Okay - first of all you should all know that I don't have my computer at the moment. In the whirlwind prep to get to Germany I was vacuuming and caught the cord of my laptop and my poor baby landed right on the power supply. ugh. I was able to jerry-rig it while in Germany but two days after I got back it was done being rigged and said "good night!" So I took it to a repair place a week and a half ago and I still don't have it back. Apparently my little laptop that is ONLY seven years old is - get this - a vintage laptop. I paid extra money to get it back faster than most, nope - they can't get the part. They tell me their computers say the part has been shipped, but they don't have it. I'm going to have to go tomorrow to do an IM chat (whatever that is) with the supply company and the shop to see if we can get some answers. Why they can't do this without me there is beyond me. At anyrate... I am at school on a Sunday internetting.
So yes, after a whirl wind trip to California to visit a ton of conservation labs, (and my dad) it was off to Germany. (The issue came to a good end - just fyi).
My Aunt who is 99 and 1/2. is still hanging in there.
However, now there are no less that 5 people in the room at any given time. She, my uncle, and I are the visible ones. Then there is a little boy, a Lady, and someone sitting on the ceiling. She talks to all of us, and tell stories from any given time in her life. She was always able to talk a blue streak, now we just have a bit of a challenge understanding. It's really fun when she tries to switch to Spanish.
So I spent the time prepping for the PinkKnit-a-thon. We launch in May (all things willing). I designed three hats for the project and I think they look pretty good.
My aunt helped me with this one:
It was the most amazing experience. I was just working on the hat while she talked and decided to try it on. She stopped in the middle of her 1940's world to turn to me and said, "no - not like that." Reached up and tugged at the edge a bit, and then said, "that's better - that looks right," and without missing a beat she turned back to who ever was listening to her on the other side of the bed and kept telling them something. This happened a few times. It was amazing how she would come right back to the present instantly to comment on the hat.
While in Germany I also got to visit the conservator at the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz.
She gets to work on incredible things like this while looking out the window at the cathedral. She really has a nice space and spent about an hour showing me her space. It was nice.
Back at home with a failed laptop, unable to continue PinkKnit prep - I just had to knit a pair of spring socks. These are Jennifer inspired. She said that you can make right socks and left socks. What genius. I also wanted to try knitting socks from the toe up. It was the perfect opportunity to try both.
I'm pretty happy with them. The only thing I need to know now is, Jennifer, do you block your socks? Spring keep pretending to be in the air. We had a very wonderful warm day a few weeks ago, but since then it froze and snowed again. I am finally getting fed up with this. I have some daffodils blooming, tulips are coming up and I'm itching to be out in the yard doing things.
But since it snowed last Thursday (it didn't stick) I worked inside on a few projects that have been calling for attention for months.
Firstly, the shelf in the living room:
It started to fall down.
So before it landed on anyone, I pulled all the books off and did the best I could to get it back up where it belongs.
The next thing that needed to happen was the addition of some small shelves next to the door.
Now I have room for the miniature books and some pottery. It doesn't have to clutter up the top of the china cabinet. 
And then I decided it was high time to put the shelf in the kitchen in. I've been threatening to do this for .... oh dear probably since last summer!
Tah DAH!
but that of course prompted much cleaning. Here are my copper pots getting all shined up with the ketchup. 
But of course there are other projects which will need to be addressed rather sooner... for example the squirrel that got stuck up in the rafters (its right in the middle of the image), and in the process of trying to get free kicked off a 12ft piece of molding on the top of my roof. I crawled out there today to get the wood off of the roof so it doesn't fly down on someone one, and then I tried to get the corpse down. Nothin' doing. But that has to happen soon so the damn thing does fall down in to the wall and start rotting. So maybe the cold was actually a blessing!!??
And in the most amazing news of the spring - I received the first two copies of THE COOKBOOK! The rest of the shipment should come in this week. It's beautiful!
Okay - and now I need to go. I might have figured out why all of my students are sick all the time. I'm sitting in this classroomwith the "air conditioning" blasting right on me. It's cold, and we can't open windows to air the stale air out. Yuck. I'm going to go eat some veggies now.
I also have to consider getting a new laptop. This computer is working at the speed of light!
