springing

Time flies. I feel really busy lately but I also feel like I'm not getting much done. I've had a mild case of the "art blahs" in the last week but I think it's pretty much over with. It happens, sometimes I just have zero ambition, which is not good. But I've been focusing on other things like paperwork and housework. And other distractions. ;-)

I'm not all that happy with how the bear pendant is turning out, so I'm not going to post pics til it's done. I tried a different technique and it doesn't thrill me. Good to know though, so I don't repeat it on the larger piece. It'll still be cute, just not entirely what I had in mind. I sold the nude scrim on ebay today, which is super exciting. Needless to say, there will be more! I'm not sure if it's the scrimshaw or the subject matter that makes it sellable, or perhaps the combination thereof. Whatever. More scrimshaw nakedness coming up!

I've still been experiencing microscope woes. I tried really hard to convince myself that I just needed to get used to the new one, but the fact of the matter is after using it for a couple weeks it gets more and more difficult for me to sit there for long periods of time without feeling like my eyeballs are going all wonky. I think the alignment is just ever so slightly off. Ugh. So I decided to go ahead and open up the original one (with the yellow-tinged optics) and see what I could do. I'm NOT mechanically inclined but I figured "may as well" since my other option was selling it for parts and if I totally ruined it, well, so be it. Once I figured out how to open it, it wasn't that hard to do. And oh my gosh were those lenses and mirrors dirty! Like you know how that grime kinda builds up on the inside of a car window after a long time? Same type of thing. I cleaned all the ones I could pretty easily reach (I did not disassemble the zoom mechanism, that seemed like asking for trouble, though I'm still tempted to try). Anyway, it's a billion times clearer of an image but still not as clean as the new one (probably because there were two sides of lenses I could not reach). I completely screwed up the alignment when I put it back together though. Bah! It was about midnight by that point.


So this morning I took it apart again and figured out exactly HOW it all works and which parts I need to adjust (the mirrors!) and then I fiddled around with it and got aligned perfectly. Woo hoo! So now I have a still-a-little-dirty scope with good alignment, and a really clean scope that's slightly off. Hmm. I'm now tempted to open the new one and fiddle with the mirrors in that one. Though I must say, dealing with all those bits and pieces is really not something I'm all that fond of doing! What to do what to do... Totally disassemble the dirty one and thoroughly clean it? Attempt to re-align the new clean one? All of the above?


In other news... I just realized it's spring. Cripes. It's springing all over. It's been really warm here, almost too warm. I need to ride more before summertime gets here. Ugh, summer, already dreading it. The horses are shedding handfuls of hair.

Looks like there's another dance performance the last weekend in April but I'm not sure on the date or time yet. That'll be in Stockton. More info as I get it...

In the mean time, two pics from Rakkasah, courtesy of CS. I will get more this weekend too. Yay! Again, if you know who "A" is please do not put her name in the comments, she prefers to stay anonymous. Actually she would now like to be referred to as "A+" haha.

pretty red pants!

oh yeah...