I think I finally got the Etsy shop set up. It took a couple days but I think I've filled all the boxes and fields I need to fill...I think. The email address is finally working, so I was finally able to verify it with paypal, so I can finally use it to take payments....there's a hole in the bucket.....urgle. One part of me is whining "why is this so haaaaard?" But this is nothing compared to opening a real store with real employees and real insurance, etc. The internet has made me soft. Hopefully tomorrow I can upload product. I have primary pics of most of the stained glass but Etsy lets you have multiple images so I need to go back and pick put a few more for each. I also want to try and get pics of darkwing830 's origami but that may have to wait until the sun comes out again Monday morning.

Got an earlier start than usual, which means there was still a bit of light left when we started back. Warm enough that I didn't need my winter coat but still nice and brisk. Had a really good meal at walker Brother's in Highland park and we popped into Uncle Dan's and Border's after. Uncle Dan's was a bit of a disappointment, there wasn't a single piece of military surplus anywhere. They've gone the way of Land's End and Eddie Bauer and only have over-priced trendy "outdoor" clothes. Ah, well. We hope that the weather holds and we can ride again tomorrow.

Sadly, I'd been neglecting my DA account for the last month or so because I was focusing on WindyCon. I finally got to checking up on it and I had 27 comments and faves. Don't get me wrong, the warm fuzzies of a fave, or even better, a comment on a piece, is a great egoboost. But they all need to be replied to, or at least thanked. And I can't just toss off a cold thanks like I don't really appreciate it, 'cause I do. So I take some time to go through a couple pages in their fave lists, to see what other sorts of things they like. And then I look at their work because there is a lot of talent out there. *Then* I thank them for their fave. And on the comments I try to say something conversational in response to their comment. After all, they took the time to write in the first place. They deserve more than just a "Thanks!" But writing is hard for me so it takes a lot of focus and energy and time. *sigh*.

Anyhoo... It really only took about 2 hours, so that isn't too bad. But now I'm ready for a nap.

It took over three hours, but I've gone through all of my emails back to about a week before the con. I also did a little cleaning on my desk while waiting for things to save and load. Now I can see actual (small) patches of desk and the piles on either side of my monitor are now below the bottom of my screen. Yesterday I managed to clear all of the stained glass supplies off of the stove. I've promised darkwing830 that it will remain project-free for at least a week. In return, he's promised me grilled cheese sandwiches. Mmmmm!

But now I need to get up and do something else, I'm tired of sitting here in front of the computer. I think I'll get a snack and then tackle the pile on the love seat.

My back finally popped this morning, meaning my muscles have relaxed quite a bit since the weekend. It's one of my stress indicators. I'm looking around the house and thinking about where to begin digging out from the pre-con frenzy. I'll probably start in the kitchen, but I desperately need to do laundry too. Maybe give away clothes I haven't worn in a while. It's also time to think about bringing home another car-load from storage, I'll need to make some room for that. I have an illustration for shsilver that is almost done and a couple of weeks worth of mail to dig back through.

When getting ready for a con, or involved in any other all-consuming project, I tend to knuckle down and plow through, ignoring anything that isn't immediately relevant to the project. Then when it's all over, and the smoke clears away, I look around at the disaster zone of everything else. Thankfully, this time there isn't another giant project waiting in queue and I'll have some time to put everything back in order.

Was amazing. Really, really amazing. I have *never* seen so much participation from the attendees. Never. It looked like a third of the people there had some sort of costuming, there were corsets and goggles everywhere. Everyone was having a good time and the energy was higher than I have ever seen it. I think I would have to go back to my first Worldcon (Chicon V) for a time when I came away from a con feeling this energized and excited.

I didn't sell much in the Dealer's room. In fact, I made exactly $2 more than I handed over to the person running the Capricon Dealer's room for my tables there in Feb. OTOH, it means I'm set for my next con. There was a lot of interest, and loads of people came by to talk. So it was all good.

controuble out-did herself on the art show this year. I haven't seen that kind variety and quality in years. Unfortunately, because of the economy, no-one was buying much. The really wanted to, but I kept hearing "I would so love to get that, if I hadn't just lost my job". But I think we are seeing the end of it, attendance was up, and the mood was up, so maybe it's getting better.

I sold 5 pieces out of the 23 I hung. I haven't shown anything for over 10 years so I didn't know what to expect. When I used to do this, I would sell all but 3 pieces, no matter how many I put in. OTOH, stained glass forums tell me to expect to sell about 10% of what you bring, so that would be about right. The Winged Trilobite won the award for Best 3-D Fan, Yay! I am truly proud to own an original award made by James Brown. Sadly, it didn't sell so I've been forced to hang it in my kitchen window. I am so full of ideas for new pieces.

 $3 banner is done.  $5 banner is mostly done, i just need to move the crossbars from one of the old ones, but the holes don't line up.  Will have to take them to work for drilling.  Figured out which 2 out of the 3 $7 banners I'll have up and the cutter is chugging away at a few new pieces I'll be changing out so there are not dupes with any of the $5 stickers.

All of the pieces for the Art Show are on the control sheet, have bid sheets, and are bagged in bubblopes.  The frame for the Winged Trilobite is finally done.  Need to re-do the bid sheet to indicate that the frame is made from reclaimed wood.  Hopefully there will be sun before the con so I can get a pic of it in the frame.  There is one more piece I may finish up, but I'm not counting on it.

Tonight I start buttoning up the packing.  Tomorrow night is the last I have for doing anything and I want to make sure I'm not forgetting anything vital like printer cables or my tablet.

Went out to my bike today and there were little muddy paw prints all over my seat.  Too round to be squirrel, too small to be cat.  I'm guessing it was one of the local bunnies.  I wondered how it got up there until darkwing830 pointed out the muddy prints on my muffler pipes.  I guess it wanted to go even faster, except it was facing the wrong way.

Another glorious ride on another glorious day.  Got more stuff ready for WindyCon.  Made room in my car and loaded the folding tables and display  bases.  Got the $3 banner and the new $5 banner finished.  Now I need to figure out what stock needs replenishing.

Soldering jump rings is a pain.  Last time I did that, I was using silver solder and a torch.  Way more working time before the solder hardened up.  This lead-free solder is a real pain, almost no working time and it doesn't want to flow right.  meh.

Finished up the English Rose.  I have pics of it, but they are not ready to post yet.  All of the SG pieces I have for Windy are on a Control Sheet and all have Bid Sheets.  Two need tags, and one needs a frame.  About half are packed in bubbleopes, it looks like I need to buy more.  

I have about half of the $3 banner logged.  Each image gets it's own file, including unique name and file number.  Tedious work, but it needs to be done to keep it all straight.  After that, I need to print binder pages for each one and cut 2 stickers of each design for stock.

I dug out some other random half completed projects.  I'm going to work on finishing some of them as breaks from making the vinyl stickers.

Two weeks used to be forever, now it's like it's tomorrow.....

Just as the rest of the concom are really ramping up in preparation  for Windycon 36, my job is basically done.  The program book and pocket program are both off to the printer.  Yay!  Sometime in the next couple days I'll get a fedex of the proof, which will be perfect as always.  C.L. Graphics does awesome work.  Once I give them a  call and ship back the proof, I really am done.

I've started in on getting the vinyl stickers ready.  I will have a table in the dealer's room again.  This time I have a bunch of smaller stickers priced at $3.  The comment I heard the most last year was they're nice but they're all sooo big!  Hopefully this will take care of that.

I'm going to have one more window in the art show.  It's cut, ground, and foiled, I just need to solder it together.  It's a version of this English Rose, about 14" across.  I don't know if I will have pictures before the con, it keeps raining all the time....

 Sadly, not the good kind.

I saw an accident happen on my way to work today.  I was waiting for the light to change, second car back from the intersection.  The left turn lane was on my left.  The cross-traffic had the green, until they didn't and then the left turn lane next to me got their arrow to go.  The left-turner in front was a huge black SUV.  He went to make his turn when a guy in a pickup ran the red and hit the SUV so hard it went up in the air.  I have a snapshot in my mind of the SUV, nose pointed to about 1:00, roof facing me.  It was definitely completely off the ground. Fortunately, it didn't go over, or even land on it's side, it landed with all 4 wheels on the ground.   Also fortunately, there were no immediately obvious injuries.

There wasn't any squealing of brakes or tires before the impact and the pickup was going fast when it hit.  My guess is that the guy was just not paying attention to the road and didn't notice the light had changed.

I stayed and gave the police my contact info, that 's all they wanted at that point.  When I left there were paramedics and a fire truck and a couple cop cars.

In movies and on tv you see cars in the air all the time.  But, in the back of your mind, you know it's done with ramps and pneumatics and cars don't really do that in real life.  I guess they do.

 No stained glass this week, I've been doing layout on the WindyCon 36 program book.  All the inside bits are done, and it's ready for proofing.  If you are the sort that likes studying text for bad spelling, punctuation, etc., please have a look at it and tell me what needs to be fixed.    Or  you can just get a jump on the convention by downloading your own copy.

There are pages missing on purpose.  I don't want to spoil the Short Story Winner surprise. 

Now that my ear infection has cleared up I was finally able to start bringing the program book into some kind of order.  I am having way too much fun with Florid Victorian Ornament

Yesterday had a sunny patch at exactly the time of day that happens to be good for photographing stained glass.  These two came out really well, which is good, because I have many many bad photos of them taken on many many different occasions.   Both of these will be at WindyCon.

Unicorn Head
Triquetra

darkwing830  and I just watched back to back gaming related movies, the 1982 made for tv Mazes and Monsters followed by the mocumentary Gamers.  I think we want to dig out our eyes and soak our brains in bleach they were both so bad.   Worse than Robot Jox, worse than Eragon, and worse than the last 10 mintes of Knowing...combined.  What we can't figure out is which one was more horrible than the other, but we really don't want to think about them enough to make that decision.

I just had the exact same conversation with another Sprint rep.  Before she hung up I asked her to remove me from whatever calling list I'm on.  In 10 years with sprint I never get any calls from them.  Now that I'm gone I get 2 in a week.  

 UFO
Dragon Head
Nouveau Rose
Moon Flight
Purple Corset
Cthulhu

So that brings us up to 7.  There are more but photographing stained glass is a tricky business and I have to wait for days with good sun.  And even then the photos don't always come out right. 

 This will be in the WindyCon art show.