Saturday October 31st.

Happy Halloween

And here is to an extra hour of rest this evening as we set out clocks back.

I do realize that it has been a week since I have posted and I have a very good reason. Really I do. It has been my birthday week and I have been taking a few much needed days off to relax and enjoy the wonderful & windy city of Chicago with my gal.

I arrived in Chicago on Wednesday, October 21st and today was the first day that I have see blue skies and the sun since I arrived. I am not used to all of this grey and rain. I live in Tucson, all we ever have is sun. I think I was starting to get that funky no sun disorder, I have no idea how the people in the northwest do it year in and year out. 

But now to catch everyone up on my past week. The Viking Knit class last Sunday was excellent. I had a full classroom and everyone did a fantastic job. There was much laughter and silliness as the day went along and that is the fun part of this class for me. As each student gets more comfortable with the weave they relax and start engaging their neighbors in conversation and I have to say that I love walking around and just dropping in on them when they are funny.

I cannot thank the owner of Bead Haven, Cindi Slater, enough for putting together the class and the snacks and a wonderful group of individuals. I am looking foreword to coming back in January for a full day chain making fusing class. Keep an eye out for the class sign-ups link…

My last few days in Chicago have been excellent. I love walking all over this city, enjoying the amazing buildings and the most excellent food. We went to the Field Museum and saw the Diamond Exhibit. I earned a great deal and I got one more bit of really cool trivia…

 Did you know that the term "carat weight" was derived from using the carob seed? It seems that the carob seeds in the pods were uniform enough to guarantee the weight of a diamond and precious stones…

Carob became Carat…

How Cool is that?

Terri & I got to spend a bit of my birthday with my friends Scott & Elizabeth Bartky and it was wonderful to  see them again. I got a wonderful bag of the most  amazing pistachios from Lebanon as a birthday present. I have no idea why these are so much better then any other but they are and that is all there is to it.

The other bonus highlight has been that we have gotten to spend a bit of this visit with my friend Joe Butcher. It has been wonderful to see him, spend some time together and just hang out for a few good meals.

Tomorrow is an early morning in the Lincoln Park area to go explore and then it is off to the Chicago Art Institute for the better part of the afternoon. We are looking forward to many of the exhibits that we have been exploring as well as the new modern wing.