What are these thirteen things? I'll Tell You.

An Odd Thursday Thirteen...

And Here are the Answers I promised last Thursday:

Somehow odd-looking items accumulate in this family like dust accumulates in empty cabins...softly they settle on any available flat surface until this unsympathetic mom person finds a place for them. Since Turtle collects weird historical stuff, Elijah adds music oddities, and Claye fills crannies with art tools, we have an interesting hodgepodge. They all have to do with music, art or antiques.

1. Many of you guessed this one correctly. It's a cleaner for a clarinet.













2. You really needed to see how small this one
is. It is a water color container; The brushes
go in the outside and the inside actually holds
water. It really does not leak.













3. Nobody had a clue about this one. It is different kinds of wax used for casting jewelry.
The sheet wax is for little designs, and the strips
are for the rings and such.
Here are some pieces made of wax and three rings
already cast in silver.
Claye made them this summer in jewelry-casting class.












4. This is a Turkish coffee grinder. I'm sorry, but I inadvertently left off the handle so it really wasn't
fair for those of you guessing.













5. Yes. A capo for a guitar. Many of you knew this.













6. This is old music. Very old. Turtle says it is Greek, but the document is from the Middle Ages.
It's hard to see unless you enlarge it, and even
then it doesn't look like music to me, but I have
the word of the experts.













7. This is a brush, but not just any kind. It is a special "fan" brush for painting stuff like clouds.













8. And this is used to scrape around the clay pot while you are shaping it. It keeps the water from
saturating the base.













9. This is used to cut the clay pot off the bat after it has dried a little.













10. And this is a tiny, tiny printing press. It was used for stamping a label for a book, for instance.
It actually belonged to my husband's grandparents,
and I don't know how long it has been in the family.













11. These are antique ink wells. They used to sit on an ornate desk in a hotel lobby.















12. These are strange, until you see them in use:
See. They hold paint and are ever so handy when
attached to a palette.



























13. Ok. This is a one-of-a-kind creation by Claye. She needed a tall jar for storing those long brushes and a place to hang the Chinese brushes that have to hang upside down. Ok. It really wasn't fair either, but you'll have to admit, it's strange.



















One more thing. If you find that you were really good at this one, please go here and tell me what these two things are. I really have no clue this time.

What Was I Thinking?

I'll give you the good news first. I'm now the proud sponsor of the junior class. Well, that doesn't sound so bad, now, does it? How did I get this honor. Well, it was a volunteer thing. Right. I volunteered. Sounds crazy, I know, but you weren't there, sitting around that table, realizing that it's been five years since you sponsored one of the upper classes and it was now your turn, because everyone else could not do it because they were swamped with more responsibilities than you were.

Now the bad news: sponsorship is scary. For two years I will help this class raise money for their senior trip. I will buy groceries for and run concession stands at hours and hours of volleyball and basketball games, (which means I have to attend them, but won't get to watch them.) I will organize suppers and food booths and dunk tanks and I will plan for junior/senior fun day and for graduation. At the end of this time I will be rewarded by getting to go on a week long trip with a dozen seniors and some of their parents. This entire experience will bring me closer to these students and mean a good deal to them. That's all wonderful.

None-the-less, it is a daunting quest for me. I can't cook. I don't know how to order food. Even making the punch for a large event has baffled me. (At my daughter's wedding we ran out of punch and ended up with straight kool-aide...plus, I forgot to serve the gallons and gallons of ice-cream we had stored in the freezer. Surely I could have blended that with the kool-aide or something.) I have three concession stand volleyball games next week. Three! Whatever will I do? I think I'll move a little bed out to my classroom--oh wait, I'm driving a school van route this year and can't stay over. Hmmm. Life just might get exciting. I'm warning you. We will probably sell food previously unheard of in high school sports history. For the trip I'll probably recommend going to a nearby camp in the Ozarks or something. (Truth be told, I hate flying; boating makes me sick; bus trips nauseate me, and a real vacation for me would be for everyone else to leave me home alone and tell the world that I'm with them. Just don't tell the juniors. I'll fake it for two years.)

Two years from now, when I'm back from senior trip, I'll collapse. Until then I'll put one foot in front of another and pray for patience.