Trademark? Phhht...

Oh boy. So a few months ago i had to cease and desist from using the name "BirthBones" for my bone-shaped birthstone charms because i was infringing on someone's trademark. After brainstorming with my friend we came up with a brilliant new name: Gem Bones. But alas, it also has been previously thought up and registered. As far as i can tell after my visit to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office website, there is no Gem Bonz or GemBonz name registered yet, so i'm running with it, so to speak.

The cost to register a trademark with the USPTO is $275-$325. I won't be coughing it up. The amount of business i do is so small that it probably isn't worth it. IF someone comes along and registers the name out from under me, i'll either change names again, or move on to something else, i figure. Cut throat business woman here, eh?

All Cats Present and Accounted For

When i woke up this morning, something was different ... (photo from mikeZellers blog).

The last of our cats turned up yesterday to welcome us home from holidays. I was happier to see Stinky than he was to see me. I thought the sound of my voice sweet-talking him would twig a memory for him--cuddling in bed and getting the kind of treatment cats love. But, nothing. He just gave me his back. Oh well, all the cats become sucky, fat house cats once the colder weather comes. I try not to be hurt, and bide my time till November.

It should be another good day for bead production. Tomorrow i will begin to list new items in the shop. Hubby and the boys are heading out to the Bosque to fish and poke about for various invertebrate specimens for classes, which begin all too soon. That leaves me home alone to do whatever i want to do! I will be distracted by the garden for a while--we had a soaking rain on Thursday night and the moisture makes it so much easier to pull weeds (got a great crop in the rock garden after being away on vacation for a month. It never ceases to amaze me how much vegetation the desert can produce! The "unwanted" sort of vegetation, at least.) There is a countywide ban on watering, so if we could get another rain today, the" wanted" plants will be very appreciative. About 2 days of this 95F weather, on sandy soil, is all it takes to dry out the gardens and set the plants to suffering. Rain, plox.

I should have planted my vegetables much earlier in the spring than i did, but i harvested a few carrots and beets yesterday--getting lost under the overgrown marigolds seems to have helped them not get too dry and shrively. I missed eating the beet greens this year, but look forward to making a nice pot of borsch.

Simpsons Did It

There was a Simpsons frog in the clouds! (I outlined it for you if you don't find it yourself.) hee hee

HOT Ink and R.B.Awesome

The Devil's Ink Well is scooped out of rough red rock. The water pooled within is Kelly green and full of little blue fish, darting and shimmying. The sky glowed neon blue. My nostrils are scorched by fumes of salt and sulfur, hanging in the still desert air. Cicadas shrill in the...

The "poetic magic" was shattered by the arrival of pick-ups and jeeps. Out leap 6 highly organized teen aged boys who waste no time in dragging a basketball net up to the lip of the Well. One boy is designated videographer, recording his mate, "Real Bro Awesome" (lol), as he attempts to heave a basketball into the net from a spot halfway around the rim of the Devil's Ink Well. Two boys are on backstop duty, one is a runner, carrying the balls back up to "Awesome" when he runs out of balls, and one boy is halfway down the wall with a rope and seems to be ready to retrieve balls if they fall into the "Ink". They called their stunt "The Bottomless Shot", and i have no doubt we will be able to find it on YouTube soon, when they successfully shoot their stunt.

Their degree of organization and planning was impressive. I expect they haul their net and balls to all sorts of places to make YouTube-worthy shots. Real Bro Awesome is probably already a household word, at least in the Roswell high school. :-)

There is a fad of YouTube videos of people making amazing basketball shots, outside of any basketball game or court. It's good having teens myself, or i would miss out on the waves of video subjects that YouTube attracts. I would have missed the 10,000 videos of talking cats, for instance. It's fascinating. If Mr. Awesome had sunk his shot before i got bored, i might even have been in his video and had my tag-along second of fame.

Who?

Who? Who? I'll tell you who: jfarrisfromtheheart, that's who...made these neato polymer clay owl beads.

My little niece was born with an owl fetish and i'm going to do something with these for her. Perhaps just a loop of nice satin cord so that she can hang them from drawer knobs and such.

Jfarrisfromtheheart makes some really fine insect pins and pendants, too.

Back at the Ranch

Home at last! What a great holiday we had, though. Fond memories to see us through the winter. [Here's a picture of us taking a break on the long homeward journey, having a sandwich at Monument Rocks, in Kansas.]

A strange thing happened on my trip. In the two days it took to drive up to Canada, i sat in the co-pilot seat and did nothing. I didn't even have a book to read. And i did the same thing on the way back down. I had my notebooks with me. I could have written. I could have designed beads or jewelry. I know that if i had brought needle, thread, and socks with me, i would have made critters. But i didn't even do that. One of my sons had an extra novel, so i read Steven King's Tommyknockers for half a day, until the kid wanted his book back. What a shameful waste of several days, though!

We got home last night, and this morning i took my etsy shop off Vacation Mode. And almost immediately, i had a couple of sales. Thank you, buyers! So i'm going to run out to the workshop tonight and do some beadmaking. Nothing like sales to light the fire under me and get me moving. Don't get me wrong--i would make beads anyway. But when there is the incentive for cash, it motivates me. I'm crass, that way.

Southward

The return leg of the migration begins in the morning. It has been a wonderful visit with family and friends, but it will be good to get home and take up our responsibilities-- especially the various pets who may be half psychotic by now, although i'm certain our pet sitter is doing an excellent job. And we are so grateful for his willingness to look after the menagerie!

Two days on the road, and a day to get organized, do laundry, and get a start weeding the gardens. Then i hope to have the etsy shop open, and the business of making beads rolling again. Woohoo!