This was sung at Ted Kennedy's memorial this evening.

There is nothing like Elvis singing this song, it is right up there with Jim Nabors version.



"The Impossible Dream"
The Man of La Mancha (1972)
music by Mitch Leigh & lyrics by Joe Darion
To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go

To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far

To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause

And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star

Friday August 28th

What are the things in your life that just bring a smile to your face and just bring you simple joy. Is there something, an object, that no matter what, will make you just sort of giggle on the inside and maybe even a little out loud? For me there are two things that bring out that reaction in me and will never fail. I really love the texture of a glassine envelope and the softness of a big fat white cotton shoe lace. The glassine envelopes take me back to my favorite childhood books. The 23 volumes of Beatrice Potter's, The World of Peter Rabbits silky smooth pages were just one of the reasons that I loved to read those books and I just figured out that I could put the glassine in my pocket a little easier. The feel of big fat soft cotton-y shoelaces is right up there next to the glassine, the feel of them against my skin makes me smile.


While in Philly, Gail came into our hotel room and handed me a glassine envelope on purpose just to see my reaction. It made her giggle each time i would pick it up to feel it. After we had spent some time laughing about my silly obsession she asked if I carried around a piece of shoestring as well and I had to admit to her that
I actually did at times. I have said it before and I will say it again. Yes, I am a GEEK.

I am deeply saddened by the loss of Ted Kennedy. Our nation has truly come to the end of an era in American culture and politics. We have lost the last true member of a dynasty that evoked a sense of optimism, courage and the hope that the American dream is alive. Even though the children of the Joe & Rose were born into a life of privilege each one of their children had a sense of duty and family honor to do good, to assist those less fortunate and to promote charities and good works. Ted served his country and aspired to leave things better then he had found them. My thoughts and prayers are with family members and friends that will miss him profoundly. He assumed the mantel of the head of the family in the times of extreme personal pain and he bore that responsibility with a immense deal of grace. I will never forget his speech at the Democratic National Convention last year, his determination to not just stand up and say a few words and to spur on the convention to do good will stay with my forever.

The weather in the Greater Chicago are has been stinky. I could not have timed my arrival any better if I had tried. The moment I had un-loaded the last box out of the car the skies opened up and unleashed a downpour that would give a Tucson monsoon a run for it's money. Class yesterday was excellent and everyone did such a good job.

I had today off and located a close Apple store so I could go grab the additional memory that I have needed and to pick up the newest OS, Snow Leopard. They did not have the memory that I needed so I had to order it online to have it delivered at home when I get back to Tucson on Tuesday.

I will have had a long but good 3 weeks away and I am ready to be with my fuzzy girls and to be in my home. It will be good to get back to my bench and it will be good to get ready for the September Tucson Best Bead Show. I will be sharing a booth with Margaret Zinser. Looking forward to hangin' with MZ for a few days.

Sometimes this is just how you feel. Ya know what I mean?

Tuesday August 25th

It has been way to long and I have to say that I have not posted because I have been a bit upset and really did not want to rant in a negative manner too loudly. I have been tired from all of the driving and all of the repairs and errands that I have been doing here at my moms house. I am glad to be able to do it all but I have to say that I am a bit worn out from it.

Philly was as crazy as ever. I went non-stop upon I arrival. I had my booth to set up on Thursday afternoon and my class-room to set up late on Thursday night. Thank the powers that be for Gail Crosman Moore, she helped me out with finishing up my classroom or I would have been there till close to midnight. The teaching started bright and early Friday morning but not till after I had to go down to the show floor to make sure that all was good down there.

My problem with my booth was rather bad actually. 36 hours before I was to get into Philly, the gal that I had hired to work my booth got very very sick and I could not in good conscience let her near my booth-mates. Adding the flu into a stuffy convention center is just not an option. Sweet Gail and Susan Nestor said that they would watch over my stuff but without a really sales person to interact it is hard to sell things.

But the worst was Saturday evening when I got done with classes and went over to the show floor.

STOLEN - If you see it let me know..


2 of my favorite PMC pendants had been stolen during Saturday. A brand new one that I had made with a glass eyeball I got from Gail and my Chinese Writing Stone pendant. I have to say that is is very disheartening to see $300.00 worth of my work just walk away and it is not like this person can wear the thing...if I find out who did it they are going to get an earful for sure. It's also not like I can afford to have those pieces just be gone. It made me so sad to think that there is someone out there that has so little respect for those of us that make our living this way. And to add insult to injury, I had 2 pretty expensive tools walk out of my classroom as well. I provide good tools for my students to use, they get to use the same tools that I use and to re-set for an afternoon class and to have expensive bezel mandrels & pliers disappear just makes it hard for me to justify providing this high a level of tool.

I am sorry for those student readers of mine that play by the rules and are so honest. I actually had a student track me down at the Meet the Teachers Friday night to give me cash for a hammer that she mistakenly walked out with and did not realize that she had not paid for. Well, the result for Saturdays nastiness was that I had to take all of my HOT-Selling bracelets and put them away the last day of the show.

Sundays classes were excellent and we all had a blast making the pressure pendents. Class ended at 4 pm and after that class I had to pack up all of that room. Tools and all, clean it up, get the bellman to gather the boxes up to the entrance, run a the way over to the convention center to pack up my booth at by 5:30, take that box up to my car, go get the boxes from the classroom that the bellman was holding & pack up the car. WHEW! After those tasks were completed Gail and I have a very nice quiet Indian Dinner.

I do love hanging out with Gail, we laugh so hard at all of the goings on in our little world, at our own silliness and at all of the irony that surrounds us all. It really is rather amazing if you just look around and take it all in that any of us are even slightly sane. (or are we?)

Wednesday August 19th

So... SL... Are you happy to see me or is that and Octopus on your head...















My mom's birthday was on Monday and we had a lazy morning. I had several errands to take care of first off, I had an Office Depot run and I had to pick up my repaired glasses at Lens Crafters. My godparents made a special dinner for my mom and they invited another couple that are some of her best friends. So at a table of 6 that the average age of the 5 others was 76.. I was the youngster. I had a blast, my godparents are so funny and they make me laugh like few others can.

Tuesday was a day of fixing all that needed to be fixed n my moms house. I replaced the 3 exterior lights, put an all weather runner in the length of the garage and non-slip treads on the garage step all to get ready for this winter; I installed a new smoke and carbon dioxide alarm, installed the new garden hose roller-upper thingy and the light in the hall ceiling & nailed the baseboards in the Master Bath after I smashed my toe for the 1000th time. All in all it was a very productive day and I am glad that these details are being attended to. I know that the time is coming when my mom will want to sell the house and I do not want her to be hit in the face with all of these small details all at once.. The key is BABY STEPS.

There is a fun and interesting debate raging amongst some of my friends about what is right to publish verses what should be kept out of the public realm. We are very dismayed by the insistence that what ever comes to mind can be considered fodder to be posted. There are a few of us that are Bloggers and we started talking how we choose what to post and what we decide is inappropriate. After some lengthy discussions we have decided that there is a distinct difference between the two. We all like to consider ourselves writers but when it comes down to it...blogging is about observations of our life and it is not a great masterpiece, we are not writing "War & Peace". All we are doing is just relaying our daily lives and our introspective moments for those who care to read. If we were actually writing.... that may be a bit different. What we talked at great length about is where is the line drawn. What observations are okay to disseminate and which ones are not. There is the internal "switch" that we all determined to be the key, our moral ideal as to what we would want posted about ourselves or our family... if it as not good for us then we could be sure that it would not be fair to post. There is so much more to it than that.. but it is a start of a very interesting and ongoing discussion for sure.

I have one parting thought for the night... I have been paying a great deal of attention to the Health Care Debates...& here is what I think.

We, as a nation, require each person that operates an automobile to have a specified minimum insurance policy. The insurance required is to protect those that are injured & not at fault if an accident occurs. I think that requiring each person to have a minimal health insurance policy amounts to the same thing. If an uninsured person seeks care at an emergency room and can not pay for the care then that cost it passed on to those that actually have insurance. That expenditure would decrease exponentially if all were required to have health insurance and took steps towards a preventative lifestyle.

Some of the citizens of this country are all riled up about having mandatory health care. FOR THOSE THAT CANNOT AFFORD PRIVATE INSURANCE; to have the ability to purchase health care insurance at an affordable rate should be a moral imperative for our nation. Just so you know...we are REQUIRED to file for a marriage license, we are REQUIRED to have auto insurance, we are REQUIRED to pay Federal & State Taxes, we are REQUIRED to serve on a jury if called upon to do so. We are REQUIRED to do a great many things for our country and I believe that NOT having health insurance is just as bad as not having auto insurance... there is no difference... Think about it...come on ...this is not that hard folks...

I love Barney Frank... it is about time that the gloves were taken off and that we started talking back...

Sunday August 16th

This just made me laugh!













Another big week has passed by and it passed way too quickly for my taste. I got loads accomplished getting jewelry done for the Philly show. I got 8 of the cuff bracelets finished, 12, PMC Gemstone Set Pendants, 11 viking knit bracelets, 4 loop-n-loop necklaces and I prepped the bezel wire and Ocean Jasper stones for 12 bezel captured pendants. So, all in all I used my days very well and got to enjoy me evenings in Albuquerque. It all seems a bit jumbled together and I have to say that I am a bit tired. I will get a few day to sort of relax after the Philly show before I head up to Chicago for my 4 days of teaching at The Place to Bead. As always, I am looking forward to seeing all of my friends and I do have the best roomie a gal could ask for in Gail Crosman Moore.

I am heading to Dayton for just a few days to celebrate my moms birthday and to prep the 10,000 boxes that I had delivered to her house for the show. It actually is a rather decent way to get to a show that is all the way across the country. I get all that I can get prepped at my studio, ship it off and have all of the other orders delivered there.. I can track it and get it delivered early so I know that there are NO issues and if there are I have plenty of time to make sure that I can solve anything. I am very pleased that my classes for Philly are creeping closer to full. 1 is totally sold, 2 more have just a few seats left, and the final 2 are at about 75%.

There is some distressing news that is coming to a head, the response to the class offerings in next months Portland Beadfest it not as good as expected or hoped for. Portland has been hard hit with the recession and has had a rough time of it for the last few years and the local population is having a hard time supporting the show. I hope that the show ends up being a good show for everyone, the vendors, the teachers and for the local economy. If anyone out there is considering heading out to the west coast for a little vacation come on out and take and support the Portland show.

I have to say that what I have witnessed this year has been encouraging, I see that everyone is doing what they can to help the vendors and independent artists survive what is happening economicly. It really is a symbiotic relationship that the artists and vendors have with the student/ show attendees. We all need each other. If the artist/vendor cannot make a living then the people that support us have a harder time being creative and expressing themselves. I think that everyone is doing what they can to keep our industry and our livelihoods healthy.

I have been watching with dismay our countries response to the health care debate and these town hall meetings. The only thing I can say good about some of our citizens is that they at least are showing the proper respect to our President when they address him with their questions. I find it amazing that one of the campaign issues that was talked about over and over again was our desperate need to overhaul our nations health care system, from how the underprivileged can afford health care to how the insurance companies treat is clients and are dumped. This has to be solved, the uninsured end up costing the taxpayers more then implementing the necessary coverage for those that cannot afford it. Let's be clear folks...an Emergency Room is not the solution for preventative healthcare. Especially when the bill for the Emergency Room visit is passed onto the rest.

Sunday August 9th

I am looking forward to an exciting and fun 3 weeks. I love the teaching and the traveling and I am truly looking forward to seeing all of my friends so very soon. It has been a very busy end of the week for me. I got all 8 boxes shipped off to Dayton and I was insane crazy getting ready to leave for Albuquerque this morning for a visit before I head out east for 2 weeks.

So, for the last 3 days, I have averaged 10 hour days at my bench. It has been a very excellent 3 days. I have gotten loads finished and ready for assembly next week. I wanted to make sure that I had all of the fine detail work finished up before I left so I would not have to travel with certain heavy and cumbersome tools. I am glad to say with much pride... Mission Accomplished.

I took time to watch the swearing in of Judge Sotomayor yesterday morning and I was very pleased of the stand that our President took by staying away from the ceremony. I like that this man seems so concerned with our Constitution and what is actually mean by the phrase "Separation of Powers".

We are experiencing some very frightening times. I am scared of the tactics being employed to frighten the citizens of our country away from the much needed overhaul of our health care system. Why are these people saying that having a "Living Will" is a bad thing? The large insurance companies and the drug companies do not want oversight and the GOP wants to discredit the Democratic party. These issues are TOO important for us to allow these games and this bickering to continue. We should be a better role model for the rest of the world and we should make sure that the citizens of our country are healthy and educated.

I grabbed saw this quote and it made me think....

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country...corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed"
--Abraham Lincoln 1864

Wednesday August 5th

Please Watch All Of This.. It Is Important

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Tuesday August 4th

Today was a day of one frustration after another. I had unforeseen paperwork that grew exponentially as the day progressed, I just feel that I will never get to the end of it all. And to add insult to injury, I misplaced my passport today and it took me several hours or tearing my house apart before I realized that it had fallen behind a box in front of a bookshelf. Then I spent some time at the UPS warehouse sending off my boxes for Philly to my moms house.

The day I craved to spend at my bench just did not happen and by the time that I could work I just had no desire to. There is work that I truly desire to get done and I am just having a hard time getting up the desire to go over and work. I am not sure why I am having such a hard time getting up the motivation.

Well tomorrow is another day and another reason to be creative.

A friend of mine posted this on her FaceBook wall. I am tired to the opposition to health care reform creating panic and spreading lies to scare the elderly. I am just sick and tired of the divisions in our lawmakers.









Also, this entire conspirecy theory about our President having been born in Kenya is a joke right? How in the sane world is anyone actually buying into this lame attempt to undermine a progressive agenda. Is this really the best argument that they can come up with? If that is the case then the GOP really is in a great deal of trouble. If you can't dazzle them with brilliance baffle them with bullshit.. right?

Monday August 3rd.

I can not believe that it is already August. Where has this year gone and who took it? It really has been a very good year on so many levels. I am just keeping my focus on what it is I truly desire and where I want to head. I am looking forward to the rest of this year. My schedule is filling up nicely and I am still trying to add one or two more gigs. I would love one in the beginning of October and the beginning of December.

So yet again I am dismayed by the US Mint. Not only are there going to be all of those new quarters from the US Territories that I talked about a few months ago NOW there are 4 new pennies. Why are we continuing to produce a coin that has ABSOLUTELY no value. (Although I did like placing them on train tracks when I was a kid to flatten them out) But...Do not get me wrong I am a huge fan of Mr. Lincoln and I think that he deserves to have his likeness on our currency. But I mean really he has the five dollar bill the penny really is rather useless. (unless you are on Illinois toll roads. Would it just not be easier to round up or down? And the thing is not even made out of copper anymore, it just has a copper coating over zinc.


And I have only just learned that there is some random Presidential Dollar Series. It seems it started in 2007 and I have only now just learned of it. I guess I was too wrapped up in collecting my quarters. Not only is there a display for the quarters there is a collector BOX. How fun will this be. I think I need to get on this! It would be so much better than pennies don't you think.

I have been patiently waiting for the release of the 2 new Hercule Poirot DVD's from the 2008 TV season. I have the entire collection of that as well. I love to work and watch/listen to David Suchet play the "worlds most famous detective" They are so beautifully filmed and the production values are beyond compare. These were just released and I had to sort of splurge a smidgen on myself. I am enjoying one now. So needless to say, this post is taking much longer than it should to finish up.

I am off to Albuquerque on Sunday for a visit with Terri for a few days before I take off to Dayton and then off to Philly and Chicago. My classes for Philly are filling up nicely and I only have a few slots left in each session. I am looking forward to seeing everyone again. I am missing all of my friends since Bead & Button.