Martine is On Her Way!!!

Oh boy, oh boy, Martine is on her way over! Not exactly sure where we will end up...either in Old Town or at the Old Ebbitt Grill near the White House. But either is sure to be fun with Martine along. She is a people magnet!!! We always manage to strike up some interesting conversations together. Neither of us are too shy...and together we are simply crazy!!! Yep, just like two high school kids again...

The weather today was fabulous....in the 70's. That's called Indian Summer here in Washington and it's always a nice refreshing break from the chill of the autumn weather. Knowing we were gonna have a nice day today, I decided to take some annual leave. I had been really tired this week...probably from the time change. So I felt like I just needed some time to myself.

I didn't do a whole lot of much...just ran errands. I also hopped on the metro this morning and retrieved my laptop from the office. Heaven knows I couldn't survive the weekend without my computer. As I made my way through the underground mall, I stopped for a manicure and pedicure and picked up my dry cleaning. It sure is convenient having everything right here at my fingertips. Then I headed home and just hung out here at the apartment most of the day.

I had planned to run to the hardware store to pick up a new grinder for my metal apprenticeship tomorrow, but never made it back out again. Instead I will leave a little early in the morning and run by Lowes on the way to Hugh's house. Hopefully they will have the grinder in stock that I want. It's 5 amps, 120 V...that should be plenty of power for grinding steel!!! Hugh's old grinder has been very temporamental lately and we never know for sure if it's gonna work or not.


Frequently we have to improvise by using a hand held grinder, which is not nearly as convenient as the bench model. It's also a bit more dangerous. So...I figure it's time to spring for a new one!! I'll also pick up a wire brush attachment too so that we can have the grinding wheel on one side and the wire brush on the other.

I'm nearly, NEARLY finished with my crazy horse sculpture. If you double click this picture you will be able to see it a bit larger. Just look at those sparks fly!! I'm grinding down the edges of the horse's head. Just trying to make it a bit more even where the horseshoes are joined together. Perhaps tomorrow my horse will finally be finished. Hopefully anyway! It sure has taken longer than I expected!!

Last week, near the end of my class, Barbara came out of the house and brought me a single red rose. Turns out it was the anniversary of Eva's passing and friends of theirs always send them a bunch of red roses in her memory. What a sweet gesture, I was very touched. And especially since I am sure the anniversary is very hard for them both. I sure feel blessed to have made this connection with Hugh and Barbara. It is simply so much more than just learning metal work. Life is sure interesting that way.