A Successful Weekend

It was a real pleasure to meet and visit with the many hundreds of visitors to the 42nd Annual Maple Sugar Festival in St. Albans. VT over the weekend. The three day event features sugar house tours, an antique bazaar, specialty foods to sample and an entire gymnasium full of eager artisans like myself. The weather was summed up in one word, perfect; a nice change from last year's cold, rainy and downright dismal conditions. For us, it was the third show of the season, but I have to tell you that all things considered, I'd have to consider this event a complete success, both in terms of enthusiastic on lookers as well as sales. We have a few weeks off to ready some new work to be exhibited and while we're at it, the studio could use a bit of tidying up. During the slower paced winter and spring, we sometimes just toss things on a shelf or into a corner instead of finding them a more permanent home. This small intermission before we get going like gangbusters is also being used to prepare the pop up camper for it's "coming out" event which will be on May 17th in Londonderry, NH and May 18th in Manchester, NH. These are both new venues for us and I'm looking forward to meeting new people and introducing them to my work. I hope you're able to stop by...

Maple Syrup Is Flowing

We're off this weekend to the 42nd annual Maple Sugar Festival in St Albans, VT. It's a three day event and if you're in the area, please stop by.

The Catch 22

Today, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and melancholy. I glanced at the rather thick stack of show applications that have been arriving almost daily. These demand my attention both in the filling out and the paying of the requisite fees so that I can fill in my show schedule. The problem is the coffers are nearly depleted so the writing of the checks is nearly impossible. And I can't add more money to the checking account until I exhibit and sell some product. You see my dilemma?This is what is commonly referred to as a "Catch 22". For those of you not familiar with the reference, I'll explain. This was the title of a movie from the 60's or 70's where a guy wanted to get out of the service. He tried to convince people he was crazy so they would release him but in order to be released, he would have to ask to be let go based on his craziness and a crazy person wouldn't know enough to ask to be released. I can't pay for upcoming shows without money and I can't get money without participating in those very same shows. So, here I sit, trying to figure out what move to make next. I think the guy in the movie had the easier task. Now for those of you asking about the latest and greatest of Red Sox nation, I can only give you a sample of the 2007 glory taken in Florida.

Quiet Places In The Sun

As mentioned in the previous post, I did laundry today and then we hopped into the car and headed south towards Key West. Well, we stopped just shy of the keys in Homestead, Fl, former home of the Air Force until Hurricane Andrew wiped most of the area off the map, literally. Instead of rebuilding, the place was bulldozed and the track was put in. We got there fifteen minutes before the NASCAR store closed. It didn’t take long to pick out Dale Earnhardt Jr. souvenirs for my son, daughter and granddaughter. I even managed a Tony Stewart tee shirt for myself. Then we went up to the fourth level of the tower and took a long look at the 1 ½ mile oval, the pit garages, stalls and the start/finish line. I wish there had been one or two cars out there so I could have gotten some idea of the scale of the place. It certainly didn’t look wide enough for three cars to run side by side for even a couple of seconds. I took pictures of the finish line looking down towards turn one. When we were back on ground level, we walked out to the catch fence and found a gate open that lead to the starter’s flag stand. I looked over both shoulders and went for it. The next thing I knew, I had climbed up and was leaning over to get an unobstructed view of turn four and the front stretch. Then I figured I’d better not push my luck and climbed back down. It was exciting to be there when the place was empty. I can only imagine how much adrenaline pumps when the place is crawling and the motors are screaming. Oh, and today was the first day that I’ve taken any pictures.

Traffic 3- Carl 0

We drove north to Holman Stadium in Vero Beach once more. The nice breeze of Sunday was gone and the humidity much higher than it had been all week. I’m not one to enjoy that type of weather and there was an audible sigh of relief by everyone in the stands when the thick clouds rolled in. The high points: Derek Lowe, a former member of the Red Sox pitched three fine innings; Rafael Furcal, a former member of the Atlanta Braves played a smoking short stop and the Marlin’s Hanley Ramirez, a former Red Sox prospect that was traded away, played an equally active short stop. These players have all moved on but I still enjoy watching their careers. The Low points: crowded seats, over priced mediocre food and the Dodgers lost by one. Carl decided after his third traffic jam in three days that we would play “hooky” on Wednesday. I get caught up on some laundry and planned for tomorrow's trip to Homestead Motor Speedway for NASCAR souvenirs for the family.

Directions Are Over Rated

A quick trip into Miami found us at the American Airlines Arena within site of the cruise ship docks and also home of the Miami Heat Basketball team. Tonight, they faced off against the LA Clippers with Carl and I in upper deck seats overlooking the court. The view was exceptional and I can certainly appreciate two well matched opponents who faced off with a hotly contested last quarter. I’m not a huge basketball fan, as such, so it didn’t matter to me who won and in the end it was the Clippers by one over the Heat. The trip home should have been easy with my Map Quest directions in hand. The Miami Dade police force had other plans and met us at each turn with blocked roads. Eventually we found our way to Rte 95 which was undergoing construction. At one point, traffic was pushed from five lanes down to two and slowed to a crawl. Never a dull moment in the big city. A trip that should have taken 45 minutes was almost two hours.

Baseball Is In My Blood

Close up on a few guys tossing a ball around and, as your mind’s eye pulls away, the entire ball field comes into view. Now, you pull further back to see traffic backed up for miles in all directions on it’s way to that park. Okay, so it’s the closing scene from the movie "Field of Dreams" but, it’s also the very conditions we found ourselves in today. We were to find out later that we were part of the largest crowd ever, 9,260 fans, to be at Holman Field in Vero Beach for a Dodgers game. The Red Sox were beaten 0-4 in the very last Sunday game that will ever be played on that field because after 60 years, the LA Dodgers will be joining the Cactus Spring Training league next year based in Glendale, AZ. I’m sorry that my guys got beaten but it was great to see regulars, Manny, Big Pappi and JD Drew take the field with some of the new guys. Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched well. I had only one option to try for a couple of pictures but due to the close quarters I found myself in, it didn’t matter that our seats were only 60 feet from the field. The seats at Holman Stadium are crammed closer together than coach seats on most airlines.