"I Never Drink Anything Stronger than Gin for Breakfast"*

(I know, hardly the words you'd expect to find on this blog....)

The day didn't start out too fabulously as J10X & I got up at the crack of dawn so we could trek down to New London and hang a print in the Hygienic 'Salon des Independants' art show. So, I girded my loins, slapped my face on and bundled up for the inevitable 10th circle of hell that is the line outside the Hygienic Art Gallery

Well, instead of the ridiculously long line we expected to see at 7:30 in the morning (like last time), we didn't see anyone. So, I thought perhaps we were too early (and me without my morning cuppa!), but we got there at exactly the right time- there were about 10 artists and various Hygienic (hygienic?) personnel about. So we skipped in, hung my print (Cranky, I think it's exactly where your piece had been hung the year you submitted that gorgeous car photo) and I looked at the posters being offered.....hmmm, my piece didn't make it as a poster...oh, well, that's a bit of a bummer. Oh, look at the t-shirts- holy crap, my poster is the t-shirt for this year! Well, that's cool!

So, J10X scarfed up a couple of t-shirts and we headed off to the State Street Diner, but on the way stopped to chat with Peter Crowley who has a gorgeous 'political porn' piece in the show. The diner was blissfuly near-empty, and we had standard diner fare for eats.

Well, so far, so good! Fed & happy, we decided to jet down to the Book Barn for their annual Big Sale - 30% of of everything! As it was just 9am when we arrived at the Book Barn Downtown, (home to books, guinea pigs, turtles and an enormous cat named Frank), we missed the crowds again. I scored a bunch of good stuff, as did J10X - those of you who are into retro cars need to ask J10X what he scored! One of the treasures I found was a lovely little book of *WC Fields' quotes....and Jim Miller, who is the real gem of the Book Barn. You just have to appreciate a person whose remark on J10X's lunatic cellphone ring was 'That sounds like the sped-up version of Torgo's theme song from "Manos, Hands of Fate"....

What a perfect morning! And it'll only get better....