One of the things we did when we moved up here was to give away the Corell dishes we used every day and just keep our nice wedding china. It seemed silly to have great Lennox china on the shelf that only got used about a dozen times in 20 years. If it was that good we wanted to use it every day and it works great. Now one of the things we've discovered though is that unlike Corell this stuff chips. Most of the time we just shrug and go on but sometimes I try to fix the piece. This week was one of those incidents. A saucer had gotten hit and took a large flat flake off of the bottom. I decided to glue it back on. I've done this before and if I get to it quickly and the flake fits back perfectly it's almost not noticeable if you don't wear your glasses. 

From my previous attempts I've learned a few things. First I put the plate to be repaired on a piece of waxed paper. I prefer the backing sheets from peel and stick labels, They are made specifically so the label glue won't stick, and they are thicker than waxed paper so they hold up much better and nothing soaks through. The other thing I've learned is that if super-glue gets on your skin it will bond it immediately so I wear latex gloves. Then I can peel the gloves off my hands and, though they will be stuck to the dish, nothing is stuck to me. 

So I put the plate down on the waxed sheet and applied a good amount of super-glue. I probably used a bit more than I needed but I wanted to make sure I had enough and the tube was about out so I was planning on discarding it anyway. I then fit the piece into place. Once it was set exactly right I clamped it between the thumb and fingers of my left hand. Now I just had to hold it in place for a few minutes and then peel the glove off and let it set to dry. Once the adhesive was dry I would roll the glove off the glue and clean up the seam with a razor blade. As I said once complete it's nearly invisible (from 20 paces). 

The question was what to do while I waited for the super-glue to dry. Fortunately this week I had found one of my favourite programs on-line. Dave the Barbarian was a hysterical show that Disney had on in the mid 2000s. It is simply the funniest thing Disney has ever done, before or since. The strange thing is that after 22 episodes, and just as they were getting ready for the next season it vanished. It wasn't just cancelled. Disney dropped it without explanation from their schedule. They've never put out any DVDs'.  They do not admit that the show ever existed. It's like the show was grabbed by the KGB and erased. It's the strangest thing. If anyone ever finds where  to get video's of Dave the Barbarian let me know. I'd love to add Dave the Barbarian to my collection. 

Anyway I had found one place on line that had a small number of Dave the Barbarian episodes. They only have 5, and the quality is fairly iffy but at the moment it's the best I can do. I decided to grip the plate in my left hand and call up one of the episodes on my MacBook with my right. It was a good way to kill some time. The first thing I did was to grab the cuff of my right glove with my teeth and yank it off. Actually I only got it halfway off when I suddenly realized that the glove, with my hand pinned inside it was glued to my face.

So, I'm sitting there, my right hand stuck to the plate and the backing paper on the table, my left hand bonded in a speak-no-evil pose over my mouth and I couldn't get out. The absurdity of my position hit me and I started to chuckle. This yanked on my beard which hurt. This only made the situation more ridiculous which made me laugh harder. Have you ever tried to force yourself to stop laughing? It doesn't work. So by this time I was in a fair amount of pain and laughing hysterically, (though Marsha told me later, with an oddly, muffled voice). 

Finally, in the other room Marsha couldn't take it any more. "OK, what in the heck is so funny." It took me some minutes to gather my composure before I could emit a thin squeaky 'help'. She came in and I tried to explain to her what had happened. But each time I started I cracked up and dropped into incoherent giggles. Finally she looked closely at the problem and with a quick yank on the glove, and a twist of my arm pulled my hand free from my face. Apparently it wasn't the glue stuck to my face after all. As the latex glove had rolled off my hand it had picked up part of the beard and it was all caught in a knot over my lower lip. I didn't end up losing much, a few hairs and the next day had a sore patch on my cheek. The next time though, when I repair a plate I think I'm going to try something else. Not sure what, but I will make sure Marsha is home when I do it.

D&M

Pix: Marsha's first (surviving) tulip. Ominous clouds over the mountains. No snow though.