1. When's the last time you went to Starbucks? I never go to Starbucks. In fact, I never drink coffee.

2. What's the longest you ever went without sleep? When I was 16, I got to go on a summer exchange to Australia organized by one of my teachers. It was my first trip overseas. I was so excited I woke up at 6am on the day I was leaving and stayed awake all day. My plane left at midnight, and once on the plane, I stayed awake the entire 14-hour plane ride. THEN it was 6am in Sydney when we arrived and I stayed up the first whole day. By dinnertime that evening, when I was sitting down to dinner with my brand new host family, I had been awake about 40 hours and I couldn't sit upright or carry a coherent conversation. I was completely disfunctional! It was ridiculous! My host mother caught on, and she put me into bed without dinner and I slept for 18 hours. All this because I was SO excited to travel.

3. Do you think your handwriting fits your personality? I think my handwriting is messy now, because I type more often that I write these days. I don't think it says much about my personality though.

4. Would you line-dry your clothes instead of machine-dry them, if you had the option? Yes, absolutely. I've often done this when I've lived in apartments with outdoor clotheslines. Smells nice!

5. What was the nickname of your high school sports team? We were "The Ponies", pretty tough eh?

In this photo:

• drill press, which I use for drilling holes into my necklaces

• toothbrush for cleaning gunk off glass

• a glimpse of my purple glass grinder, with the cardboard sheild that keeps it from spraying water all over

• stained glass panel of a beaver and a stream that I made last spring

• my window, which looks over a factory rooftop

Yesterday evening was a bit stormy. There were low clouds over seattle. At one point I was surprised to see what appeared to be a glowing red flame over one neighborhood. I watched a little longer and realized it was a rainbow, but only the red part of the spectrum was bright enough to see. It was an unusual phenomenon, but not altogether surprising because last night's stormy weather produced a lot of dramatic clouds and colors.

Ever seen the innards of an escalator? I hadn't. Not until the other day, in downtown Seattle. It was strangely fascinating, in a way similar to watching that show How It's Made on the Science Channel.

The hidden nuts & bolts:

Steps stacked up, like a collection of loose teeth:

The things below your feet and inside the handrail:

This also reminded me of when I was in high school and I listened to a (rather cheesy) comedy science show called Dr. Science. This was one of Dr. Science's many illuminations:

QUESTION:

WHERE DO ESCALATOR STEPS GO AFTER THEY DISAPPEAR?

DR. SCIENCE:

THEY STACK UP IN THE BASEMENT.

QUESTION:

WHAT HAPPENS TO THE ESCALATOR STEPS WHEN THE BASEMENT GETS FILLED UP?

DR SCIENCE:

I'M GLAD YOU ASKED THAT. MANY PEOPLE DON'T KNOW THIS, BUT ESCALATORS ARE AN ENDANGERED SPECIES. THE POOR REPTILES ARE CONSTANTLY BEING STEPPED ON AND IGNORED. ONCE THEY GO INTO THE BASEMENT, MANY DIE. THE DEAD ESCALATORS THEN BECOME STAIRS, CONTRIBUTING TO THE RISE OF THE STAIR POPULATION AND THE FALL OF THE ESCALATOR POPULATION. THANK YOU FOR YOUR QUESTION.

1. When you cook or bake, do you use a recipe? I almost never bake, but I cook dinner a lot. Most of the time I just improvise from ingredients in the fridge. I'm a pretty good improviser. If I need a recipe I usually end up searching online for about 4 or 5 variations on similar recipes then combine the best parts of each into my dinner.

2. What were you doing a year ago today? Without a doubt I was in my studio, working on glass, which has filled about 800% of my time during the past 3 years.

3.What's the last tragic thing you saw or heard? Just last night coming home there was a guy face down on the sidewalk with medics over him. Just beyond that a car was pulled over. I think the car hit a pedestrian. Spooky & sad.

4. What is your favorite building? The first thing that jumps to my mind is this radically fabulous modern highrise office building in Singapore. From the outside it's eerie and looks like something out of Gotham City. I think it even has gargoyles. In the lobby there's a cavernous, gorgeous art deco hall with a bar. The bottle rack behind the bar is about two stories tall and if someone orders a bottle high up, a wine steward dressed as a devil or angel floats up with a harness and pulley system to grab the bottle. At the other end of the room there's a robotic jazz band that plays. It's all surreal and fabulous. Very modern design.

Proof --  a couple pics off the web from flickr user Glenn Carter:

5. What are you doing this weekend? Well, I said last week that I was doing a navigation class for mountaineering, but it turns out that it's actually this weekend so that's what I'm doing. Other than that, no specifics yet.

1. What's your favorite fruit? There are a couple fruits in Southeast Asia I love - mangosteen, rambutan and jackfruit. Mmmm!

2. Which way does your toilet paper roll, forward or backward? Good Lord! If I had the time to even know the answer to this I'd be living a very different life right now. Up, down, forward, backward whatever... I'll use it any way it works.

3. What was the last thing you dreamed? Last night I dreamed that I put on a purple tanktop that I just bought (in real life) but in my dream it had long poofy sleeves and I was confused.

4. What's the first movie you remember seeing? Star Wars (the original one) I was maybe 5?

5. What are you doing this weekend? Saturday - navigation class with the Mounaineers Club, I'm going to learn to roam around with compasses & maps. Sunday - going to a plant sale held by Seattle Tilth, more plants for our porch! I'm thinking carrots, blueberries, maybe dill?