Munich

I went on an overnight trip while Eric and Thomas worked, to Munich to visit Gudrun and Sebastian. They had to work all day, so I spent the afternoon wandering around the city.  I don't know much of what was what, but hey, it was pretty.  

Train to Munich

The first time I went to Europe, the Swiss and German trains were amazing.  You basically could have set your watch by their arrival.  Not so much today it appears.  My train was late, so I missed my connection and was stuck in Tuttlingen Germany for a few hours. Luckily they actually have a pretty cool castle above the town.  It was a little nerve wracking walking there as I didn't want to miss another connection, but it all worked out.

 The town of Tuttlingen itself was rather blue collar solid working town.  Turns out, Eric goes there often for Storz work as they have a campus there.  Ha

 The train after that, on the way to Ulm, was stunningly beautiful.  It followed the Danube River valley.  It felt like something out of an old german hunting painting.

 Not the best pictures, granted, but they were from a train window so what can you do.  

Making my ring

So Thomas made my engagement ring while we visited them in Schaffhausen.  It started out as this cylinder of titanium.

A whole bunch of though and finagling occurred

And Thomas had to do a lot by hand

But it's getting close!

And here it is finished and on my hand!

Classes Winter 2014

BI 112 PCC Cascade

BI 101 PCC Sylvania

metal sculpture class

I took a metal sculpture class this winter.  It was a ton of fun, but surprisingly stressful.  Not in a bad way, but it pushed me a lot.

This was my first project, a 'cold connections' project with no welding.  We needed a cover for the well that sticks out in the middle of my garden all ugly and stubby.  This is what I came up with.  Kind of ridiculous, but hey

My second project was a bench for the dining table, but I don't have a great picture yet.

The third project was a welding project.  This little guy basically fell together after I found the rusty chunk of metal that became the breastbone.

So much fun, but my art brain hurt after all that creativity!

70th wedding anniversary!

Rus and Dorothy, my great aunt and uncle have been married 70 years.  Yes, 70!  Holy crud.  I'm not even sure I will live that long.  Eric and I drove down for a super quick weekend (down saturday, back up sunday after the party.  8 hours each way!).  It was amazing to see all the people that love them though.  Such a fun couple.

Big snow

Well, we've moved in.  (yippie!) and then it snowed, and snowed, and snowed.

Classes were cancelled, heck we could hardly even leave the house.  

Which was fun because the neighborhood got together and had a whatever is in the house potluck.  Yummy.

Watching the animals was amazing.  Coyotes were out prowling and doing a whole lot of talking.  Here you can see their prints in the slushy lake.

Pounce!

Yes, Vancouver Lake froze over!

as did everything else

After one night of snow

The eagle juvies were fighting over some food thing on the frozen lake.  Nature channel anyone?

Lots of eagle activity

It was still spectacular after it thawed

And the eagles still sat in the tree just in front of the house