a slightly amusing cat joke for Christmas....

Spike and the missus looking so cute below, and lookit this joke I saw floating around the internets......

A slight retelling of the Night Before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas
and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring,
not even a mouse.

'Cuz the cat had pounced on him
and tore him apart-
Ate his mousey intestines
And chewed up his heart.

Kitty thought he heard sleigh bells,
which made him take pause-
He stopped daintily licking
the blood from his claws.

"Must be Santa" thought Kitty
(that quite clever cat)
'Cuz nobody else climbs down
the chimney like that.

Indeed it was ol' Santa,
so jolly and fat
With a load of presents
and all for the cat!

"Wow, the best Christmas ever!"
Kitty thought with a purr,
Then he coughed up a hairball
and shed some more fur.

Becky Jo and the SECRET GIRAFFE PROJECT

So ends a great pottery mystery.
Early in the fall for some reason or other me and Becky Jo in Iowa are like:
"we could do a pot swap for Christmas" and I was like
"OK, but it has to be smaller than a shoe box" and Becky Jo makes it tough by saying
"and it has to be a GIRAFFE"
and neither of us knew what the other was doing until my box got to her (I don't have a pic of the mug I sent to Becky Jo, but it is similar to the painted one I did here, plus a giraffe inside).
And then Saturday this cute penguin box arrives full of goodies, giraffe and otherwise, from Iowa.
Becky Jo made this rather fantastic textured cup (and pendant and candy). Stunning isn't it? I had never seen texture like that and asked if she had carved it, and she sez she filled a bag with dark slip and applied it a little decorating with frosting.
Ah ha!

don't you wish you were married to me?

The missus said late this afternoon: "I am so lucky to have met you" and I was like
"moi?"
and she is like
"yes" and I was like
**blush** cause she is so pretty.
Then I went downstairs and made peanut lime sauce and stir fry peppers and sticky rice. The fun thing with sticky rice is to take it and pack it into a small bowl so you can plop it onto a plate and it looks like a little boobie :)
Isn't the house across the street from us pretty? You could have bought it last spring, but Terri Anne and Chris did buy it and they are great.

le SUNDAY

Penny got up on the cat perch to look at the neighbors out the window, and Spike was like "that's MY SPOT". Penny is very athletic.
I was having fun making a few pots and the wife saw me blow up a bottle and get clay around my mouth and she is like "I gotta getta pic of THAT"

ho ho HO!

I made these a long time ago (and could make them again, although probably not this season). The snowman sez 1996 underneath. I used to make pumpkins, ghosts, angels, etc etc and they sold very well, but you know how I am, always trying new forms etc. Maybe next summer I'll make some of these holiday things again. Nice arty looking picture there too, eh?
ANYWAY, woke up at 4:11 ready to go, and now its 5 and I am gonna do some glazing and get on with the day. Hope yours is faboo!



Sorry, I have really come to hate schmaltzy Christmas carols, like the ones at the grocery store which make you want to get your dog food and RUN out screaming. Remember IRONMAN by Black Sabbath? Now HERE is a Christmas carol....

BAMF* of the day: my old pal Wendy

Where to begin? For a recluse, I sure do get around sometimes.
You will remember my pal Wendy, we grew up in the same neighborhood and I was friends with herself (ten months younger than me) and her sister Mary Beth, in my grade. Their last name also started with R so I was always being plunked next to Mary Beth in class seating charts, and we would all hang out and wander around and complain about school and such. As I have said, we were a little like Winnie and Kevin in the WONDER YEARS TV show.
Fast forward to now, of course, and Wendy lives up the road in Syracuse, and once again, we all pal around.
SO, I needed to get to my clay supplier in Syracuse today and take the missus shopping and for lunch at Alto Cinco, the BAMF Mexican restaurant near Syracuse University, and early this am, since this was like a last second plan, I left a message for Wendy that if she wasn't busy we'd be at Alto Cinco just before noon. AND SHE CAME! I mean, we don't have a cell phone, so we are hard to keep track of, but Wendy dropped everything to have lunch with us and go shopping. You can see here: the missus has the cappucino and fries and such, I had the espresso and the rest, and it was so much food it was brought home for dinner too.
Then, of course, you also know I hate shopping, but near Alto Cinco is this clothing-costume shop (actually, there are two or 3) and we go in and I show the missus the spiked giraffe boots and I am thinking "I could develop a foot fetish over these, meow!" and then there is the wee little doggie punk leather biker jacket and Wendy, Gawd bless her, holds still and lets me dress her.
I am like "WENDY: cheetah print!!!! BERET WITH FEATHERS!!!!" and I discovered today what so many gay fashion designers already know: dressing up women is a BLAST.*Wendy is a BAMF for the day for letting me dress her up and coming out for lunch with me and the missus at the last second, oh yes....

home

We live in the prettiest little old village a couple of miles outside the small city of Ithaca. We have a bus stop, cemetary, park, fire dept, river, comunity center-PO and Baptist Church. And maybe 200-300 people.
I took these shots yesterday while walking to the PO, which has the big wreath on it. There is a river behind my house which I cross to get over there, and I took pics here looking both north and south plus looking across at my back yard and the back of my house, the purple blob seen in the distance.
In other news, I was having the worst dream last night--that I was in math class and just couldn't get the problem assigned and the class was noisy and distracting and I felt SO DUMB. Glad I don't have to go to school anymore. Math is hard!
And please click down to the puppy video below...





Not my puppy but you know I love beagles....which are the absolute noisiest dogs of all....

the END

The semester has ended at Cornell, the missus finished her class, I finished teaching my class, the pot shop sale is ended, and I can't guarentee shipping by the 24th, so today feels like the celebratory END :) We celebrated with a zillion other happy student and faculty types at the Chapterhouse as you might imagine...

5 degrees

At least that is 5 above. You should have seen the dogs go out this morning--they were QUICK!
Somebody was wandering the internets and looked at my webpage www.garyrith.com and asked if they could order a teapot pictured there. I had made 2 of these yellow teapots 2 years ago, and made another two yesterday, although between you and me, I can see the handles on the new ones are a little shorter....
anyway, here are a couple of pics of the making.






Gorillaz, Clint Eastwood and

Benji and Christi, BAMFs* of the week and the nicest people on earth

It was Benji's turn to be BAMF of the week but its Christi's birthday so they can share honors, esp. since they are both so awesome.
So, as you know, there was a little Gary style happy hour at 4:20 today at the Chapterhouse bar. At the last minute Christi decides to join us, and its her birthday! (pink scarf below) and Benji, of course, whom I had seen earlier today, was like "YEAH! I'm in!" and he shaved most of his beard and came along, with of course, Carol in the white coat and Norah in the, well, you know, sorta, um, fashionably low cut top, and Tommy with the huge smile and naturally my missus. Stevo was there secretly and nobody was supposed to know he was having a beer with us and then at the end Jeremy came along but no pics of those guys, sorry, and you know? We are doing it all again tomorrow :) Join us at 4:20!
AND YES, we got to talking about Iowa, as you might imagine, and Benji and Christi and Norah all know Kasey and Becky Jo's blogs and we are all like "ROAD TRIP TO DES MOINES".