Come visit glass (and me) this weekend
April 28, 2010
Oregon Glass Guild is having its tenth annual Spring Glass Gallery Show at the Portland Convention Center this weekend and I’m gonna be in Booth 1.
I’ve given demos at the glass gallery before, but this will be the first time I do the booth thing (nervous and, as usual, not ready, but that’s another story.) I’m sharing the booth with Terry Belunes, whose pate de verre work is precise and really exquisite, and who’s a nice guy besides.
The pizza and the quark
April 24, 2010
I’ll bet YOUR pizza guy doesn’t deliver tokamak and bosons with the pizza, no extra charge.
Mine does.
Spent the morning testing client prototypes and cleaning house, then in the afternoon lugging booth displays with partner Terry (Terry Belunes, whose exquisite pate de verre sculptures are a 180 from mine, and who’s sharing a booth with me at OGG’s Spring Glass Gallery in Portland next week).
By the end of all that I was exhausted, so I treated myself to takeout. James beat his previous record getting it to my door, apparently–45 minutes from the moment I clicked ‘submit,’-so he smiled with pride and checked his iPhone for his next delivery.
“I always like getting here a bit early because you’ve got such cool glass, Cynthia,” he said as he unpacked the box, “I like talking glass and science with you.”
Vitrus interruptus as a teachable moment
April 23, 2010
Much as I love to whine, I won’t; I’m over my quota for the quarter. However, I’d just like to point out that I HAVEN’T SO MUCH AS TOUCHED A KILN CONTROLLER IN A MONTH!! Is there such a thing as glass cold turkey?
Still, it’s given me some time to process the directions my work is taking, come to a few realizations about what I do (and don’t do) well…and maybe make some course corrections. I think educators and HR people call that a “teachable moment,” which is a whole lot nicer than, say, “screwup.”
The Pause that really refreshed
April 21, 2010
- No website, so Pause’s phone is (971) 230-0705
- Location: Overlook (near the Killingsworth Max station)
5101 N Interstate Ave, Portland - Price to completely STUFF four people at lunch: $40
“Now, don’t you go writing about this in your blog,” Dennis warned, “It’s hard enough to get a table here as it is.”
Ooops.
Dennis, Barbara, Kat and I took a break from prepping for the Oregon Glass Guild Fusathon* at Pause, a little taverny kinda restaurant on Interstate not too far from the Harbor Freight. I had my doubts, looking at the neighborhood, but Dennis said he frequently came all the way down from Vancouver just to eat a Pauseburger, so I kept my mouth shut and my mind open.
Good thing. It was outrageously delicious and about half the price of similar eats in the Pearl District.
Pause is friendly, clean, a tad trendy without being obnoxious about it and they grind their own meat. Smoke their own pork. Make their own pickles. Bake their own buns, for all I know.
And the fries are those delightful hand-cut potatoes with the skins still on, fluffy inside and toasted crisp on the outside. That alone is worth the trip…but the meat’s pretty good, too.
My companions are old hands at Pause. They went straight for the house specialty, the hand-ground burger served with local cheese. I just hadda be different, so I ordered the Cuban. It wasn’t what *I* think of as a Miami-style Cubano, but it was a superb sandwich. There was home-smoked pork in there, some ham, maybe some beef, some really lovely cheese and I dunno what all, with a mound of home-made half-sours. (pickles)
Slurp.
It was also at least a third again as much as a human should eat for lunch, which made it a pretty remarkable deal for just eight bucks. I’m sure the desserts and other stuff would be equally delicious, but who in their right mind could possibly have room for those things after even a half-sandwich?
This is definitely worth a return visit. Just make sure you save Dennis a table.
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*The Fusathon is an annual charitable event put on by the Oregon Glass Guild. OGG members congregate at the Uroboros glass factory, where we all make small dishes and bowls from donated Uroboros glass. They’re sold at the Portland Blues Festival over the fourth of July, with all proceeds going to the Oregon Food Bank. It’s a worthy cause, lots of fun and this year Uroboros is planning some special sales and partystuff just for us. If you’re in town toward the end of May, join us.
Today is…
April 19, 2010
…an even funnier old world than the one we had yesterday:
Iceland’s Eyjafjallajoekull (say that fast five times) continues to barf up ash and smoke, grounding air transportation across Europe and really ticking off airlines (not to mention the rest of the population). Europe’s not too thrilled with Iceland anyway, for its role in the global economic crisis (Brits have demanded that it return 5-some billion bucks in banking money). But in Iceland, where the airports are still open (the ash is blowing the OTHER way), the joke is, “Oh, sorry. I thought you said you wanted ash, not CASH.”
Jerry Seinfeld’s new schtick is as a reality TV marriage counselor. He sits in on real-life arguments and does standup while trying to, I dunno, get the combatants to see the humor in domestic turmoil. A panel of experts and comedians ranks the fight and declares a winner, kinda like in boxing. Ba-da-bump. NBC had threatened to cancel it but at the last minute good taste prevailed and they renewed it for another season. With great shows like this on TV, I’m almost tempted to bring it back into the house. Not.
Americans don’t trust government much, according to a new and detailed Pew study on the subject. According to the study, American confidence in government is at an all-time low, but it’s been sinking since the Nixon era. Until Nixon, US citizens were pretty satisfied with their government. Now almost 80% think it sucks. The downhill slide tracks almost perfectly with the state of the economy (well, duh.) The only two agencies that apparently improved their public perception: The IRS and the CIA. Go figure.
Passengers (and apparently senators) are rebelling against airlines’ proposed charges for carry-on luggage (Spirit Airlines promises to charge up to $45 per for carry-ons that don’t fit under the seat). So far five airlines have promised not to do it. I still say take the train instead.
Just for the love
April 16, 2010
The old woman totters into the store and gives me an anxious look. “You’re not the regular girl! She knows I can’t buy anything but she lets me just look. That’s still OK, isn’t it?”
I smile and tell her I’m fine with her visit to Fireborne, my friend Becky’s gallery. Reassured, she turns to examine the glass in the window. She moves slowly, painfully, sidestepping her way down the display, and misses nothing.
“I see she sold the green bowl,” she says, pointing to the vase that’s apparently replaced it.
Billet plus mold equals …
April 14, 2010
Remember awhile back, when I was petting a huge shipment of glass? (And in my best non-denominational mode had included most all of the blues and greens sold by Gaffer, Uroboros AND Bullseye?) [Read more]
A day in the gallery life
April 12, 2010
Sometimes ya just gotta get a little French into your system. Arrived at my friend Becky’s gallery a bit early this morning, so I stopped off at a nearby cafe and enjoyed a leisurely peoplewatch with juice and brioche.
My friend Becky’s out for a few days, so I’m babysitting her gallery (do you call that gallerysitting?) and writing this between sales lulls. Becky and her husband Len are lovely folk; their gallery, Fireborne, is in downtown Portland near Pioneer Square. [Read more]
Teeth-gnashing for wordsmiths
April 10, 2010
As you might have noticed if you checked out “How to speak Cynthia,” I am a firm believer in the creative manipulation of English…but some things are just wrong.
Take, for example, the folks who use “over” when they mean “more than.” As in, “We use over 100 different spices everyday.”
Read it closely: Just what are they using as they hover over 100 different spices? Makes my skin crawl. (Not to mention the inability to distinguish between “every day,” the correct usage in the previous example, and “everyday.”)
(Please note: I’ve decided this is as good a place as any to collect my favorite oopses, so you’ll see this list grow as time goes on…just in case you think you’re hallucinating even more long-windedness from me.)
Take the A train…
April 8, 2010
…or the B train. These days I’ll take just about anything–rail, boat, bus, car, bicycle–to avoid taking the airplane.
That’s a 180 for me; I’ve been known to buy a ticket and fly someplace just to, well, fly someplace. When I was a kid, getting to ride an airplane was a major treat. I got a coloring book and a pair of wings, and on one ambrosial cross-country flight when I was 8 or 9, we were bumped up to first class where we got fresh strawberries, bedroom slippers and all the orange soda I could drink. [Read more]