An Offering of Myself to the World

Let There be Light

I have been working on a stained glass lamp shade. I should finish up with it next week. Here are some pictures of my project...

These are pictures of the panels. There are six panels in all, three are shown below. Each panel took three hours for me to put together.

  

 I have a couple more panels to put the finishing touches on and I also have to patina it (which turns the silver soldering black). Below are two pictures of the almost completed project. One without light...

 

And one with light....

 

I like how it changes color with the light.

This is the last project for the summer. We will start up again in the fall probably September. It's been fun.

Montana Women's Run 2009

Yep, it is almost that time again. The Montana Women's Run is scheduled for May 9th and I have been practicing. Last year, I averaged a mile in 16.03 so that is my goal to beat. My time last year was 1:21:47 so even if I shave one second off that, I will feel like I accomplished it.

I am up to three miles a day now which takes me around 50 minutes. That averages out to about 17 minute miles. This is better than I did last year when I was only doing two twenty minute miles. So I feel that I will do better than last year with no problem at all.

I thought of different ways of motivation. First of all, I started out watching some DVD's that I had of old television shows. I went through one season of the Monkees, then moved on to two seasons of Twin Peaks. This was great motivation because that show is one of my all time favorites and to re watch it was a joy. Then I moved on to season one of Millennium. No one remembers this show but it has become a cult classic. However, it is really difficult to get motivated while watching a show about killers and profilers. I found that sometimes I couldn't even finish walking because I just wanted to move on to something else. Don't get me wrong, the show is awesome just not very much of a motivation. So I moved on to music. This seems to be the best motivation of all. I started out watching every concert video I have. At least five times over. Now I have moved on to my ipod only without watching anything and this seems to be the best. Right now, I am listening to Hot Chip, Muse, Daft Punk, Booka Shade, Franz Ferdinand and dance remixes from anyone, including Ditto and Mika. This seems to work best. I get lost in the music and before you know it, I have gone three miles and I'm not even tired! I seem to walk to the beat so dance music works the best.

Another plus, I have lost around 15 pounds since the beginning of the year!

Best Christmas Gift EVER!

 

Because of my obsession for all things MIKA, one of my co-workers gave me this cup for Christmas. It was awesome and I told her it was one of the best gifts I had ever received. In return, my gift to her was the DVD "MIKA: Live From Parc Des Princes Paris". Yes, giving the gift of MIKA makes every holiday extra special!

The New Year

Happy New Year Everyone!

Yes, as everyone can see by my new design, I have decided to be lazy and use one of TypePad's templates. Eh, it's not bad and it will be alright for now. Something different.

The roads were slick tonight. I had to go 40 miles an hour all the way home. I don't mind going slow, it's all the impatient people that scare me. It was really nice this afternoon, 'bout 46 degrees, but then it rained and the temperture dropped. It is now 16 degrees outside which, when combined with the rain and melting snow, made for some very icy conditions. But I am safe and snuggley at home.

Coldplay

What can I say? This concert was amazing. We had great seats and I was able to stand through the whole set...a big thank you to the people standing in front of us. It is alright to stand if people stand in front of you...not too cool if you are the only one standing.  :-)

I didn't take my camera because I am always afraid they will confiscate it but I found a video on YouTube which was taken at about the same seat as I had, only across the arena...

One of the opening acts was also amazing. He is a Brit by the name of Jon Hopkins and he plays solo electonica. His act was a combination of music with art and was simply amazing. Spellbinding. The video I found on YouTube is from another concert and it is only part of his act (he played for 45 minutes). I have found that this is an act you either really like or you really don't care for.

Stained Glass (attempt number one)

For the last month or so, I have been working with stained glass. I always thought it would be cool to do some stained glass art without realizing the time, equipment and effort that is involved. I don't know if I would do enough of it to justify getting the equipment for myself. I have been going with a friend to one of her friend's who does a lot (and I mean lots) of stained glass and has all the equipment to mess around with. We only go work on the glass once a week for about three hours. My first attempt was this butterfly...

The main thing I learned from this piece was that it is very difficult to do anything with stained glass that is curved. Straight lines work the best. It is also a very dirty, smelly and painful art. I have already burned myself with the soldering iron. And I know eventually I will cut myself on the glass. Probably not the best type of art for a klutz!

My next attempt was a candle with holly but it was worse than my first. I am using patterns that someone else has drawn and I think I would like to do my own pattern rather than using a pattern by someone else. So this weekend, I am going to devise a pattern of my own.

Come, sail the stars with me...

With all the bad news going 'round now-a-days with the election, debates, and the loss of everyone's money, I have decided to totally emerse myself in music in an attempt to drown out the screams. Yeah, like I wasn't into music before. Anyway...

I found out that one of my favorite groups, Starsailor, are going to release their fourth album early next year. Supposedly, this album was to be released in September of this year but the band had a change of record labels which lead to the delay. Their last album was released in 2005 which wasn't that long ago but feels like an eternity. Here is an awesome video of James Walsh, the lead singer of Starsailor...

Finally! Another video!

I have finally finished another video for everyone's viewing pleasure. It only took me almost a month to get it put up. Check out "The Binky Game"...

And in other important news...ahem...

I HAVE TICKETS TO SEE COLDPLAY PERFORM IN DENVER!!! The concert isn't until the end of November but I am so excited!! I can't wait!

Emma Laine is here!

Emma Laine arrived yesterday. Check out her vblog for all the details and her computer screen debut!

Montana Women's Run Results

"Congratulations on finishing the Montana Women's Run
on May 10, 2008.  For your records, the weather that day was
blustery and cloudy.

There were 166 finishers in the Women 45 to 49 age group and
1478 finishers in this distance (5 miles). There were 6441 total
registrants.

Your overall finish place was 994 and your age group finish place
was 121.  Your overall finish percentile was 67 while your age group
percentile was 73.  Your gun time of 1:21:47 gave you a 16:03 pace per mile.
Complete chip results will be posted shortly at www.perfect-timing.org."

Awesome. I guess walking two miles almost every day for the past couple of months helped. My best time ever was 1 hour 17 minutes that I set five years ago. I tried to beat that record and came pretty close. I told myself that if I walked 20 minute miles I would be happy so to do 16:03 minute miles was great! As long as I did better than 2006 (the last year I participated in the Women's Run). That year, I couldn't even finish. I don't even think I did three miles before petering out. I am usually pretty tenacious but that was one of the few times I quit. I needed to get that image out of my head.

And I did.