New Year, New Virus

I've been sick since Christmas. What I thought was just crud in my lungs from breathing Los Angeles air was, in fact, a virus that was going around. It decided to stay with me and Mr. ShellHawk. While I have the luxury of staying home and making attempts at nursing myself back to health, poor Mr. ShellHawk has had some pretty important meetings to attend and hasn't been able to shake the damned bug. Meanwhile, the puppy keeps throwing his toys at us and stepping back with an expectant gaze: "You are going to throw that for me, aren't you?" I just stare back for a minute and ignore him as best I can. I feel guilty about it, mind you, but I still ignore him. 


The older dogs don't seem to care and are enjoying the extra nap time.


Meanwhile, the submission deadline for Feats of Clay is approaching. I'm working steadily on the sculpture I plan to submit. It's the same one I didn't get done in time last year, actually. I'm very close to finishing the actual sculpt, which is great. I'll need to let it dry and then I get to fire it, put the color on and fire it again. I'm not entirely sure if I'm going with oxides (stains, essentially) or glazes, but I think oxides will give me more control over the outcome. I'm really hoping I don't get any cracks in the clay when I fire this guy, or I'm out of the running, for sure.


Well, back to work. Where's my bottle of Dayquil?