Three weeks ago I was having a February. I was counting the days till spring, and till my husband came home on leave from Afghanistan. I didn't know that I was going to Tucson.

Three weeks ago I didn't have a first-class display, multiple framed prints, brand spankin' new business cards with my mineral art on them (collect all three!), mineral greeting cards (been meaning to make those!), a beautiful new brochure, two new dresses and a cool shirt. ( I feel a song coming on...) My poor volcano skirt languished in my studio waiting for me to take fabric paint to it to cover the greenish lava flows that had resulted when my husband had washed it, causing the blue dye of the skirt (which had done correctly, BTW) run.

Three weeks ago I was reasonably sure where all (okay, most) of my marbles were.

Last night I looked at Intellicast and realized that the clothes I had packed would not be warm enough for the weather forecast for Tucson. I had packed for higher than 67 degrees; most days I'll be lucky if it GETS to 67 degrees. I reassess the clothing packed. Two sun dresses come out and are replaced by silk skirts, which will be more appropriate. I go digging for matching shirts (remember, it's FEBRUARY so all my spring and summer clothes are packed away!) Shirts are obtained, including a sleeveless white linen blouse which will be perfect with one of the skirts.

Joy, it needs pressing. I troop downstairs, pull down my cool new pull down ironing board, fire up the iron and start pressing. Things are going fine until I get to the buttonhole side...and there are some sort of GREASE STAINS on the shirt!

By this point I have about had it with packing and unpacking. I whip out the Tide Bleach Pen and go after the stains. Results are minimal. I cast about for ideas. I don't want to look for another shirt, dammit.

Wait. I have DAWN dish detergent! They use DAWN to get oil spills out of ducks! I slather the spots with DAWN; I scrub them together and get a good foam going, then rinse. Guess what? The spots did not come out all the way, but they are WAY less noticeable.

Clearly that was my one remaining marble rolling into view just long enough to save me...

More probably tonight. I will be traveling to Philadelphia tonight; I'm staying at a hotel where I can leave my car for the week (the package cost about $30 more than off-site parking, and it's WAY closer to the airport AND I won't have to worry about the two-hour drive, parking, shuttle, airport security, dust-up over my makeup or something else that makes me look like a terrorist, doing the OJ Simpson run to the gate (which predates the low-speed chase in the white Bronco), etc.

Now if I can just get my camera into the briefcase...

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