still doing stained glass

As the weather has gotten colder, I've resumed doing the stained glass projects. I've attended two wonderful workshops at the local "Works of Glass" facility where I took classes and bought all of my supplies.
One was for a hanging garden:
and one was for a bay-leaf wreath. The first workshop for this project filled up before I could get my name on the list and I was very disappointed. I was so glad that they opened up another class. I spent a large amount of my "snow day" working on the pieces for this one. It now hangs in my office:
And finally I finished my first completely independent project here at home:
I've spent the past few days cutting the pieces for a new copper-foil project (a yellow bird with red flowers, ISU colors). I still need to foil and solder that project, so it probably won't be finished for at least another week. I *do* need to get back to work soon. And as a mark of a true stained glass enthusiast, I recently bought a piece of glass just because it was pretty. I don't know yet what I will do with it, but I'm sure the appropriate project will come along.

new sofa

Since I moved to Florida in August 2006 I've had a second-hand sofa/loveseat set. White furniture is not a good match with three pets and though I've frequently unstuffed and washed the cushions in order to remove the "Sheba sheen", the arms of the couch were not washable. Therefore I bought a new couch as a self birthday/Christmas present. This is my first piece of brand-new furniture and I love it. It looks gray-ish in this photo, but is actually a dark forest green.
I'm keeping it covered with a sheet, which obscures it's beauty but hopefully will keep it clean. This, my last picture of Cassie, clearly shows her dedication to being my anti-helper.

dear Cassiopeia

After many great years together, my cat Cassiopeia passed away on Christmas morning. She will be sorely missed.
She was part of a feral group that lived under my grandparents' house. I was the first person to ever touch her, and the little 1.2-pound firecracker that I snatched up had the spirit to hiss at me the first time we got a good look at each other. I have always considered her a link to my paternal grandparents, both of whom have been deceased for several years.
She was an adorable little kitten (aren't they all?). She used to "catch" the water droplets from the leaky bathtub faucet and then look at her paws, puzzled by the disappearance of the droplet that she caught. During endless hours working on heat and mass transport homework, she would drive me crazy by chasing my pen and then melt my heart when she feel asleep perched on my shoulder.
She was waiting in the window for me when I came home from my first date with Charlie, and she was also waiting for me 6 years later when he moved out. She was on the plane with me the night that I sadly left Los Angeles for an unknown new home in Florida.
Like most cats, she thought her chief job was to be my "anti-helper". She was most concerned with getting my attention when I was trying to do something else - such as grade exams or work a jigsaw puzzle (note that she's covering up the portion of the puzzle that isn't finished yet). She was so nosy that I considered it not just a personality trait, but an affliction. Grouchy and bossy to boot, she would frequently blockade key intersections in the house and prevent the dog or other cat (both of whom were bigger and stronger than her) from passing. But then at bedtime she could always be counted on to come curl up next to me and purr.
Her asthma was diagnosed very early on, and over the years has evolved from an occasional nuisance to a daily concern. Florida was hard on her. The night before I was supposed to bring Sheba home from the pet rescue, Cassie had a particularly terrifying asthma attack. The vet at the clinic warned that she probably wasn't going to make it - but she did. And once she recovered I DID bring Sheba home and I don't think I was ever forgiven for that. Thanks to excellent veterinary care, we had nearly three more years together after that close call.
Sadly, the asthma got her in the end. I keep thinking of what I could have done differently while I was out of town - increased the dosage on her meds, left instructions for the pet sitter to keep the humidifier running, asked the pet sitter to come twice a day instead of once a day - but that doesn't change anything now. I just wish that I could have held her and stroked her soft chin one last time. It's way too quiet around here without her.

pet statues

Over Labor Day weekend I took a lovely trip to Sedona, Arizona (housing courtesy of my sister and brother-in-law). I kept seeing this adorable, locally-made animal figurines in the shops and badly wanted to purchase one as a memento of my trip, but I just couldn't justify the shelf space for another knick-knack. Then I visited the art colony in nearby Jerome AZ and had a chance to actually meet the artist, Janie. Here is her website http://janielayersart.com/ with lots of pictures of her adorable creations. I'm always a sucker for anything involving my own beautiful pets, so I asked if she did commissions. She does, so I sent her pictures and info about my sweeties and I recently received these beauties in the mail:












She did an excellent job capturing their personalities and I will always treasure these.

Mice and blizzards

Last fall I had trouble with mice, so I was expecting to see some "mouse evidence" again this year. Last year's crew only left evidence and I just caught one or two fleeting glances of actual mice. However, this fall I had a brave little visitor. This mouse explored the house as brave as could be, with one very interested cat (Cleofus) following along behind it and occasionally (gently!) stroking it. Eventually Sheba spotted it and was very interested in catching it, but she couldn't get into the small spaces that it hung out in. I was totally at a loss for what to do - screaming and freaking out was a natural response, but I managed to hang on to reason and just tried to avoid the wretched thing, hoping it would find it's way back out. Evidence strongly suggests that Sheba caught (and ate) it in the middle of the night. Lovely. The next day I distributed some poison packets around the house and have seen limited evidence since then. And now we are in the grips of freezing winter and the mice are no longer a problem. Whew.



As I previously reported, we had the great fortune of having a snow day on December 9th. It was a wonderful day to hang around the house. I did some work in the morning and then spent the afternoon working on stained glass, doing stuff around the house and playing World of Warcraft. Ah. I did try to get Sheba out in the snow - my neighbor's dog Magic loves the snow and we thought it would be cute to get some video of them together. As I've said before, Sheba doesn't like the snow. And this was deep snow. And it was very cold and windy. Here are the resulting videos:

Snow Day

I know, I'm terribly behind on my posts. But (luckily?) we've had a blizzard come through and the university is closed for the day. The wind is gusting, there's at least a foot of snow on the ground and the windchill is -15F (yes, that's a negative). There's so much snow accumulated on the front porch that it's difficult to open the front door - I suspect that eventually I will have to climb out the bathroom window if this snow keeps us. But I'm appreciative for the unexpected free time. Today was an exceptionally lucky day for the university to be closed - not only do I get to miss MY class, but today I was supposed to cover class for my co-worker as well. Therefore, the one day that I need to teach TWO classes is the day that the university is closed. Woo hoo! I'm just hoping that the weather breaks eventually, because I need to go into the lab and tend to my experiments.
What's been going on since my last post? Mainly just busy with work. Rejections for the proposals that I wrote this summer are trickling in (NSF, NIH and Iowa Energy Center). And I'm expecting to receive a rejection notice any day now from DOE. But I didn't seriously expect any of those proposals to be funded and the reviewer comments are helpful for revisions. It helps to start the new year with a clean slate.
In November I went to Nashville for the annual American Institute for Chemicals Engineers meeting. The timing of the meeting coincided with the birthday of a dear friend who lives in Nashville, so it was good to celebrate with her. And then for Thanksgiving I visited with my family in Lexington. Also a good time.
I'm still working with stained glass. I attended a workshop last week and will attend another one next week. And I'm almost done with my first totally-at-home project. It's a good way to pass these cold winter evenings!
Everyone keep warm and happy holidays if I don't post again before Christmas.