A working birthday

Was prepared to get a full studio day since we celebrated my birthday with friends yesterday with a brunch at the Grove Park inn; but as often happens, a planned day goes awry with unplanned chores which demand attention.

A huge amount of emails this morning, mainly from so many wonderful birthday wishes, notices that my Norton anti virus software has expired, and using the last of my bread, changed the plan. So now I'm downloading the software on one computer, with two other computers to do after this, then I need to start on another loaf of bread, and get an early start on tonight's braised lamb shanks dinner before I can even think about the studio.

I will get in the studio at some point this afternoon to finish sorting the test tiles and making those last minute notes, which I didn't get to do yesterday because we didn't get home till around 5 o'clock and still had to unpack the car and get groceries put away before thinking about dinner, which wound up just being some popcorn with some parmesan and spices.

After the lovely brunch and working through the tourist crowds at the Grove Park Inn viewing the gingerbread house contest entries, followed by a Sams Club shopping trip, there was no time or energy to do anything more than rest for the rest of the evening. Our friends have these insulated bags that they bought at Sams club, which work great for those long drives home from Asheville. No need anymore to spend several dollars on ice or deal with large, bulky plastic boxes. We bought two of them ($9.98 each),and everything was still solidly frozen after an hour and a half; and we can leave them in the car since they lay flat and hardly take up any space.

Time now to get that bread started, finish those downloads, and get the dinner started early.