The holidays are here

My hard work is now behind me. This past Saturday we hosted our annual pre-Christmas family get-together. Since we are not going to NY for Christmas, I made brunch instead of the usual dinner because we'll have dinner with the same family members on Christmas day. It came off without a hitch, ham & broccoli strata, sweet potato bisque, pumpkin & chocolate chip mini-muffins, fruit & cheese and a Bob Evans French Silk Chocolate Pie.

This has left this week to gift wrapping, passing out gifts and a little holiday baking. Merry Christmas! The dogs are happy that they are not spending the holidays being boarded.

Ho, ho ho!

Our "Nature's Bounty" tree adorned with vintage Radko
fruit, vegetable and nut ornaments, and glass icicles.

It's finally beginning to look like Christmas in our household. It was a busy weekend. On Saturday, Tim and I went out to buy a Frasier fir tree and had brunch at a new local diner-type place. After that, I was off to a Saturday pottery class, "Slips and Engobes." Then Barb and I snuck out of class a little early to go over to Kelly Savino's Holiday Pottery Sale. That evening Tim and I went over to the mall for a little gift shopping and dinner. When we returned, I then spent five hours getting the tree decorated. I was finally done at 3 a.m.

My nature-themed wreath

On Sunday, a few friends and myself took a holiday wreath class with Vicki Gallagher, the horticulturist at the 577. A fun afternoon and I believe we all went home pleased with our little projects.

Sgraffito sells!

Green and brown sgraffito pots. Photos courtesy of Tim.

Well it couldn't have turned out better! This past Friday and Saturday was the annual holiday pottery sale at the TMA ceramics studio. I wished I had my camera, there was a lot of nice work of fellow potters and decent crowds. This was the first time I tested the market with my pottery. Made $349, all but five pieces sold. Twenty of my pieces were my "signature" sgraffito porcelain pots. Barb says this style is my niche and they all sold the first day. All, except two of them, I considered to be test pieces or "seconds," so many were priced to sell. I am thrilled although I now may be short on pottery gifts this year. This really has given me the confidence to continue in this direction, yes!

New work (not sgraffito).

Girls Night Out

New work: Bunny Hop

After this past week of trying to get some new prints finished and framed for the GNO yesterday and the Holiday Open House at Angelwood Gallery this weekend, my diligence paid off. Yesterday Nicki, a pottery/ vet friend, purchased the print I made after she had provided an inspiration photo of a Great Dane. It's so nice that I receive the support from many of my pottery pals. I had hoped to get two other images finished, however the ink was too slow in drying.

It was a fun night where I got to hang out with Linda S, Bonnie, Barb B, Julie B and Nadia all in one fun spot. The gallery also looked great with lots of nice stuff. We all left with something for ourselves and a few gifts. Linda and I also had a pleasant dinner beforehand at Smedlap Smithy's in Waterville. It seems she's found the perfect flexible job to keep her hands in things.

Now I'm getting ready for the Studio Pottery Sale at the Museum next week on "Black Friday" and Saturday. My dining table is currently covered with pots that I hope will sell. Otherwise, everyone knows what they will be getting for Christmas.

My 4th Wood Kiln Firing

Unloading the kiln on Wednesday evening. Pots still covered with ash.

My bunny and Julie's vase.

This past Saturday we fired up the Manabigama kiln at the 577 Foundation. Despite the cool weather, the kiln, wood firepit, food and camaraderie kept us all content. Turkey breast, Jerusalem artichokes, baked potatoes and bread were all cooked wood coals. It was all good.

My pal Barb with her siren pitcher.

While it might not have been the most successful firing in terms of everyone's results, there were still quite a few beautiful pieces. I believe the kiln did not reach the desired temperature toward the back.  Not a big issue, some of mine I will re-fire in a future firing.

Not the most flattering photo, here are just some of the group with
Julie (in the shark headdress), our fearless leader.

More of the same

Busy, busy, busy—with clay of course. Just found out that next Monday is supposed to be our last day of starting any new wet clay work. This seems a little early considering the last class is Dec. 1. Apparently if it has been started, we can continue finishing, so I will be throwing like a crazy potter this week. At least we're able to get into the studio 6 days a week. I have been throwing so much that the clay has sucked out the oil out of my hands so I have severe dish-pan hands.

My thought is the more I can get done, the more I'll have to sell. I have been somewhat pleased using the museum's glazes, clay bodies and slips. Of course, I'm highly critical of my work and still see much room for improvement and development but I am progressing. Spring museum classes don't begin until Jan. 24.

I'm running out of time in terms of getting new print work done
for the holidays. Perhaps if I get a dehumidifier in my studio the ink
will dry faster on my prints. I have a couple of new promising pieces in the works.

Not sure where all the kids came from on Halloween but we ran out of candy by 6:45. We didn't buy that much but we normally don't get that as many as we had this year. So it was lights out and out for dinner. Looking forward to seeing Elaine and Bonnie tomorrow for a GNO in Perrysburg, dinner at Stella's and some holiday open houses.

Another wood kiln firing this weekend at 577! These are always fun. More pottery I can't sell so hopefully they will make nice gifts.

Life is good…

but it has been very busy since my last posting. There simply aren't enough hours in a day to do all I want to do. Then suddenly it's 3 a.m. and I just make myself go to sleep so I can wake up around 9-ish. This week I put in a lot of hours at the museum (TMA) and a few at 577. I've also been bringing home pots from TMA to sgraffito (scratch designs on) and cutting linoleums for prints late into the night. Both the TMA Pottery Studio Sale and Holiday Angelwood Gallery show dates are looming and I need to get as much new stuff done for them. Being able to sell pottery will be a first for me.

Also next month is another 577 wood kiln firing and I'm almost finished getting things ready for that. This week I also put some pieces in the UT/TMA wood kiln firing at 577 since they had extra space. However I wished I had gotten some new things made, instead I put in things I had made at 577 that I wasn't particularly crazy about. The all-day firing is today. Fortunately I am not required to be there but I'll certainly be there for the unloading next week.

I am feeling obsessed about pottery, it consumes me. There is so much I want to accomplish but there is such a delay (weeks) in knowing if something is working or not because there are so many steps in the process where things can go wrong. So the more I do, my odds improve that there will be some gratification in the end. My results recently were split 50/50 between success/failure. I'm still figuring out what glazes, underglazes and slips will work for my pieces. I need Tim to take some new photos for me.

Last week I enjoyed a pleasant girls night out with Linda S. and Bonnie. We explored a few little shops in BG, Helena and Pemberville. We hope to do something like that again soon.

Nothing could top the time Tim and I had at the Eagles concert this past Wednesday evening. It was a birthday gift for Tim which I got to thoroughly enjoy. They were just fabulous, our seats on the side stage were so close we could see it all and they couldn't have sounded better. Don Henley, who has always been my fave, was perfection and Joe Walsh was the hard rocker of the group was also exceptional. The full-house audience knew every song except for 4 songs off their latest CD. The title track, Long Road Out of Eden was one of the great new Henley songs. They didn't get to sing every one of their hits because there have been so many although they played for 3 hours. Just momentous.

Autumn color

The backyard and where is that rain we were supposed to get?

It's back to fall-like weather and plenty of
color. I was beginning to wonder if
my mums (variety shown: Soft Cheryl)
would ever bloom and that warm weather
we had earlier this week made them all
bloom. Another freak flowering was my
one iris plant. Until now, it has never
bloomed in the fall and never twice in
a season.


Great sleeping weather, just wish Jerry felt better. Back for another glucose panel at the with Tiffany the vet on Friday.

Just a progress report

It's October already and we'll be celebrating Tim's birthday tomorrow at the usual place, seafood or Italian at the docks.

Love this cooler weather but it does mark the wind-down of the gardening season. Just recently I grew and picked a fall harvest of giant pole string beans (seeds provided by Louise, a pottery friend). She said they would surprise me and they did, not tough at all, as you would imagine, and almost sweet. I'll be saving some seeds. I'll be able to grow them on my home trellis next year. I moved some of my 577 perennial herbs over to my kitchen garden. I need to start cleaning up and mulching that garden at 577 this week.

Christopher is here again, working on the privacy fence so we'll be able to contain my one neighbor's sprawling thicket and hide their broken-down split rail. He's a brute, hand-digging all those holes. Next year, I envision removing some of the ivy ground cover and planting, if possible, a espaliered fruit tree.

Jerry is still out of sorts—he's feeling perkier however he's not well. He was always the chow hound and these past 2 weeks he has been so finicky and lost about 3 pounds. Three pounds is a lot for a dog his size.
He's back at the vet all day for series of glucose testing.

Pottery and prints are keeping me busy. Cheryl C. purchased from me a commissioned print of her pug Lollipop, aptly named "My girl Lollipop." I was happy with the way it turned out however I hate dealing with pricing and the money exchange. Cheryl appears to like it too. She will be returning for the winter to Hilton Head at the end of the week. This saddens me because she is really a joy to be around. Last week, she invited Julie, Nadia and I over for a lovely lunch at her home in Maumee. She is a fabulous cook and baker.

This weekend we finally saw Scott H. It had been a long time since we got together. Went to his opening at Bozart's on Friday where we saw other artist friends as well. Also met Scott, Renee and Carl at Moe's in Rossford Saturday night. I'm hoping we'll stay in touch now. Tim and I had been out of the loop since moving to Perrysburg.

Now working on more sgraffito pots as well as some wood-fired pieces since there is a wood kiln firing early November. Classes at the museum are going well.

We're home!

Seagull in flight at Beavertail, Jamestown, RI

Tim and I arrived back in town late Wednesday afternoon and we made our rounds, first picking up Jerry at High Point, then Ben at South Suburban. The dogs were glad to be reunited and to be back home. Jerry's glucose levels are still fluctuating abnormally but he's feeling better than he has been recently. More vet visits and blood tests
next week.

My mom and Tim

Our flight to RI went smoothly, enjoyed perfect weather and we saw my mom, aunt, brother and sister-in-law. While there, I really enjoyed a huge 1 3/4-lb. lobster plus lots of other seafood and of course, clam chowder. One of my seafood favorites I had were stuffed quahogs, called stuffed clams everywhere else.

Aside from eating and a little shopping, Tim and I took it easy and went exploring near our Jamestown, RI, home on Conanicut Island. The southern end of the island is called Beavertail where the 1856 lighthouse sits on the rocky shoreline.

Also on the island is a windmill that was built in 1787. An old millstone that ground corn can be seen in
the foreground.
Dry-stacked stone walls, some hundreds of years old, are found on farms all over
the state.

Between our travel expenses, Jerry's hospital stay, Benny's boarding, the tree trimming and a malfunctioning refrigerator, it has been a costly period. Good news, all my prints were accepted at the museum store's submission day on Saturday.

A Jerry scare

One of the dogs, as many of you know, has diabetes. That's Jerry (red collar). He's my little trooper. He's been pricked and poked with more than a thousand insulin shots. This week he was so sick, we thought we were going to lose him. We took him in yesterday to see Tiffany, my friend and vet, and she discovered he had a UTI, was slightly anemic with severe hypoglycemia. Having low sugar levels is just the opposite of diabetes. Apparently this can happen when an infection is present which happened to Jerry once before and landed him in the hospital. That time he already was being boarded at our previous vet's so we did not witness his decline. This time, Tiffany got his sugar levels up enough so he started to feel better and came home for the night.

All happening just before we leave for RI. So Jerry will be staying at High Point Animal Hospital with drs. Tiffany and Nicki (AKA Monica, also a pottery friend) while Benny will be going to South Suburban this afternoon where it's like summer camp for dogs. Jerry left this morning. Tiffany was so good and picked him up. I know this was the best choice for care because Jerry still has to get regulated. It's no wonder why we rarely go anywhere these days. Benny is wondering where his best friend and brother is…

An early posting

This week was my first week of pottery classes at the Toledo Museum. The studio and the people are quite a contrast from 577's. There will be a learning curve just getting accustomed to their wheels, clay body, plaster bats and all that is new to me. I am looking forward to using and learning how to make a few new things such as underglazes, Mason stains and slips. Right now, I am focusing on working with surface design and color. I also think I'll enjoy some of the glazing effects that can be done in a gas-fired kiln. The people there seem to be more focused on artistic expression that making functional pottery. It'll
be interesting.

While I was there, Rex Fogt, the UT ceramics prof, walked through the studio. I asked him if he remembered me. He said, "Sure, you've taken class here before." I told him it was 1972 and that sort of surprised him. That year was his first year of teaching. I do think he may have seen me around there when I took printmaking classes in the late 80s.

The Walgreen's plastic neti-pot and mine. Pretty funny, eh?

I picked up a bunch of pots
I made at 577
this week. Among them was a
neti-pot. I thought
I should have stoneware version. I tested it and it works great. Not too many people have a
custom neti. Other pots I got include a set of 5 dessert bowls that are surprisingly consistent in size, weight and color. Yay!

Today the tree trimmers were back for a second time this year, this time taking out some straggly shrubs and branches and trimming back my neighbors' along the one side of the backyard where my neighbor's fence is literally crumbling. Since they have no plans to repair it, we decided to go ahead and install a privacy fence. Christopher also came by today and I hope he and his brother will do the installation. Hadn't planned on this added expense but figured better to do it in the fall than next spring when everything is sprouting. Tim already guessed that I am envisioning a espaliered fruit tree or two against the fence. (Chuckle.)

Ben and Jerry are going to the animal hospital for a 5-night doggy vacation this Friday while Tim & I fly to Rhode Island for a family visit, good food and relaxation. I'll post when we get back.

A week of nostalgia

Despite being retired, the holiday did seem to throw off even my routines this week. On Labor Day, I made flat iron steak on the grill, so I actually cooked on a Monday and not my usual Sunday. With it, we had La Brea Tuscan bread with my "own-grown" organic garlic that I cooked in the ceramic garlic roaster I made. I also made Cheryl C.'s peach pie, baked in, yes, a pie plate I made.

Oh and there has been lots of our homegrown tomatoes…not the sweetest we've had (Vicki thought it might be due to a dry, hot summer) but I still made lots of good salsa and sandwiches.

Got another commission job for a linocut print. My pottery/vet friend Nikki provided a great photo of a Great Dane perched on a chair. I liked the image so much that I would have tried doing it anyways. Coming up with a name for my prints is half the fun. Perhaps this one will be "Paws and pause."

Today Tim and I went to Black Swamp Festival in BG. Always a great venue, it was beautiful weather but the art is still not the caliber as seen at Ann Arbor's fair. We stopped in an art gallery right on Main St., owned by a woman I knew from a printmaking class I had taken more than 20 years ago. She remembered me, had seen my prints recently at Angelwood Gallery and would like to show my work. I told her if I can produce enough work I might take her up on the offer.

This week I decided to go through some boxes of old photos from high school, college and post-college days. You fool yourself in thinking that you haven't changed much until it's there in black and white. Whoa! I also tried to recall what happened when, where and why—it made me sad that I lost touch with some dear friends and it excites me that I might get a another chance at renewing old friendships. Thank you Facebook. So I posted some photos on my "wall" and the response has been fun. On the other hand,  I have been ignoring some "friend requests" and it makes me feel a little guilty. I figure that it's challenging enough to maintain contact with friends who are long-distance yet important to me. I have always been notoriously bad at keeping in touch.

So there's another reason for having this blog. I am trying to post at least once a week. So if you're interested in my doings, you can bookmark this…

Here's something I found this week that made me really nostalgic. It made me realize how much I missed in losing touch with this friend. It was sent to me in 1967 when I was at summer camp. It makes feel as good now as it did then. I sent this copy to her this week.

A pottery week, a good week

This was taken at my first wood-fire unloading in early July.
The rooster is mine. The angel is Lisby Pollock's.

This past week I sure put my share of hours doing pottery-associated things. Aside from throwing pots and handbuilding a new saltbox lid, I was there glazing—some of my things and some abandoned pots for Harrison Rally Day. There was a group of us there, all volunteer glazing on Friday. I also signed up for the Museum's ceramics class that starts on the 13th and goes until Dec. 1. It will be 72 hours of class time and possibly some independent time as well. There is a possibility that the class will be cancelled because there is not enough students registered. I hope not, my hope is that it will be a nice segue into possibly joining the Potters' Guild next January.

Tim also shot a lot of pots for both Julie and myself. I also got to choose a pot from Julie that Tim received in exchange for his photo services. I really like it and it's now on the living room coffee table. I know it was one of Julie's favorites because she posted the photo of it as a Facebook profile picture. The next three photos are some of those Tim took for my portfolio. Both Julie's pots and the photos looked really
good too.

A sgraffito pot.

I am continuing to produce what appears to be a series of sgraffito carvings on my pots, as mentioned in a previous blog and shown at left. I am still fine-tuning how much black to leave on the pot versus how much white. I also want to come up with another subject pattern other than flowers and leaves although I do like a nature theme. It's also something other than
"my" animals.

Besides pottery, it was also the week to see girlfriends, all of whom I happened to work with at BGSU at one time or another but not all together. Wednesday was dinner with Elaine, Thursday was lunch with Deb and Linda at Aladdin's. Linda and I then shopped a little at Franklin Park. That evening, Bonnie and I walked all over the Farmers Market in Perrysburg looking for a particular CSA farmer who we finally found. Then we had a mediocre Chinese dinner.
A lot of talking, all fun.

Wednesday was my salon day at Soto's. Cut and color plus my first professional pedicure. I could get accustomed to being pampered that way. A pricey day. The very dark green nail polish color I chose was a lot like the little pitcher shown below.

Tim took this great photo of my pitcher. It was wheel-thrown and altered with an applied spout and hand-pulled handle.  It was dipped and sprayed with 2 different glazes. I wish the wall of the pot was a tad thinner.

I am also now getting ready to submit work at Collector's Corner at the Toledo Museum again. It has been probably 12 years or more since I had anything there. I had been very successful (selling regularly) there. It's now a much smaller space so I'm not sure how many, if any, they will take. We'll see but at least it has me thinking about new prints. I also had a good day of sales. Angelwood Gallery sold three prints to one person. I feel like I have a fan.

I am beginning to work on a new linocut of Cheryl Clephane's pug, Lollipop. She gave me 5 photos for reference. There has been other interest expressed in custom dog portrait prints. I thought it might be fun to try. After doing prints of Sam, Kappy and Maggie (some of the best dogs), perhaps it might be a niche market for me.

Today Tim and I went to Ann Arbor. We went to three pottery places—the Yourist Studio and Gallery, the Clay Gallery and the Art Center. The first was the most interesting. Kay Yourist gave us a tour of the whole studio, a really nice set-up, plus I picked up a few tools as well. We also had several other stops including Downtown Home & Garden, a favorite stop of mine, and Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. On the way back, we made a stop at Select Stone and picked up some blue tumbled pavers for stepping stones for between the brick walk and my new potager.

Have you noticed that I started adding links in the gray type to my postings? This blogging is amusing. Happy (no) Labor Day weekend.

A favorite wood-fired bowl that was  fired in
my first Managama kiln firing.

Wood-fired pitchers from my second firing.
( As seen on Facebook)

All I need is plants!

Like he promised, Christopher finished the arbor, gate and fence project for my kitchen garden yesterday. It's just what I wanted. If anyone is looking for a great woodworker or needs some remodeling work, let me know and I'll pass on his
contact information. I gave him a picture of an arbor I liked
and he surpassed my expectations. The craftsmanship is so much better than my example. It is really sturdy with routed edges, wood plugs to cover screws, the arbor integrated with
the fence posts, and he did it so quickly. All the wood is cedar, so there is no bad pressure-treated chemicals leaching into my garden. When
it all weathers to a nice cedar gray. it'll look even better. I feel like
Bunny Williams!

This week I'll transplant some of my perennial herbs from my 577 Foundation garden to this one and finish the brick edging around the beds. I will also go to Select Stone this week, my favorite rock store, for stepping stones to link the brick walk and the kitchen garden.

In October, the garlic cloves will get planted. With my wonderful
bounty of Ohio native garlic this year, I've saved a few bulbs to perpetuate the garlic at both gardens for next year. (Thanks Vicki, the 577 horticulturalist, who provided me with the original garlic bulb.) Can't wait until next spring when I add some large pots on the gravel areas for root vegetables and other ornamental plants. I hope Vicki offers another $10 autumn garden class this fall. She gave out so many great flower bulbs as well. Anyone interested?

In my next post, I hoping Tim will have some new photos of my recent pottery including some that are wood-fired. He's currently busy shooting caskets, yes, empty ones.

That's Jerry scoping out the perimeter.

View from the kitchen door with Tim's giant tomato plants in the foreground

Moving right along

Phase I

This past Friday Christopher and brother Jason came over and installed the fence around my kitchen garden (or shall I be pretentious and call it a parterre garden or a potager?). So far it's coming out  just as I envisioned it. Tim is documenting the progress. The first photo shows Phase I which Glass City Landscape put in.

Phase II

Above, Phase II shows the fence installed (the mesh fencing still needs to be trimmed to the top rail). Christopher is now working at home on Phase III which is the arbor and gate. They are being adapted from a photo of an arbor I found. I am so glad I decided to go ahead with this project, I can't wait until next year when the beds will be green. Ben & Jerry couldn't wait to put their mark in the garden, hence the bricks in the opening to block them.

Clif Boutelle called me the other day and wanted help on a brochure for the Wood County Library levy campaign. I can't do it because I don't have the software anymore. Nice to have an excuse. He would have had way too much copy nobody would read and the piece would look terrible. I referred him to others.  :-)

Kitchen garden project continues

I'm getting excited about the kitchen garden that I have designed and others have done the labor so far. Today Christopher (by the way, he is doing the job) came by to go over the fence and arbor plans a second time. I gave him a piece of pottery. Maybe that's what I need to start doing more. Come over, get a pot. Anyways, he and his brother will be starting Friday. Maybe Tim will photograph before and after photos.
In all our house projects, it's nice to look back and see that progress was made.

I just got this book called The Ornamental Kitchen Garden. It's right up my alley, very pretty gardens, aesthetic and functional.

Spent the last few hours framing some prints. Now I need to get back to work making new images. I have several sketches so perhaps now that it might be cooling off some (wishful thinking), I'll have some work completed in September.

On Sunday Tim & I went to the Toledo Museum to see the Toledo Area Artists show and the Psychedelic 60s Poster exhibit. The area artists show was only small works in the very sad, graphic arts galleries with very few stand-out works. The 60s show in the Canaday brought back memories. The posters were mostly silk-screen posters with a lot of handwritten type. I used to doodle just like them…a graphic designer before I knew what a designer was. A lot of Fillmore East and West posters, black lights and all, and concerts that were even better than Woodstock.

Bought a really nice vase by Mark Nafziger at Collector's Corner. A pretty stoneware piece with fish on it. Like I need another piece of pottery.

Still making salsa…

The long hot summer

This has been the hottest, muggiest summer since I have been retired. Now that we're into August, I long for those cool, breezy nights where we can sleep with open windows. Fortunately, last fall we installed a really quiet, multi-stage, energy-saving a/c unit and out of necessity, it has kicked on every day for months now.

Despite the weather, I am still going to the pottery barn at 577 where there is only fans and days when the 2000-degree-plus kilns are on and heating up the place. This pottery thing is truly an obsession. I am doing or thinking about it all the time. I surround myself with pottery books and online potters' sites where I am inspired by others, and ponder what directions I want to take next. All in pursuit of a personal style and professional quality. Currently I am doing a series of sfgraffito pots. This a form of decorating the surface of a piece by painting the surface with an engobe (a colorant for clay) and refining it by scratching off and refining the design similar to making a scratchboard drawing. An example of one I made last year is shown here. In the pieces I am currently making, I am trying colored interiors and keeping the background a little cleaner. If I'm successful, I'll post those.

This afternoon I made a fresh tomato salsa with the tomatoes and garlic I grew organically at my 577 garden. It came out great using plum tomatoes, a key to a salsa that isn't too watery. Next year, I need to remember to include a jalapeño pepper plant in the garden. I was so pleased with my garlic crop this year. Check out the size of those bulbs. I hope to double the harvest next year with a fall planting at 577 and some at home in my new kitchen garden.

Just over a week ago, the landscapers came and cut in my garden, complete with gravel paths and metal edging. It was so nice to have them do everything including the removal and haul away of the sod, add organic compost into the soil, all done in a day. I can't imagine how grueling and lengthy it would have been if I had to do it all. Phase II includes the fencing and a cedar arbor. I am hoping that Christopher Jones will be able to do the job.

Need to get back to my printmaking. Been selling enough to get a little exposure and incentive to continue producing. Got word today that the Carruth Studio wants 3 more prints for their showroom.

My journal starts today…

It's been 36 months since I retired from BGSU, 30 months since I returned to printmaking and 26 months since I began making pottery. Never a day goes by that I haven't cherished my time not working and never a regret that I didn't stay longer than minimum 30 years. I decided today would be a good day to start recording just what keeps me going, what inspires me and how I measure my successes and failures now that I am my own boss.