Lucky me and a flea market makeover

i feel lucky almost all the time. really and truly lucky. most people have no idea what it takes to be me. however, if they did, they might kind of lose their grasp of things.

 i say this in a manner of introspection mostly.

here is what i am talking about. i love trash. trash is one person's ability to discard things that are no longer valuable to them. now i am not talking about two week old funky chicken that smells to high heaven and ought to be buried with other organic decaying things. i am talking about stuff that used to have a purpose in someone's home, office or perhaps garage.

this is precisely why i love flea markets. they are the centers for legitimately casting off old stuff that needs a little fresh love or a new perspective. now where i say, that it takes a lot to be me, i mean that i have more than my share of quirks. yet, if they are all piled up and readied in a bonfire-like heap

( this is my husband's wildest dream!!! AND since he has never taken on the task set of cooking and baking... he leaves me alone if he knows where his next meal is coming from)... 

i have a load of cool projects to tackle.

there was a pile of stuff at the side of the road last week. i was driving home from somewhere and left enough time to hop out of the car and pop a lamp from it, into my car trunk. mind you i think i was on my way to deliver my son to his graduation exercises.

 in fact, i enjoy scaring the hell out of the next generation with these odd forays,

 it keeps them sober and alert to my whims.

this lamp is going to be a posting in the not too distant future... i can see in my mind's eye how it will be transformed into a slightly more usable piece that i think will charm the household naysayers.

 they just have to wait a smidge.

so returning to the topic of being me.

 i have tried so many different ways to make money.

 some would say that they are career paths. i say, they are hobbies made altogether serious.

i went to college with the hopes that i could escape the chaos that was my childhood home. there was puhlenty of crazy stuff to deal with on any given day. so much so, that i spent long hours sitting on a therapist's sofa. later i discovered that friends would hold my hands and give perspective as needed.

 the friends were significantly more fun and less costly.

what i truly learned was that i needed to try doing things i was already moderately successful with.

so after taking the wrong turn to study sciences in college, my last year was spent printmaking and casting bronze pieces; welding and lettering papers; on occasion when a kitchen was available, i would bake and cook things. not really what i had expected of a bachelor of arts degree. it was the opening of the door into my future... just a crack.

then i felt that i needed to use my science and math background in a marriage of interests, to develop some professional direction. so i tried architecture. i passed by the idea of going to cooking school at the C.I.A.(the Culinary Institute of America), a renowned culinary school. it was not as if i applied and was admitted, however i was turned off that in the brochure they felt a need to express that good personal hygiene was expected of its students. i did not find that this was perhaps my best social group to blend with at the time, if they needed to be told this in a brochure.

i also passed over a career in medical illustration and photography. needless to say, the yuck factor was high and i had not the best skill drawing things yet.

in retrospect, i was deleting things right and left, that were intrinsically in my nature.

one of the main aspects of this unfocused life was that i had NO IDEA that i was already repurposing my college acumen and degree to find a better, more honed professional path. i was incapable of just walking away from the liberal arts forum and starting afresh. repurposing was number one on the list.

then this issue of drawing. my sense was that i was unable to do it. ultimately many years later, realizing that i just needed a different skill-set to succeed as an artist of literal imagery. i could draw wonderfully, just not kidneys and brains. my drawings were doodly. they came from a vision in my mind, through my hands and onto paper. never did they look on paper as they did in my mind's eye. as i grew to appreciate their consistency in appearance, i realized that i had a style of my own. who would have seen that coming?

many years elapsed ... i went to architecture school... which was a drag. such a drag. however, i felt i needed to try to finish something and if i could, then other opportunities arose. they did and it was still kind of a drag. i never saw that coming. what i did see was an ability to take a pile of stuff and make something else with it. if it was a booklet that described a building on a specific plot of land, well it was kind of creative. i loved making some of my sheets of technical drawings, but i was neither gifted with speed in drawing them nor an ease in building detailing. i guess most of the problems with this were due to not having any carpentry skills or house building experiences.

only boys had been permitted to take wood shop when i was in middle school. 

my time was relegated to home economics because of  age, gender and school policy. 

i still can make a kick ass pot of stew with dark beer undertones 

and

sew up an apron in a jiff .

i remain challenged by the crafting of popcorn ball snowmen. 

you take what you get. 

i was starting a family by the very end of my taking architectural exams. i was making brownies to satisfy an unendurable sweet tooth and ironically to  stay awake. and alive. this led to a 12 year stint of professional baking. i had 3 kids under my belt by then and a lot of personal chemical  changes. can you say turn on the oven on a hundred degree day with a hot flash in tow?

my earlier crafty childhood life of making what i wanted and when i wanted to, led to my now   13 year investment into jewelry fabrications. i never have been all that interested in jewelry before except when i was a bike riding high schooler with killer macrame skills, a bunch of shells and  a willing audience of Long Island lifeguards. they ate up my macrame confections daily. i had fresh orders for their beachy attire every day. it was a summer job that i adored. and somehow as a mother of 3 kids and a husband,

 i was heading  back into it.

now in the early part of this page, i state how hard i think it might be for someone to be me. or at least something like me. here is where acceptance is a deep and profound issue that you have to manage. i felt as if i was coming out... not as a gay woman, which i am not. more that i was accepting the fact that i can't leave anything alone. i must repurpose things every day. a grouping of raw materials, such as things selected from the trash are fodder for my creative schemes.   they have been harvested for my visions and because i can see an extended use for their roadside carcasses. i must also wrap my head around the fact that folks are jealous of this quirky nature of mine. i would love you all to know, i do NOT practice medicine, law or even architecture (which i am licensed to do). i have struggled to get here and am now finally comfortable enough in my own skin, to call myself an "artist". it has been such a huge and rocky roaded trip, that i currently even have skinned knees to prove the truth in this statement.
(scroll all the way to the bottom of post for confirmation...)

* * * * *

what i also have is a laboratory that is my home and the best job i could EVER have imagined. it has allowed me to be as flexible as i could while i tried to raise a very smarty-pants family too. i just love this crazy life almost all the time. if i hit some bump, i keep reminding myself that it is a path that i not only could not diverge from, but am totally happy trying to make work.

i should say, i started this post with the idea of sharing some things that i have repurposed recently from disparate elements in my hoard of unlikely components.

when i go to shows to try to sell my jewelry, i need ways to make it stand out and look pretty. 

in my eye, i have done a few things that exemplify these goals. 

along with a nice appearance, they must be inexpensive to make, enduringly crafted, blend together as well as possible and be completely my own. if someone else makes them, after me, i get peeved. this is the downside of having a creative nature. there will always be someone who needs to take a shortcut on my tail, but it just makes me try to make something fresh and new. 

anyways, i made these displays with the carpentry assists from my husband.

i found some table legs at the flea market. they were selected from a bin that had all sorts of shapes and were mostly a dark brown. i am not really a fan of brown, so i planned to paint them white. chris and i conferred in the basement shop... and an idea i had was rotated onto its ears and legs to be these display stands.

the legs were turned upside down, drilled through the tops to add finials from some window hardware i had in "storage". they were drilled through their bottoms and hardware was added so that the bases used could be made from old wooden boxes (also in my studio). my hubby added some strong weighty under carriage wood to secure the verticality of the legs. and finally there were holes drilled sideways through the top to accept brass rods i had removed from my vintage library card catalog.

in the beginning: random table legs were selected for their gam value

they were composed with their little toppers and wooden tray bases 

with structural underpinnings.

if i mixed how they were placed, i could get a nice forest 

of bracelets, dangly earrings or necklaces.

charmed, i am sure...

still scruffy and in mixed brownish colors... but workable as fixtures...

as much as liked these, i felt that they really did need to be painted. and while i was at it, i also wall papered the box bases. 

the most important part of this exercise was to make some things that i could take apart and store flat... also i needed to be able to travel with them more compactly. 

so .... 

these grew into the whiter shade below

ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille... 

here is one wearing  "morning garden", the necklace.

 and also being visited by a 

"farmstand glory"

so that is some of the story from this past week. i hope that you enjoyed my little biographical detour. 

it was fun to make these stands, as they are not going to be replicated easily or often. 

their fabrication is one of many ideas that i chase around 

until i get a nice result for whatever i may be in need of. 

one can never have enough display elements to make you stand out,

mostly because every crafter enjoys a stint as a jewelry maker. 

shows are tough and any edge you can garner is a help. 

heaven knows, i need the help more often than not and am trying to be open to it.

thank you for visiting ... this very long posting. 

hopefully you enjoyed it in some manner. 

xoxo. 

W. 

more from the hive

i posted a lot of stuff the other day... in the form of a list of ten items. it was chock-full of things that have kept me from "sharing". life feels full to the max. and yet, how can it be even more jam packed than ever? well it is. it just is. i feel as if there is a sorting mechanism in play weeding through all the little things that compose a full life and making them somewhat orderly. in reality, it feels something like i am a witless contestant participating in a game show. 

to get from one activity to the next, it seems that a huge "PLINKO" board is set up close by. Plinko is a game of chance that has been featured on the "Price is Right" for years. 

 perhaps bob barker is irked with my take on this, one cannot know.

 (nor should anyone be hung up by it).

the game is played by a contestant, standing up above the gameboard. this is constructed by a pair of sheets of plexiglass(???) and one of which is a backing material held in place by evenly spaced rods throughout the board. the space open between the two flat sheets is open at the top. a contestent  drops some round disks between the separating rods. this  allows  them to bounce downward, as a pinball might; hitting the rods in an erratic path downwards. the prize denotations at the bottom tray of the game are marked with prizes. . there often is a car to be won  and it is shown in sections.you can win a front end, a mid-section and finally the trunk end. if you get all three pieces , you win a car. there are also bountiful as well as  more meagre monetary rewards to be won in this manner. 

all derived by the makers of the plinko game tenders and sponsers. 

well i often experience my day to day travels as something like my life is expressed as on one of those disks floating and bouncing around in between the pins to any indirectly concocted outcome. never is one made directly as a straight line. i surely would like a car that works all the time or a stash of cash. instead, i feel bounced and jostled just getting from one point to the next. upon which i get to start all over with the next decidedly random disk whose outcome is  based upon controlled randomness and the  stability of

the physical force , gravity 

so you can see how i feel a little bit out of control in my own life in spite of the very carefully designed regular pins set between two sheets and finite outcomes for the game? the result is always the same, i start at the beginning and end at the bottom of the board. 

thank you all over again lady luck!

this all having been said, the disks are constantly being dropped. 

and i am always trying to cope with the outcome. 

here is the "busy as a bee" list  from the other day... repeated and updated as i have missed some mighty important list items. and i would like to think that i did not add any items that should not have been on it the first time through. 

"the list"

1. a giveaway... of a bracelet. CHECK. done

 2. my son's graduation from high school.CHECK. done

3. a show for my jewelry wares.CHECK. done

4. managing my etsy stores. done badly in dribs and drabs

5. guests at my home for springtime jewelry needs.CHECK. done

6. end of school year activities for my little queen. graduation imminent. need pretty dress. 

NOT HOMEMADE! CHECK. done

7. the big girl has a job and needs a ride. CHECK. done for today

8. food shopping for the locusts. third time this week...CHECK. done

9. shipping for very, very patient customers. CHECK. done

10. basic inventory updates for one of my favorite stores. almost there...CHECK. done

now i need to add a few things. 

11. tax form needs to be turned in. the show organizers have my driver's license. i fell on my knee and left without taking care of this essential piece of business. CHECK. done

12. steel myself for the inevitable stories from my queen and her nemesis 

"Isabella".  CHECK. done

13. the boston bruins are killing me in this stanley cup playoff series.CHECK. done

(this is a hockey family...and yes, i am a hockey mom....do not go there. i implore you.)

14. need to make more things for next weekend's show. CHECK. done

15. son and father and small queen will be going to college orientation soon. CHECK. done

i shall be in charge of book smart, common sense challenged daughter. CHECK. done(painful too)

15. meals ongoing challenges CHECK. done

16. now filthy bathroom. CLEANED... CHECK. done

17. cleaning of shedding from non-shedding pet. hair is worse than ever all over house. mostly in my work area.

18. refilling of postcards and posters for Providence Open Market.CHECK. done

19. make more flowery bracelets, necklaces and earrings for next show. and of course get crazy all over again. CHECK. done

20. serve as pick-up chauffeur.CHECK. done

21. apply to new shows. 

22. in panic mode, surf web and procrastinate. CHECK. done

23. in an ever needed custom of mortifying my son, i trash pick. CHECK. done

last week i got a great upholstered *AND* caned back chair to reupholster. 

i need to paint and refurbish this for my own sanity. i love reupholstering projects.

24. i made some coolio display fixtures for shows... i wanted to share with you. 

they are finally finished....and they worked like a charm. CHECK. done

I AM SERIOUSLY IN NEED OF SUMMER AND ITS LAZINESS TO BEGIN. 

 PLINKO, PLEASE BE KIND TO ME .... 

it is time to brew up. 

maybe tomorrow will have some pretty pics to share... 

and yes, i have a fresh flea market post to compose too. 

xoxox

W.

busy as a bee

i have been absent for a bit. not intentionally, just through being a nut.

 i have been uber-busy. 

too many things have been on my plate of late and letting you know about them,

 has been the last part that i could manage well. 

1. a giveaway... of a bracelet. 

2. my son's graduation from high school.

3. a show for my jewelry wares.

4. managing my etsy stores. 

5. guests at my home for springtime jewelry needs. 

6. end of school year activities for my little queen. 

7. the big girl has a job and needs a ride. 

8. food shopping for the locusts. 

9. shipping for very, very patient customers. 

10. basic inventory updates for one of my favorite stores.

needless to say, this is the tip of the iceberg. and it has been a little overwhelming. 

i would LOVE to report that all has been easy and even keeled. with me in the center of all of it, i merely can say i have  been challenged. organizationally, emotionally, celebrating, creatively, and many other ways. 

here is a small update ... i think if i can stick with it, there will be better available info in smaller bites. or do i mean bytes?

1}

at the top of the list, i would love to let you all know how much i loved providing a giveaway. i felt like santa claus. the weird, non-christian, female version. 

the winner was selected using a random number generator. i got it from googling "random number generator". completely fun to do. so i had my 14 year old daughter select my winner for me. it was beth hillig falk. 

talk about someone who is so completely deserving. she has her own life going on as many of us do, but meets different challenges daily than i could ever wrap my head around. 

very recently, she had MAJOR surgery. i know she has a blog, but for the life of me, i don't remember its address. perhaps she will leave the name of her blog for me to list here in a bit? anyways, she deserved a pick me up. and it was kismet that she had the selected number. 

then since i was having such fun, i picked another random lady to snag a flower chain  bracelet. this lucky lady is known to me as beanzie cat. her real name is lisa and she is a mighty cheerful  maker of delightful charm bracelets. she chose this piece to have and hold for her own. 

i plan to do another giveaway in july. 

maybe there will be some fresh design that will strike the fancy of you readers and other facebook visitors. 

a girl can hope, right?

2}

the boy graduates from high school!!!

i am kvelling. 

oy. 

i really just can't believe it!!

and yes, this text is in the school color of purple. 

a random sampling of graham and some of his entourage. 

the sisters are in the first two pics, no one ever seems to get when to face the camera. 

this explains the crummy unfocused direction of my kids. 

yikes. 

anyways, graham was hugely happy, but more hungry than sentimental. 

this is why we neglected to take any pics of the happy family ensemble. 

also i had a show the next day and 

was a little more than psycho about expectations and the weather. 

3}

Festival Fete in Garden City

loads of rain. 

in fact more than i was remotely prepared for.

 i was utterly freaked out about it. 

good thing it was NOT cancelled. 

i had a blast. 

it was profitable. 

i met the show organizers. 

the show was packed in spite of the pouring rain. 

i enjoyed meeting a whole new group of folks. 

no shock.

 i am not someone who likes participating in shows. 

mostly because they are speculative in nature. 

the weather always affects the outcome. 

and i hate the idea that i will fall flat on my face. 

well i did do that. i tripped over a curb. 

what a spaz i am. 

my knee is scraped up and scabby a day later. i will naturally, survive. 

i sat on the ground while my daughter walked right by me. 

my husband knew i was not right. and was sensibly attentive to my weirdness or would i be wrong to say, dramatic expressions. 

it was drippy and it really hurt. i hate falling so much,  that i gave up skating in all forms.  the potential exists in a more pronounced fashion to slip on the ice. 

general notes...gravity works and 

the ground is generally pretty damn hard. 

these two things make it harder for me to suck it up and be ok about activities that feature rolling or gliding around .

 i am a full-on weenie.

totally pathetic, and i know it. 

4} 

bendywho.etsy.com

and 

sleepingdogstudio.etsy.com

 not only did i send the wrong package to one lady,

 but i sold a necklace  that had a beautiful shell in its front.

 this of course cracked in half when i went to mail it. 

so i needed to make a completely new necklace to replace the one that

 crack'd from side to side. 

with the flowers that were sent to the wrong address, i shocked it did not happen earlier. 

i had two customers start to purchase flowers the same week. they had similar names and initials. their buyer names were enough alike that i did not distinguish between them well enough. so i always have to pay extra attention to them. 

i neglected to catch the error in time. now one of them will be forwarding some flowers to the other one and i will send the first lady a set of flowers to compensate her for my errors. 

she will be forwarding them along. 

i have the nicest customers. 

the second woman is a lady. she did not lose her temper with me as she easily could have. 

the end result is that i got her things sent out to her with a spare pair of earrings to hopefully sweeten the issues i created. 

my fingers are crossed on behalf of both(all three) of these fantastic ladies. 

i do not deserve your kindnesses. but i will take them open handed. 

and greedily. 

right now, i am taking advantage of my post show exhaustion and narcolepsy. 

i will try to follow up with more news from the list. 

right now, i fear it is bed time for me. i seem to be rather tired... 

who saw that coming???

nighty night world. 

xoxo

W.

the giveaway

i am usually too happy for words to spend time on facebook. i know i have other responsibilities, but i tend to linger for a while when my brain goes on a coffee break. 

sometimes i can break away long enough to actually work or shuttle a kid around town. 

two days ago, i posted a giveaway there for a bracelet. 

 i created this style last summer with my older daughter. i wanted her to take some responsibility for an item at my show down in newport. the show itself was fraught with less than positive results($$$ and a disagreement with a fellow vendor. i remain knowing that she was a nutter and as nervous as i was), however i did get to spend the day by the water and develop a bodacious amount of ambient tanning. 

my staffing at the booth

 i used to love to sunbathe, as a teenager, but now i am happy to try to slow down that wrinkly old bat version of me. 

i will also admit that one of the finest scents known to humankind is that from a gelee tube of Bain de Soleil.

 (it was my grandmother's personal seasonal parfum, a very delightful childhood memory).

so the show and sales were slow although nicely attended, but all in all really fun.

 as this year's season is starting up again, i felt like i could give those chain bracelets another go. the college girl is home again, however, she has a "real job" (a cashier at Au Bon Pain!!!). if i face reality, she is a lot looser with her jewelry making skills than i prefer. her drawing characters is peerless, but that is not what this is about. 

currently i am offering a giveaway for a free bracelet on my facebook "fan" page. i mention this rather late in the process here, not to tease but to warn.

 this round is due to end at midnight tonight. 

 i plan to do this again and with different items in my creative larder. i love hearing from all of the folks that check my things out. if i didn't do this, i might not have heard from the oodles of folks whose names crossed my screen. i really love this!!!

it is a legal thrill... so i am enjoying the excitement. 

i plan to let my younger daughter do the selecting if she is awake, or my oldest if she is home from her beach based outing with friends.

i am so super excited!

here are the bracelets i have already made... 

as yet they have not gotten their defining iconic dab of glitter from a cute centered rhinestone embellishment. that is my task tonight. 

so here is the visual for your peepers to focus in on. 

these are the large sized ones

 these are the medium sized ones

  

and here are the smalls

here are mixed sizes and some made from silver chains

as for other bracelets, i have been sort of dragging my butt making them. 

here is one that is already sold...

 please try to make every effort to ignore my wrinkly ole hand. 

the image is about the bracelet, not my evident collagen failure.

this is what i have been busy doing in between stanley cup tournament games, high school honors ceremony, middle school ceremony, la crosse practices and games, making food, shuttling folks around and celebrating our 26th wedding anniversary. 

it is always something around here. 

and i like it this way. 

26 years of marriage

i have trouble falling asleep. there is just too much to do in any one of my days. today, it  is as hard as ever, since i have more than the usual stuff going on. 

IT IS MY 26TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY. 

no one thought it would last.

(at least in either of our families) 

honestly. 

i met the guy after dating his roommate. months after that... never during the dating.

 i also met the guy a few months before his wedding to his high school sweetheart. 

they had been dating for 10 years. 

seriously?

i gave him the key to my apartment a week after i met him. that was 28 years ago. 

if i am correct, and i always think i am, even when i am not, we may have been married longer. 

i forget stuff all the time and yep, this is one of those things.

it just annoys my husband. 

 i am really grateful to do that. 

he annoys the hell out of me 362 days out of the year. 

he is an impassioned ice hockey fanatic. anything other than that, draws out some curmudgeonly genetic expression. so i like to give him pause to think that i am just not paying attention. 

he may correct my numbers ... in that we may have been married 27 years and together 29. the lowdown on this will be made public later today. 

maybe i should text one of the kids to ask him?

as for the other 362 days of the year, he is a cancer, and lives up to the definition of a moody fellow. not all are bad moods, just hard to identify sometimes. 

on the following 3 days, he is simply the most  pleasingly mushy bucket of bones:

1} Mother's Day

2} our anniversary

3} my birthday

other nice days when he can flex his mushiness are on:

4} Father's day

5} when he takes a child to college

6} his birthday

he is a grump a lot, and it is because he truly believes the weight of the world is on his shoulders. it is an awful lot of the time. i try, but he is the breadwinner. and for that i am eternally grateful. so i give a lot of dispensation for his emotional swing dances. 

here are some reasons that we have had a rather interesting marriage. at least i think so. 

1} a very sharply honed sense of humor. it causes him to smile before presenting it( kind of like a mouse on a platter). if something is not funny the first time, it may be the 700th time through. 
case in point... every time we pass Mass. Eye and Ear hospital in Boston, he turns slowly to me and says..."what?". perhaps 7oo is conservative on that counting. 
2} he hates beets, while i love them. more for me. 
3} when he had a heart attack 2 yrs ago, he awakened me and told me at 6 am that he thought that he needed to go to the hospital. never did either of us think that an ambulance should be called. we were in an emergency room cubicle and being seen within 15 minutes. he never considered depending on anyone but me. still not sure that i like that responsibility, but am grateful that it is there. 
4} i never considered he would die. it never occurred to me that it was a possibility. 
5} when having the big sex talk with our then 14 year old son, i read the boy the riot act. hubby went all soft and sweet. he spoke to our son about when the boy would fall in love and really loved some young woman, he would feel differently than he was feeling at that hormonally directed time..... how mortified was i to discuss the indelicacies his interest  in sex with a wanton hussy that was rushing him into it. ugh. too much information. girls surprise me these days. dad was thoughtful and kind, i was full of rage and expletives. 
6}  we have three very distinctly different  kids personality-wise and they rule our universe. we would not have it any other way. 
7} he was crying when the first was born. drinking scotch to celebrate and throwing it all up. 
did i mention he is delicate? and sensitive?
8} he kinda digs his toe in the dirt and employs an "aw, shucks ma'am" attitude when he meets new people.  which just bugs me, cause often they are hitting on him and he hasn't a clue. 
9} he likes to stay with me at parties. even when i try to ditch him. he still likes me afterwards in spite of my independent nature. 
10} he tries to pretend he is listening when i am on a rant. some of those can go on for quite a while too. (note length of post so far...)
11} before the onset of facial hair, he had freckles. two of our kids have them as a result. 
12} he tolerates my family pretty well, which i don't and understands when i get crazy around them. or just thinking about them.
some of those folks should never have met each other even in a random celebration on new years eve in times square. just so ill suited to be together at all or be friendly to us. weird people... 
13} can't stay awake after 9 pm, unless hockey is on. 
14} when he rents a movie for us all to watch, i usually whine about it, and then like it at its end.
15} we all scramble to find the tv clickers when he comes home in the evening... since we like to watch junky tv. he will inevitably surf and settle on some PBS show that no one wants to watch. and eventually we get all interested in. dammit. 
16} he likes to turn the garden soil and plant things. i tend to pick things out and then kill them from neglect or over-watering. he is so committed he suggested i was gonna get something red and expensive for my birthday. i thought a ruby, foolishly. he came home with a rototiller. i now get great tomatoes when plants them for the season. 
17} we have splendid roses, cause he can prune anything. i can't. he can make those surgical decisions, i like to wait and see. i drive myself nuts on this one. 
18} yellow is his favorite color. 
19} he wears clogs and drank tea for years... and read things with half glasses on. if he could have owned a cat or a PRIUS car, he would have. 
20} his true nature is now revealed. he is back to drinking coffee and loving sloppy, excitable, cheerful, dependent  and above all else, Loyal dogs. 
21} he only makes noodles and salads. he is not a cook. the world would have to collapse if he were needed to bake anything. yet he can build houses.
22} i could call him anywhere to change a tire and i have. 
23} the issue of killing spiders has not been invoked. i am not afraid of them, and he likes to let living things live. 
24} he likes spaghetti and meatballs, while i like sausage and ziti. 
25} he does not like to swim... and i love it. he loves boating, and i do not. 
26} after all this time, when asked if he thinks he has a happy marriage, he looks at me and drily says, "of course?, why do you ask?"
27} when asked his opinion on the 52% divorce rate in the USA at that time, he responded with, "whoever dies first, wins." 
28} we still love each other more than anyone else. yep, surprises me more than anyone... 

and that is a sampling of our 28 (or is it 29 yrs together?).

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY EDDIE, 

LOVE, PETE. 

 and to the rest of you all, thanks for visiting. 

xo 

W.