Paul and Jennifer Kimball

Our Family Paul, Becky, Emily and Jennifer at Kitt Peak, 2004 See our blog, below!

Our Work Interface Associates 25+ years experience in S/W development, training & management: XML, UML, OOAD, Java, J2EE, EJB, C/C++, CORBA, X/Motif.  Home of "The X Tookit Cookbook" Pyros Glass Studio Hand-crafted art glass gifts, jewelry, home decor. Special tools and supplies for artists. Home of the "Freeze 'N' Fuse" Technique.  See our show schedule! Ithaca BioControls College-level tutoring in the arts and sciences; biological consulting services Autumn Fire Productions Jazz music for your special occasions Listen to our CD!

Our Blog (Updated June 2006)

Major updates to the Pyros website this week. Added the PayPal shopping cart, and just in time, too! Our article on Freeze 'N' Fuse just hit the newsstands in Glass Art Magazine. We cornered the market on Bullseye Crystal Clear powder and are now waiting for them to fix their crusher.

Our new garden is starting to take shape around a cluster of blueberry bushes, raspberries and grapevines.

May 2006

What an amazing, exhilarating and exhausting month we've had!  At the beginning of April we went to our first big trade show to sell Freeze 'N' Fuse.  Events that we'll never forget:

1. Being blessed by none other than Boyce Lundstrom, the founder of the compatible glass industry, who declared that Freeze 'N' Fuse was the "best thing ever" and went on to tell a couple hundred other people about it.  Phil Teefy says we are the only thing in our era that Boyce didn't predict.
2. Being looked over by steely-eyed distributors
3. Being stumped by the question, "So what is it that you sell?".  You can bet we had an answer the next day!
4. Our first threat of a lawsuit
5. Buying dry ice in the middle of the night (20 bucks cash gets you 10 pounds).
6. Trying out our new point of sale system for the first time
7. 3 days of nonstop demos and all-nighters.  Losing my voice by talking too much.  This was a first for me.
8. Being more weary that I can really remember.  Waking up one morning in mid-April and realizing that I actually felt awake.

Three weeks later we were at Hot Glass Horizons in Corning, NY.  What a difference!  This time I started the week by losing my voice.  Jen, Emily and I were all sick up until the day the show began.  Liberal application of Vitamin C and good fun had me feeling better in time for the farewell concert on Saturday, where the HGH band once more delivered a great show.  Eli Aller and I successfully fused borosilicate glass, and one of my students (against my advice) made a daring and unexpected advance in our technique.

Becky has only one more exam and a paper to write, and then she is back with us.  We have found some new fansubbed anime to watch this season.  We recommend "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" and "Jigoku Shoujo (Hell Girl)".

March 2006

Becky is home from college for a week but we are all working in the Freeze 'N' Fuse (TM) sweatshop.  Jennifer irons transfers on hundreds of T shirts, Paul makes hundreds of Glow Bunnies, and everyone spends time cutting out plastic molds and labeling bottles. 

February 2006

A new year has comes with some changes!  We'll be spending a lot more time this year focusing on our glass business, and will be sponsoring booths at several important shows to sell our nifty new "Freeze 'N' Fuse" technique for glass sculpture.  Jennifer is going to the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show this month, and in March we're off to the Glass Craft and Bead Expo in Las Vegas.  We may pull a few handles and drink a few beers, too.

Becky is now officially a Junior and declared as a biology major.  She's volunteering at the Museum of Science and Technology in Syracuse, where she helps with the dinosaur exhibit, listening to them roaring all day and telling people how to find the bathroom.  Her garden of carnivorous plants is looking very happy.

Emily has been in several shows and concerts this year, including The Wizard of Oz and the winter chorale.  She just got her hair cut and dyed.  This may not sound like a big deal to some people, but here it is major news.

November 2005

Becky is now at Syracuse University and is studying to become a designer of museum exhibits. She's working on a facial reconstruction from a skull so we had to buy her some plastic eyes. She's upset that she'll have to give the skull back to her teacher when she's done, so we may have to buy her one of her own. Oh, yeah. It's plastic.

Emily entered 8th grade this Fall! The Fall musical is "The Wizard of Oz", and she will be singing the poppy song.

Paul and Jenny taught their new Freeze 'N' Fuse technique at Hot Glass Horizons in Portland, OR in November.  Wow, what a great response!  Thank you to Gil and Carmen Reynolds and all the amazing staff at Hot Glass Horizons for their support!