The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies

Since I've been in publishing since, well, ahem, a LONG TIME, I have seen new technology come and go from the art and production side. Usually I'm happy to see the old stuff go and thrilled to usher in the new technology. Still, I was feeling surprisingly nostalgic whilst looking over the former tools of my trade at the online museum.

Yes, indeed, the world has changed for the better. We've been swept up into it. I remember the smell of the waxer, the mangled fingers from the X-ACTO knives, and the press-on type. Now, I never went to art school but I have used most of these tools at some point in my career.

Thank you, Apple. Thank you, Adobe. Thank you, even evil Microsoft.

101st post

My last post was my 100th post. I meant to mark the occasion but I couldn't come up with anything clever. Then a lot of time lapsed. And, now I'm ranting again.

The reasons are many, and typical. My doctor had me worried for three weeks about some blood work. I had some nasty, brutal dental work with more to come. I got stressed out from that and then got sick. I enrolled in yet another computer class (Dreamweaver). My new job is harder. The book club I joined is reading interesting books that I feel compelled to read.

My kids are being extra difficult. Owen is screaming all the time. He's waking up screaming about missing blankets and scary monsters in his room. Zoe is having trouble with school. She avoids and deliberately looses her homework every week.

I had to go on a stressful, freezing business trip to New York City. The average temp was 12 degrees with a terrible wind bring it to -12 degrees. Even though I'm from Boston, I can't remember ever being so cold. And, my return flight was a nightmare. The plane was broken, and we had to get off, wait, wait, wait and wait. Then rush to another airport and try to get home. That flight was full, and then delayed. Are you surprised to learn that I threw up on the plane, and in the parking garage, and again in my car? (Their barf bags do work surprisingly well.)

And, my husband is working too much, and traveling more. Oy vey!

Of course, the things that I drop are exercising, sleeping, blogging, and knitting...not necessarily in that order. Just all the things that I do to help me relax.

Back to blogging

I've been busy and away. As a result, I haven't been blogging. I'm nearly recovered from the big demands over the past month including winter break from school, mad-dash holidays, end of year projects, travel and new job responsibilities.

I went to Canada to print a book. I flew up to Boston, where I spent two days with my family and friends. Then I went to a small town that is far outside of Montreal. Everything went very well. The salesman was great. (Thanks Joe!) The printer was terrific. We had a couple small things to address and the rest was fast and perfect. In fact, I received my bound books today. They look great.

In two days, I managed to see very little of Canada. A great deal of Canada was still closed for Christmas holidays. I walked around a nice town Trois-Rivières, Quebec.

It looked like a nice place to be when more of the shops and restaurants are open. We had some interesting meals. Poutine is a local favorite dish of French fries with brown gravy and cheese curds. It sticks to your ribs and doesn't let go. I had to give it a try. When in Rome,...it was good, but not great. I could definitely see the appeal of Poutine as an internal heat source. I prefered the classic French food we had at a couple other places.

The weather was freaky warm (here too). The Canadians were all upset that it wasn't cold enough. 27 degrees Farenheit (too lazy to do the conversion) was cold enough for me!

I missed my family. And, boy, did they miss me. I received very sad calls from Zoe telling me she loved me and she missed me. It certainly is nice to be wanted.

Go west!

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

It looks like I've neglected most of western USA. Next month, I'm visiting Canada to print a book. I guess it will be a while before the whole country is filled in red. Oh, if only I could print in Hawaii.