I'll Show You the Bench, but the Faience is Up to You

I said I'd post pictures of a bench. That's a bench, all right.

Husband had already done the grunt work on this bench, so I can't claim credit for more than spray painting, which is fun in itself. When I post "before" pictures of the other bench, you'll appreciate what a labor of love it was for him, but this time I'll be in charge of the entire thing.

I had a busy day today when I finally got up. Since my back and neck have been iffy the last few days, I haven't gone walking like I normally do, but for some reason, lifting heavy objects yesterday seems to have been a good cure. I'm back to having full range of motion and no pain. I am very pleased with that outcome.

I wrote a couple articles, which took me longer than it should have. I now know more about different types of glass than I used to, and I also have a greater appreciation for whoever it was who figured out how mix flux with glass, along with metal and metal oxides for certain properties and color. When did someone say, "Hey, I bet if we mix wood ash in with silica sand and heat it up real good and stir it around, then cool it precisely and carefully, we'll get this substance we can use for cups and windows and stuff!"

All right, it wasn't quite like that. They had to go through the whole nater glass and faience periods first. PLEASE, don't ask me to explain that, cause I will, and then there will be this silence and I will hear crickets chirp and I will realize you're asleep and have been asleep since I first opened my mouth. I just don't think I can take that kind of rejection. Do your own research if you're so all fired up about nater glass and faience.

I also wrote an article about kitchen appliances. That was kind of fun because I got to research innovative kitchen gadgets. I've been wanting me an induction cooktop for some time now, along with a steam oven. Together, they would cost me somewhere in the neighborhood of $7000 -- $10,000. No big.

Since it was Little Gary's 3rd birthday yesterday and I didn't get a chance to take him, today I let him roam around his favorite thrift store for an hour and a half. He loves the toys. There is the aisle of toys inside the store and then another bunch of bigger toys out in the yard area. Good, free fun. I don't think I've ever taken him out of that store without him throwing a tantrum about leaving, though. He would live there if he could. And I did make sure we cleaned up after ourselves, thank you.

I would take a picture of him right now, but he is so filthy you would be utterly disgusted. I am now signing off to throw him into the bathtub so he doesn't start some sort of plague.

But before I go, I have to mention that when Husband came back and hung out with Little Gary and me at the thrift store (he had dropped us off to run Gabrielle home), we were sitting on some chairs and I was going on about how they would look great painted a brushed nickel color with new seats and I looked over to find him staring at me. "You're so beautiful," he said. "Your eyes are like the ocean. I love looking at you."

Am I not the luckiest woman?