Very Cool Find

A couple of weeks ago, I made a great find at one of the collection stations, these fabulous old bottles. I was goofing off for Tracy, The State's best photog, and found these in the glass recycling bin. I'm going to use them in some of my presentations. First, to show kids that things did used to come in glass, and then to show them that glass lasts forever, as evidenced by the bleach bottle.


I've been trying to get them clean for a couple of weeks, and this is the best I've been able to do. I've used ammonia, rust remover, denture tablets, you name it. But they're much cleaner than when we found them. And since most of them are 50+ years old, I guess the remaining stains just give them character!


I've been able to do some research on this old Clorox bottle. It was made in 1943. Clorox has an entire section dedicated to the bottles on their Web site.




Here's a neat group. The amber one has "Father John's Medicine" embossed on it. The others have no writing on them.




The bottle on the left has "Neurosine" embossed around the top. From what I can find out, it is from 1860-1900 era.


Soda bottles. The middle one is so cool. See the close up of it. The Pepsi bottles aren't so old - probably from the mid-1960s.





This group includes my two favorites. There's one that has "French Gloss" embossed on it. The other I love is the little "McCormick" bottle.



Turns out that French Gloss was shoe polish for blackening women's and children's shoes.



From a quick eBay search, I see that these bottles aren't worth a lot, but they are very cool and will make neat bud vases. From what I can find out, the majority were manufactured in the early 1900s. I hope to do some additional research on the Web to see what else I can uncover.

Did You Know We Have Cats, Too?

They don't always take center stage, but here are pictures of our sweet kitties.

Pikachu sitting on a box. Kayren, that's actually your birthday present box, so hopefully he won't get too comfortable.

Speaking of too comfortable, this is Duchess lolling around. She's a beautiful cat, but looks more like Buddha in this picture!

Papa Bone's Retirement Party No. Two

As some of you know, Dad retired from the Energy Office/State Budget Control Board a few weeks ago. They had a nice send-off for him then, but this week threw his official retirement party. Enjoy the pictures taken by Frances Anne, the young blonde with Dad below. (No, the one on the left. The other young blonde is Mom!)

Assorted pictures from the gift giving and presentations.

Co-workers, past and present, and other party guests. I'm afraid if I start listing names, I'll mess up and/or leave someone out.

And a few more...

Happy Retirement, Papa Bone! We love you!

A Sister Again

The return to my roots is over. I had my hair highlighted today, so maybe now folks will think Beth and I are SISTERS again, not mother and daughter.

Ooooh, it looks so shiny and healthy and natural, even!

The Bone Family, Minus One

Here are some great pictures of Mom, Dad and Beth on a recent trip to Gramma's house. I stayed home with the menagerie - and look what I missed. These were taken in the wonderful town of McBee, home of Mac's Pride peaches.

Mom finally found a Pepsi she can't drink. (But I bet she tried!)

Papa Bone driving.

Long trip.

Green Acres is the place to be. Faaaarm living is the life for me.

Work Pictures, Finally

I promised new stuff. Here it is. These are some pictures I took my first week or so at work. So it's not really NEW, but like NBC reruns that you haven't seen, new to YOU.

After making wine bottle lamps for everyone else, I finally made one for myself.

This was my first office project - to create a new bottle cap bulletin board. I have one finished now and have gotten halfway through a second one.

This is a very cool going away gift from the KMB Board. It's a tart lamp, although I use it more as a lamp. Same lamp, different lighting. Gorgeous!

View from my window - various trash trucks all day long. Some days I try to keep my blinds close, but I never make it past noon. I'm like a child with the trucks; I have to be able to see them!

This was so cool, and I've never seen it again. The bomb truck from the Sheriff's Department detonates stuff at the landfill. That day, I went out and talked to the deputies. They said something about a caonnonball, but they might've been pulling my leg. But they DO detonate stuff in part of the landfill, that much is true.

Cool stuff, huh?

Up and Running

Yahoo! The new computer is up and running!

I picked it up Friday afternoon, and the guy was trying to show me what plug went where. When I told him that I understood how to set up a computer, he said,"Oh, well, we'll be hearing from you next week." I quickly replied, "Excuse me?" and then he said, "Well if we don't, we should probably be calling you."

Yes, you should be calling me. In fact, I was tempted to call him today to tell him that I am available for consulting at that outrageous IT rate, double if I have to work with him.

ANYWAY, the computer is great. I have one last piece of software to add - Quicken - and I'll be set and ready.

Long Overdue Blog Update

First of all, I promise to be better about blogging. This afternoon, I'm picking up our NEW COMPUTER and plan to set it up this weekend. This will make it TRES easier for me to blog, download pictures, etc. For you longtime blog readers, you may remember that this (or something similar to it) has been on my mind since December 30. I WILL have it done by the weekend.

Another long term project is coming to an end - returning to my roots. Yes, I did grow out my color, and it was darling. It looked like Jamie Lee Curtis, and I loved it. Until someone thought I was Sister's MOTHER. And then it happened again this week. For those of you who don't know, I'm ONLY three years older than Sister, and I act much younger than she does. So until I can get Jeff to work me in, I washed out the gray with a temporary rinse last night. I have to admit that it looks better and that I look - ahem - more my age.

So, if I survive installing this new computer, look for more and better blog postings in coming weeks. If you don't see any, I'm probably still in the basement office, trying to reconfigure our Internet access.

Happy Weekend!