Work day begins: 5:28 AM I’ve got a lot of reading to catch up on, and some files to upload yet, so I’m getting an early start. Hopefully now that the holidays are over the reliability of our Internet connection will improve. During the holiday period our computer would connect at a speed of 47 to 52 K/sec but our data through put typically averaged 0.32 to 0.47 K/sec (about 1/2 of a K on a 56 K modem). This meant that the connection would time out before we succeeded in transferring files or even get our e-mail to send and receive. It’s been very frustrating. Shop Opens: 8:00 AM It’s about 60° degrees this morning, no need for a fire, but it is raining, so I’ll get nothing more done on my lumber stacks today. Just as well, though, Jim’s hardware has arrived so I can resume assembling the island. First, though, I need to produce some stain boards. Both Jim and Stew have requested samples, so I might as well get those done before I stir up a lot of saw dust. Then I’ll work on jointing the parts for the butcher block top of the island and begin the gluing-up process. It’s quitting time and I have half of the butcher block top glued up. I’m gluing just one half at a time because that’s all that will go through my planer at one time. Once both halves are glued up and surface planed to exactly the same thickness, I’ll joint the two halves and glue them together. Workshop closes: 5:00 PM This evening I’ll be printing out newsletters for all the Treasures artists, stuffing them into the envelopes that already contain their paychecks and inventory summaries and getting them ready to mail out tomorrow. If I have some extra time, I’ll continue working on the new Treasures On-Line Store, as I still have almost a hundred items to post.