drea

I just wanted to compliment you on your avatar. I think it's the best on the forum. You must be an expert photographer to have taken such a beaut!

Well, no wonder you have such a stellar photograph. Most people don't have star filters (or was that post-production work?) or such a creative eye, so I was wondering if you were into photography. It's brilliant!

I grew up in a three bedroom two bathroom house, except for twenty years, one of the bathrooms was a permanent darkroom. Whenever I went on vacation, I always took a long bath, as our large bathtub had a permanent, plumbed table/sinkbed for the chemical bath trays. And the sink area was covered over for the equipment. The only regular functioning item was the toilet. But mostly I sat on the lid in total darkness to wind off new film onto cassettes or to transfer film to a processing canister. Ah! The good old days....

Tonight I picked up a Dove Bar chocolate bar for Mom so she could "self-medicate". At least she hasn't lost her sense of humor!

The Loupe article is for the summer issue, so it will probably be finished soon. A couple of weeks after printing, they will post the issue online. I'll post a link then. It's been edited a bit, but I think it turned out okay. I can't write the silly stuff I usally write (Octavia)!

Did you take that photo? Wowee, I love it!

This has been an interesting few months. The high point was being hired by GIA to write an article for their The Loupe magazine. The low point was Mom in the hospital. She got over the illness, but is waiting on back surgery and took a turn for the worse pain-wise, so we are struggling through it and hope the date is set soon. Some weird things are going on at work, but I'm doing okay with it. Tomorrow I go to a party and then I knuckle down on doing my gem identification stuff. I have to get that Graduate Gemologist diploma before it becomes embarrassing! "Student for life" - that's me!

I am so sorry to hear about your mom.. I have been on PG so little lately as I have been swamped with work that by the time I had caught up, and was going to message you it seemed as if things were better. I hope that things are different than Canada and your mom won't have to wait long to get in for her surgery so she can get in and get going with her speedy recovery. I'm sending well wishes your way from Canada ; ). You are such a positive person that I'm sure she'll be feeling fantastic any day now with you by her side to support her (you and Octavia that is!!) Congrats on your article in 'The Loupe' I can't wait to read it - what an honor!! When will your article be out??