This is a picture of one of the jewelry sets I made over Christmas. It's made of amethyst chips, amethyst coloured balls, and sterling silver pretty squares and flowery beads.

Well, I guess I am not going to so my boy down south after all. He's got bronchitis and on antiobiotics and working all week. And he had a good point when he told me I need to get my car checked out this week, because God forbid something should happen to my car as I'm driving down to LA.

I'm kind of relieved. I've never driven down to LA by myself before. It's a very long drive. The farthest I've ever driven was four hours and with LA traffic, the drive could be eight hours. I won't say that I'm not bummed, but I was tellng a friend of mine that when I saw M-Square over Labor Day it was perfect and we did a ton of haggling for that weekend to happen.

M-Square said he needed to sort some things about his job. I think he should stick it out. It's driving him insane because it's very stressful and he has to work long hours, but I think over time it will be very financially successful. He just has to learn to manage it better. Plus despite the insane working hours, he has alot of freedom in this job that he wouldn't have in a job in corporate America.

So I'm at home this week on vacation and relaxing. I took two beadmaking classes and I've so far made four necklace, bracelet and earring sets. If I can figure out how to work the digital camera my cousin gave me last year, I'll post pictures of my creative venture.

I love making jewelry. I even paid the city a fee to get a business license so I can write off my beading purchases on my taxes. I'd like to be able to sell the stuff I make, but mostly I want to be able to write off this very expensive hobby.

I have to figure out how to buy beadmaking supplies wholesale. So far I've only been buying stuff retail because I have no idea where the wholesale stores are. Once I figure that out I'll be very happy.

I don't konw if I'll be able to sell my jewelry though. I make jewelry for myself to wear and I don't know if I could part with anything if somebody wanted to buy it. I had the same experience when I was making art collages, and a guy in class asked me if he could buy one of my collages. He said he would pay me $50 for this piece I made on the theme of beauty. I was very torn. I probably should have let him buy it and then I could have had the satisfaction of being a paid artist.

What I should have done was take a picture or a copied the artwork through a copy machine, and then sell it. Then at least I would have some record of the piece before it left my hands. That guy would have probably put my art collage up in his house and had it framed and everything. Right now that collage is sitting in my art collage portfolio gathering dust. I haven't looked at the piece since that class. Silly huh?

If I would have sold it to Peter, my art would have hopefully been framed and shown to people and lived the life of a beloved piece of artwork instead of being forgotten by the artist and put away and thought about in odd moments.

I am watching the last broadcast of Monday Night Football. What a sad incident! I have so many memories growing up and watching Monday Night Football with the family, and then later as an adult going to Monday Night Football parties or watching it in various bars all over the country.

They say it's moving to ESPN but it won't be the same. But I guess it's inevitable as John Madden and Al Michaels are getting old and I don't think the ratings have been that great. Ah well, it's another American institution ending and a sad night for football fans the world over.

I don't know about you, but ESPN has the worst announcers! Some of those guys are like so illiterate. Let's hope they get better broadcasters. Hey, does this mean we won't get to see the jumprope competition or the those huge guys chopping logs on ESPN anymmore?

I can't end the posts for the day on such a negative note. I've lost about 10 pounds with all the dramarama going on with car and at work. So once again, my size 8 jeans are fitting again. YEAH! I haven't been able to get into those jeans since I broke up with the red-headed guy. It's nice to have my jeans fit again. Of course, my gigoundous tummy is still there because when I lose weight it comes off my bum and legs first and off my stomach last, but I am very happy to be fitting into my clothes again.

So I guess my new year's resolution for next year is again to try and lose more weight to get rid of my tummy. I'd like to drop another 20 pounds or so and get back into a size 6 which I was starting to get into two years ago before I changed jobs.

I joined weight watchers and although I've been too busy to go to meetings, it must have helped because I did lose weight. Not a lot of weight but enough for my pants to fit again.