Update

Last Monday, I travelled to Ft. Wayne for work.

On the way, I had a chance to visit my friend Maureen for a few hours in Cleveland, and we had lunch. We spoke of many things, and had a great time. My carry-on for the plane was a bag, with a raku rocket, and one of Julie's dragon vases.

The next few days were pretty uneventful, except that I was in Ft. Wayne.

I returned Wednesday night. Stephanie and Julie were very happy to see me.

Buffy-dog had had a really bad ear ache, and had to be taken to the vet while I was gone. She is on ear drops and doggie meds for the next few weeks, until her health improves.

On Sunday, I awoke with the inside of my mouth and uveula swollen. My breathing was blocked if I laid down on my back. When I talked, I sounded like someone 'talking under water'.
Julie had me call the doctor, and they sent me to the emergency room.

After a couple of hours of IVs, including Benadryl and steroids, as well as a neck X-ray and an ENT using a 'happy scope' up my nose, I got to return home. The swelling had dropped, due to the meds, but I had a cut on my uveula and a lesion on one of my tonsils. The doctor's are guessing that the swelling is a side effect of the blood pressure medicine that I have been taking for the last six years or so. I am on prednesone, benadryl, antibiotics, and a new blood pressure medicine.

U Need This

Julie and I were cleaning our bedroom. I have a short bookcase crammed full of books of interest, and folders, notebooks, and files containing old projects.

While sorting through the loose-leaf pages torn out of old notebooks (usually to start a new project in the book, or to give Stephanie something to draw in while we are traveling, I ran across a piece of paper with the heading "U Need This!".

Typically, I don't use exclamation marks in taking notes to myself. Nothing recorded on a scrap of paper is simultaneously that important or urgent, and then stuffed onto a bookshelf for a few years. I hardly use them in my emails or any of my writings at work either.

There were two sections of notes on the page. One had the following list:

"
Chamber of Horrors
Chamber(pot) of Horrors
Chamber of Whores
"

This would be ideas for a pottery piece.

The second section of notes had the following:

"
Ceramic Tests and Calculation, by A. I. Andrews, PhD
John Wiley & Sons, New York^2, 1928

Professor of Ceramic Engineering,
University of Illinois
"

It took me a bit to place the note. Back in 1992 or '93, I went to the Rookwood exhibit at the Cincinnati art museum. They had examples of an amber glaze on a red clay body, called "Tiger's Eye", which was a crystalline shimmering beneath the surface of the glaze. It was a glaze effect that only happened serendipitously. Sometimes, the effect would be less, and was called Goldstone. The pieces were coal fired in saggars inside of giant bottle shaped kiln.

I've had lunch in the kilns on two separate occasions, since the old factory has been converted to a restaurant.

At the time, I tried to hunt down anything I could find about the glaze. This was by checking the periodical guide to literature at the Marietta Public Library, and reading articles about the Rookwood pottery. Somewhere, I found a reference to this book, in which the author supposedly speculated on the cause of the "Tiger's Eye" effect.

Today, I did a few web searches, and found a copy of the book at Powell's for $3.75. Its not a first edition, but the copyright date is still 1928, so I am hoping that the reference to Tiger's Eye is still included.

Weekend and Health Updates

One post; two stories.

We spent Friday evening and the weekend visiting the South Jersey Clay exhibition at the Clay College. Julie has three of her pieces in the exhibition. In general, we had a very good time. Stephanie joined us on Friday evening and Sunday, and was well behaved. Julie says that I only bristled visibly once, when re-introducing myself to someone that I hadn't seen in a few years.

I had issues.

Moving along to the health thing, I had a camera stuffed up my nose again, but this time the doctor got to record the session, and play it back. My vocal chords are visibly swollen, and they don't close at the 'top' (er, wide side?) all of the way. I also seem to have what looks like leukoplakia on the base of the 'right' chord.

The ENT gave me perscriptions to stop acid reflux (which I don't recall having), as well as tablets to prevent fungus and yeast infections that I need to suck on five times a day for two weeks. I have a follow-up in three weeks.

My regular doctor got the results of my chest x-ray, and said that everything has cleared up, except that I still have a persistant cough. He is suggesting Claritin, to see if that helps.