Michelle! Dang, small world, small town... Michelle's pots kick azz but she isn't camera shy like Rachel and she also looks like a movie star BUT anyway Margy is a sweetie and great teacher and great potter and we had a good old time and even though I am a pottery instructor myself it would be fun to enroll in Margy's class to just sorta hang out in the class and gossip every week...

Memphis Blues......

(Santa mugs by Gary Rith--a new idea! I gotta make lots more)
I am listening to the radio yesterday and there's Cat Power's version of Dylan's tune (see below) and it is SO GOOD, everybody would like it, that I begin thinking about how terrible most of Dylan's music sounds when Dylan does them. Compared to when OTHER people do Dylan's tunes. And Cat Power here, is, um, a WHOLE LOT cuter than Bob. Then I was thinking Jimi Hendrix and...

SHAGGY no more and Spike gets H!GH

SO Rachel my HAIRDRESSER, trimmer in this case actually, is like "OH NO! I am camera shy!" when I go to get the before and after pics down at Karma Salon, even though Rachel looks like a movie star. So I just shoot myself.
Then I get home, having stopped at the store for catnip and whatnot, and SPIKE is totally into it, and he gets his fix then falls asleep in the bag it came from...

daaaaaaazed and......

(teapot by Gary Rith)
Potters know what its like: that hopeful December 25th feeling when you can open the kiln and (hopefully) see the treasures within.
I was thinking last week "what if I made this sorta stepped, textured teapot and whacked it oblong and ovoid and added little foots..."
and since I have a tiny little kiln, the inside of which is like the size of a shoe box, big enough for a teapot to be fired to 2200 degrees, and SO
at 3;26 am my bladder is like !!! and I decide to go downstairs too and open the wee kiln which was finished and cooled and I am like !!!!!!!!!! when I see this
and naturally, I didn't really get back to sleep. I am THAT excited about this teapot. Tis SWEET.
A lot on my plate today, gotta make a load of monster mugs but first, you know, the grocery store, glaze stuff at Cornell, ship a box to Julie and then go to Rachel for some HAIR MAGIC (a trim, really) then home and Nance comes over to get that child's teaset and....well, I could use a nap.

bzzzz bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

(mugs by Gary rith)
And so Anndi asks
"do you make bee mugs?" and I am like
"made my first today! WOWIE"
sorta feeling like I am some kind of psychic talent, you know?
So one here for Anndi, the other could be YOURS.

Monday monkey business....

(teaset by Gary Rith)
Nance is an artist and runs my favorite gallery too. She has a customer who wants a special small sized teaset so that when her grandaughter comes over they can have a tea party. Thing turned out absolutly stunning, if I may say....

HEY, feel free to go to comments and join the fun: I loooooooooove jokes and want to here yours (MONDAY MONKEY BUSINESS!). Try to keep it relatively clean, OK? here is one from me, frog style:

A drunk is sitting at a bar, and says, "Bartender! Another drink."
The bartender shakes his head and says, "No you've had enough."

"Well," the drunk says. "How about if I show you something really cool? Then will you give me a drink?"

"Sure," the bartender says. "But it's gotta be pretty cool."

The drunk takes a tiny piano and a frog out of his pockets and sets them on the bar. The frog starts banging away, playing a beautiful song.
The bartender gives him a drink. The drunk downs it, and orders another.

"No way," the bartender says. "Now you've really had enough."

"If you give me a drink, I'll show you something even cooler," says the drunk.
The bartender agrees.
The drunk pulls out a rat, and sets it next to the piano. The frog starts banging away again, and the rat starts singing to the music.
The bartender is amazed, and gives him another drink.

A man who had been watching all this comes up to the drunk and says, "You've got a million dollar act there. I'll give you $500,000 for them right now."

"Not for sale," the drunk croaks.

"Ok, $500,000 just for the frog."

"Not for sale."

"Ok, $500,000 just for the rat."

The drunk agrees, and the man pays him and leaves.

The bartender says to the drunk, "What did you do that for? You broke up a million dollar act!"

"Not really," the drunk says. "You see, the frog's a ventriloquist."

Julie and Julia and Goofy Kim...

Kimbo came over to see Penny, naturally, eat my chocolate cake, NATURALLY, and then off we all went to see JULIE AND JULIA and then for the burritos at Viva. A great movie except it was a little too cute in spots, and a little too long.
Amy Adams was very well chosen as the rather awesome looking lifeguard on the beach with the heart of gold who saved the little boy from the shark.
OH NO! It just seems like the actress Amy Adams has the LOOKS of a bikini clad lifeguard, NOT a blogger who cooks with 50 pounds of butter everyday....let's just say that the director had Amy flash a little bare thigh every time the audience was falling asleep....
In other news, I have now been to Viva restaurant 3 times in one week, TOP THAT!

more witchy bottles...

I made these about 18 months ago, read more about witch bottles below...

witchy....

(me and some small witch bottles, 400 year old English witch bottle)
400 years ago some people made Bellarmine bottles, or witch bottles, for use in spells in England. You would maybe put a lock of an enemies hair in it then piss on it and bury it, really!
The frowning, bearded face was modeled after a Catholic Cardinal from the Inquistion, Cardinal Bellarmine.
So I bumped into Carol the other day and she asked if I was gonna make some, so I did :)
The Eagles tell the story here....

STRIP POKER*

*Of course we didn't play strip poker.
There were 8 of us last night playing HIGH stakes Texas hold 'em, and lets just say I was the only one drinking water, and I was the first to LOSE HIS SHIRT. I guess I have a reckless style? I sorta believe the best in every 2 and 5 card that comes my way, and ALSO believe firmly that the other players are full of crapola and they cannot POSSIBLY be raising because they have a good hand, they are always bluffing. I should work on my strategy and mentality.
My missus here plays brilliantly. There was one point when she had most of the chips on the table, and then she got the PAIR OF ACES and won a huge hand.....and then the dude on her left twiddling his thumbs, me, started to advise, and that was UNWISE and Terri Anne here, our host with the secretive smile, cleaned us both out.

Hell.....we lost 3 dollars each.....we won't be buying Grey Poupon this week....
Sing it Kenny.....

we are SO BAD: a boatload of TOMS

(Missus Tastycake did NOT want her pic included so she took some of these: Carol, Tom, Me, Leslie, Tom and Tom)
The usual Friday afternoon THANG: so, we are all WORKING at the Cornell Pot Shop and everybody sort of looks up and sees that it is FOUR and a gorgeous day, and so seven of us slide down the hill to the Chapterhouse bar for the popcorn and beers...

making teapots, THE MOVIE!!!!!!

Tom is a professor of engineering and he and his grandaughter Rachel made this video of me and my one and a half hour teapot lesson during our last class. They edited it to ten minutes and zoom in on my notes. The 2 teapots I finished are shown below, fired and gorgeous. The video does not show the handle part or painting, but all the rest. They did a good job! I am gonna put these 2 teapots up for sale now at my etsy gallery :)

Friday the stinking 13th and Frolicsome Fridays

Seriously, I dream all night about SNAKES, and I don't like snakes, and then I cannot get any of my pics to load. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrr.....

I will try later to load all that, I have a totally cool post in process, movies too!

In the meantime, weekend plans: my Frolicsome Friday includes happy hour at the Chapterhouse later followed by poker with Chris and Terri Anne and a bunch of their disreputable friends and tomorrow a trip for supplies and maybe see Wendy too....
Alright: how does your weekend look?

Sweet Jane....

and Lou Reed....