End of the three day weekend

 these baskets were pretty nice.  All one method of making them and all by the same hand.

 this is just a small part of the scroll saw work of this man.  Quite a challenge to work this small.

 This woodland sprite/winter elf doll was quire remarkable.  He is the biggest of the dolls displayed.

 Most of the dolls were about 8 inches tall and many of them were mermaids.  Of course we have to remember  that Maine is one of the Maritime states of the USA.

 The mermaids...............replete with pet fish.

the sculpted faces were remarkable.  She uses pantyhose for the heads - that is easy to sculpt.  Been there done that but not in miniature like she has done.  wonderful work.

We are at the end of our three day weekend; practically unheard of in the Missionary World.  Saturday came and it was VERY cold and so I wore my Alpaca hat.  Most people stared at me because to them this is mild weather.  Well it is colder than it ever was in Prescott and my head gets cold easily.  We went to the YMCA to walk and we must have looked really out of place.  We were wearing jeans and shirts rather than the usual exercise wear of the other ‘weight lifting treadmill running souls’ who usually inhabit the Y.  The only real stipulation that they have on the door to the exercise room is that you not be wearing street shoes and we were wearing sneakers so we were ok as far as the required dress standard is concerned, after all, we were there just to walk the track for 2 miles and then leave.  On Saturday morning not too many people attend the Y.  It is remarkable the different outfits that people wear in this YMCA.  There is the “super skinny and really into” workout crowd who proudly wear their Nikes, and Polo and other famous brand figure hugging sports attire.  The invention of Spandex has done wonders (or not) to the exercise addicts.  They are most visible as they preen in front of the Mirror Wall  before they do the next machine or grab the next pair of weights.  Many of them carry pencils and paper with them to log their progress and when they leave, they appear to have not sweat one drop and look as fresh as when they came.  Sometimes the Spandex is not too kind if there are a couple of bulges that appear here and there and ruin the overall effect.  The next group is comprised of the “MachoMen” who are just about every age, from the quite young (around 14-16 yrs.) to the White haired grandpa’s who are frantically trying to “hold onto their edge” but unfortunately the edge has moved quite a bit.  Not many people can be considered correctly proportioned or have an ideal muscle mass that is delicately positioned on their frames so as to have them look like Mr. Atlas or Johnny Weismuller of Tarzan fame.  And then there are the rest of us who hope that our visit to the Y will just help us keep some semblance of physical health since we do sedentary things all day…..and the Y gives us some place out of the cold to try to achieve reasonable physical health.  However, the joy of the whole place is that they and us are there trying to maintain health and perhaps whittle the pounds off our over loaded frames.  Bill Markham does not own an overloaded frame and will probably not ever be top heavy by any stretch of the imagination.

We left the Y and went to the craft show.  This one is touted as being the biggest in Maine and was really quite good.  There was only one basket maker and loads of booths where we could taste test the jams, jellies, dips and mixes that they were selling.  There were a number of booths that sold candles and hand creams and “other c reams that were touted to heal EVERYTHING” (yes the snake oil sellers are still with us).  There was one spinner, no weavers, a number of booths sold fleece items for people as well as for animals, and one doll maker.  I was mesmerized by her dolls.  It has been a long time since I have seen someone doing needle sculpture dolls.  These were quite small dolls with a big price tag, but they were meticulously made and charming.  There was one booth where a man has done scroll saw work that was really really nice.

We left the craft show and went to Damons.  This is a popular local restaurant that was recommended by Art the archiver.  We saw that they had a sign out front advertising that they had Lobster rolls.  We ordered and then sat down to wait.  The place is very busy and many people were eating “Italians” which consisted of a hotdog size roll with ham, cheese, lettuce and  mayo and I could see nothing else on the roll but they were selling like hot cakes.  Our Lobster rolls came to the table and we were in for a surprise for sure.  They were twice the size and half the price of the lobster roll that I had when we went down to LLBean a couple of weeks ago.  Totally amazing to see the difference and it came with fries and coleslaw.

We then went down to Hallowell to the Hall-Dale high school to see their production of “Once Upon a Mattress” which is a spoof on “The Princess and the Pea”.  The Kids did a wonderful job with the play.  I have watched the Carol Burnett production of this show on DVD many times and so I am quite familiar with how it goes and these kids outdid themselves.  The boy who played the part of the Jester was really expressive with his eyes and I think he would make a good car salesman in real life.  At intermission they sold goodies to help raise money for the new theatre curtain that they need.  The old one is 20 years old and falling apart.  We went out and saw an array of baked goods that were for sale by donation.  One of the delicacies was an acorn made of a Hershey kiss, a mini Vanilla Wafer and a butterscotch chip all glued together by frosting.  I have never seen anything like that and they were easy to eat – unfortunately for me.

It was a wonderful day all round and a complete break from the digitizing.  We are now ready to go back to the archives and start again – and do the “re-works” as requested.