Las Vegas Baby!

Just thought I would tell folks whats been happening.

I temporarily shut down my furnace on Saturday March 29th. The last time I did that the Oklahoma Natural Gas came and said my meter had quit working properly. I bet they come out again and check it out. You would think as much gas as I buy they would give me a Christmas and birthday present! Nope! All they want is my money. I look forward (I think) to one day getting an electric furnace.

I took my three top managers to the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas. We left Monday, March 31st and returned Friday, April 4th. It was the first time any of us had been to Vegas. What an extraordinary place! I, of course, made sure that we all went and saw the Fiori Di Como at the Bellagio. Tremendous! Went by the Chihuly Store in the Bellagio. Really cool. The lady that worked there was really nice to us. Had a great time at the International Pizza Expo. Looking for ways to take our business to the next level or 2.

Since we were going to be gone and my furnace was ready to charge again, I decided to take that opportunity to shut it down, save some greenbacks, and do a little maintaining on the furnace. The furnace door had gradually gotten chunks knocked off and was not maintaining a good seal at all. I could see the $5 bills just floating out into the sunset. It was already that way when I bought it and of course it has gotten worse with use. So I chiseled out the old refractory cement and reformed the door and poured new refractory in it's place. Many heap big thanks to Andy Boatman at Blue Sage Studios for telling me what kind of stuff to buy and where to buy it. Andy always knows what I need to know. Always ready and willing to help. A true gentleman!

We are kind've tweaking the studio a little bit. Got some folks coming out to take a few photos for a magazine article. I was putting the furnace back together today and was going to light it, but accidently broke my Giberson Burner Head! Getting it overnighted from Joppa Glass works. Yeee Hah!

Hopefully I will get it lit tomorrow afternoon late. We have a decent amount of caterings tomorrow plus I am speaking at the State Capital to about 50 folks for about 30 minutes or so. Then going to get some photos taken, then back to work on the studio.

Thats's whats been happening here.

I'll report when we get everything up and running. We are starting to make some different kind of stuff. Been really inspired by some of the Venetians on Chihuly's website. His website is totally first class! Very inspirational to me. Some of the Venetians with coils and leaves are really appealing. We did 2 right before we shut down the furnace and did decent for our first 2 attempts. We are really excited about continuing and getting better at that kind of stuff. We also have been pulling cane and working with that a little..