Although, I am feeling really low and depressed because the extreme mental stress that I am experiencing from this paper, there is definitely a light at the end of this tunnel. I will be flying out to Vegas late Thursday evening for the Clay Carnival that starts on Friday. I haven’t even gotten a chance to get my supply list together because I have been so preoccupied with other things. I suppose if I post the supply list here, it will be easier to check off to see what I have and what I will need.

Oh, just in case you are interested here are some links to the instructors and their awesome work, in addition to their class descriptions.

*Cathy Johnston
*Donna Kato
*Jacqueline Lee
*Karen Lewis (Klew)
Kim Cavender
*Leslie Blackford
*Marla Frankenberg
*Sue Kelsey – I couldn’t find a working website of her work.

Here is a link to the class descriptions.

Materials List for Clay Carnival Las Vegas ‘07

*Pasta machine and c-clamp
*Work surface
*Thick blade (Nublade type)
*Exacto or scalpel
*Acrylic rod
*Needle tool
*knitting needle or brass rod for smoothing
*Spray bottle
*Wet wipes for clean up
*Scissors
*1 sheet imitation metal leaf, not Jones Tones (Kim’s class)
*wet/dry sandpaper in the following grits ( 220, 400 and 600)
*small bowl for wet sanding
*soft cotton cloth for buffing
*equivalent of 1 package (3 ounces) of scrap clay
*For a pendant: necklace cord, cable or chain for pendant or
pinback (Jacqueline’s class)
*For a pin: pin back finding and tiny cardboard gift box, the sort
you would receive a pair of earrings in is perfect. (Jacqueline’s class)
*Two 1/2″ pin backs (Cathy and Donna’s classes)
*pen and notebook (Klew’s class)
*if your work surface does not have a measurement grid please bring
a piece of small scaled graph paper (Jacqueline’s class)
*2 quilter’s straight pins (like regular straight pins but twice as
long) or 2 needles of comparable diameter (Jacqueline’s class)
*waxed paper — 12 ” x 15″ should be enough
*any small soft bristle paintbrush
*Two 3″ X 3″ or 4″ X 4″ ceramic tiles plus s sheet of text weight
paper
*spacer beads (Marla uses “e” beads for between your beads)

Optional, bring if you have:
*Cornstarch
*Deli paper
*3 or 4 colors ink pads (Clearsnap Fluid Chalks or Pigment inks or
Tsukineko’s Versa Magic — will also bring some for class to share so
don’t make a special purchase) (Kim’s class)
*bail or finding for creating a hanger pendant (Kim’s class, will have
inexpensive ones for sale)

Seriously, I really can’t even start thinking about Christmas. My head is ready to burst from trying to write this paper. I am ready to just give up at this point.

I am sitting here in front of our new 22 inch wide screen monitor (I braved Black Friday today), fervently trying to complete a paper that is due on Sunday. I had told myself three weeks ago, that I would start as early as possible, but here I am waiting for the last minute. I admit since we got back from SD, that I have been watching Law & Order reruns on A&E, instead of working on my paper. I’d rather be sleeping right now or editing pictures from SD and Thanksgiving to upload to Flickr, but I am not sure if I will get to that anytime soon.

Thanksgiving was fairly enjoyable. We first stopped over to Den’s sister Darlene’s house for Thanksgiving lunch. We weren’t actually planning to eat anything there because I thought they were going to have dinner, but I guess it ended up being a late lunch. I did fairly well on not gorging myself. All 7 boys were loud and obnoxious as usual, and I also announced that next year for sure that I was going to have everyone over for Thanksgiving, when we actually move. We have been telling everyone for the last 3 years that we were going to move, but it has yet to happen.

After, we headed over my parent’s house for a lovely Thanksgiving dinner. The story of the day was retelling over and over that Elden had swallowed two pennies the night before. Wednesday, he came over to Den and said “money”. Den asked him where the money was and he pointed to his mouth and said “more money”. From that point, I start to sort panic and call his ped, who was actually off duty. So the short of it was that I had to take him to ER, so that they could take an x-ray. The doc on duty told me that luckily the two pennies were already down into his stomach, so he would just have to pass it through his poop. I was surprised on how fast it made it’s way into the stomach. Anyways, this morning the two pennies did make their way out of his butt. I think he learned a big lesson, as well as I. I admit that I have been letting him hold money. I thought for sure that he was out of the swallowing stage because he has been just either holding it in his hand or keeping them in his pocket.

Now I am just feeling really exhausted, and I seriously feel lazy as hell.

Here is a vid of the kiddos waiting for the Red Trolley.

So today is our last full day down here. I definitely won’t have Internet today because I promised Den that wouldn’t sign in. I was thinking that I would take the kids to a local park. I haven’t decided on Coronado Bay, Balboa, or perhaps the Old Town and Mission San Diego de Alcala. Most likely, we will take the Trolley again. It’s nice to not have to drive anywhere. I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t be able to take them around by myself, but it actually isn’t too bad at all. Although, I usually hold their hands so tight as we are walking across the street. I am sure whatever we decide to do, the kids will have lots of fun.

Tomorrow on the way back home, we will going to Legoland. Before the trip, we asked Brennan whether he wanted to go to Seaworld or Legoland, and of course he picked Legoland. I really loves playing with Legos at this age. I can’t believe that in about two months, he will be 5. He is such a big boy now. He is so protective of Elden and such a sweet kid. He even decided that he wanted to sleep in the family room with the pull out guest bed by himself today, which Den was happy about. Usually on trips, Den and Brennan share a bed, and I share a bed with Elden. But ya, he such a super sweet kid, still pretty loud and rambunctious. That is just part of his nature though. He is helpful with Elden, and even held his hand a bit while we were walking around town yesterday.

So, I don’t know if I should remove the Nanoblogo thing on the site, since pretty much haven’t been able to blog consistently everyday. I guess I will, which will alleviate any pressure that I feel that I have.

One thing that I have consistently been doing is claying. I have been busy creating some soon to be cool jewelry and other crafty stuff for the online shop that I am planning on opening in February, as well as my Poker Chips for the Clay Carnival, which is in 10 days. Hah! I think I just officially outed myself. I have been wanting to do something like for quite a long time. I am not talking like months, but I am actually talking like years. I am not sure how successfully I will be able to pull this off, but heck, I am giving myself several months. Maybe by next Christmas, I will have some neat Advent Calendars as well to sell. Another thing that I want to do is to participate in a local Arts event to sell jewelry there. I haven’t decided on that yet, exactly. One step at a time. I do know that this polymer clay is exactly the medium that feel my heart is really in to, where I can fully let my creativity flow. Before I leave to the Clay Carnival, I will be creating a second website and blog. I have never had another site besides my dear Quinntillion. I just never thought to create a different separate site. I have always just comglomerated everything here. I will continue write about my crafting adventure and everyday stuff in here, but I definitely want to separate or expand my experimenting in polymer clay in a different area.

So that’s that.

One of main things the kids have been wanting to do since we arrived in San Diego was to ride the Red Trolley. We didn’t quite get a chance yesterday, so today I have promised them that I would take them on it. Earlier in the morning, I was trying to conduct an interview of an Archivist that I met from the Getty tour last week in Second Life which is for my 5 extra credit points in my Archives class. She couldn’t get her mic to work, so I ended up only taking our pictures inside the Career Information Center that I had built. Plus it would have been next to impossible to conduct an interview with two jumpy boys. We are going to try to get together again after Thanksgiving to attempt to do video.

Anyways, after a mexican food lunch (I had a yummy fish burrito) at the Seaport Village and riding the merry-go-round, the kids and I boarded the Red Trolley at the Seaport Station. We took it to the Gas Lamp station. I actually wanted to go to the Horton/Westfield Plaza. We never made it to plaza though. We did take a nice walk through Downtown.

We then took the trolley back and stopped by S**rbucks where I enjoyed a Peppermint Latte. After hanging in the room a little, we enjoyed a little swimming. After gorging on alcohol and chips (I actually only had two unspiced bloody marys and a sex on the beach), I suggested this super close deli, that was actually closed, then remembered that there was a Ralphs nearby. We weren’t in the mood for restaurant eating. Well our walk back ended being extra long because we took a wrong turn and ended up further then we should have been.

We pretty much crashed after that.

We are here in the lovely downtown Gaslight district of San Diego. Just tagging along with the hubby as he attends a conference. So it looks like I will probably not be able to blog for a few days. I usually try not to do the whole computer thing during vacations. I do have some homework in my Archives class, so that may be the only reason why I will be here. At the moment, I don’t have anything interesting to talk about. Sorry!

I did bring all my clay, so I will definitely be working on them. Only 2 more weeks to go until the Carnival.