The moonth of June

Here are my comments on what you said in the month of June. Luckily, there's no gloom in my heart or my weather.

One of Gustave Caillebotte's most well-known paintings

tRa proposes the theory that I first learned about Caillebotte through Masterpiece, the game of the art auction. I forgot to check before I left home, but I tried to confirm that hypothesis through the interweb. Unfortunately, the information remains inconclusive, although I wouldn't be too surprised to learn that tRa is correct.

While reading about my interviews, Anonymous noticed that the subtitle of my blog read "Oh my God only twelve weeks left!", and she encouraged me to reframe my thinking. She felt the sentiment should be: "Wow, I have twelve glorious weeks of summer left!" I thought she was right and changed my heading. Of course, now only seven glorious weeks remain.

Responding to the question of whether the ultimate reward for winning the Nobel prize is money or a permanent parking spot at UCBerkeley, M Anthony shares this article about the subject. Seems like it's clear to the professors —a place to park is priceless!

Although she hasn't always figured out how to leave a comment, my mother emailed my personal account to let me know what an incredible jewel we have in our smallest heirloom. Thanks, Mom, I agree! We'll try to keep our treasure "safe" for future generations.

Keep on responding, I love to read your comments and it assures me that there are actually people out there that read my thoughts!

Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen (Part I)

The blogger app doesn't like more than two photos, so here are two from our first days in Denmark. Interestingly enough, we haven't stepped foot into central Copenhagen and we probably won't before we go to the train station to leave.

We went to Kronborg, a castle near Elsinore, the supposed castle of the fictional Hamlet. We traipsed up and down the stairs from the dungeons to the long ballroom. Very cool!

View from inside Kronborg Castle

That's Sweden on the other side of the water, although it was a part of Denmark when the castle was built. The cannons are there to make sure all the ships paid their customs dues.

PS Extra points if you can name the movie the blog title comes from (without using the world wide answer-giver.)

Next Steps

There are so many choices to make, it's hard to figure out where to start.

I guess I'll start with the long-term decisions. I need to create a new timeline for my novel, taking into account where it stands now, and the reduced amount of time I will have to write in the fall.

Additionally, I have to come up with a workable schedule for daily writing. Plus, I still want to redecorate our back room so that it becomes an office for me.

As far as this blog goes, once school starts in the fall, changes will be made. I know that I won't be able to spend the time to write a daily blog. But from that fact, the questions start to mount up. How often will I post? Once a week? Twice a week? On which day(s) should I post?

And once I make that decision, some of what I have learned this past year creates new questions. For example, blogs work best (i.e., are most popular) when they focus on a single subject. Although I have had great fun writing about lots of random stuff during my year of leave, a future blog should aim for a narrower target.

Then there's the title. If I had to do it over again, this blog would be called something else. I don't know what and if anyone has any ideas, I'd be happy to consider them.

For the short-term, I may give myself a free day now and again over the next couple of months leading up to school. At the moment, my honey and I are currently in Virum, a suburb of Copenhagen, visiting friends. It might be quite fun to play hooky once or twice, especially over the next two or three weeks.

Danish meal on a Danish patio

I'll try to let you know, with photos or a post that tells you I'm skipping, but it's  possible that I'll just miss a day. I'm sure you'll all survive somehow.

A Year and a Day

Last year, on June 27, 2013, I started this blog. I wasn't sure what I was going to write about, how long I could do it for, or even how to post a photo. But it has all worked out pretty well.

Except for two days early in the year when I found myself without internet access, I have posted a unique blog every single day. The commitment I have shown to this blog and to the random collection of family, friends, and strangers who read it, staggers me when I think about it.

On many occasions, I have stayed up after midnight, gotten up before 6am, searched for a topic when I had nothing to write about, and written in spite of wanting to do anything else but write.

I wonder about the amount of time I have spent on this blog, writing, editing, writing, learning how to post photos, videos, writing, thinking about blog topics, and writing, writing, writing. Certainly more than 365 hours.

And I have learned a tremendous amount from writing this daily blog over the year. How to put my butt in the chair and just write something. How to craft a short essay about a variety of topics. How to relax if it's not perfect, because eventually it will be. Or it won't be, and you still need to relax.

I've written about it before, but writing this blog every day has also given me much more confidence in myself and my writing. It has been a gift as much as a burden.

As proud as I am of completing an entire year of posts, I wonder if I could harness the dedication I have shown here into other areas of my life. I certainly have several areas that could use a large amount of daily determination.

Tomorrow: next steps . . .

Query Letter

A while ago, I wrote about the confidence that I have gained by writing this blog. Recently, I had enough confidence to write a query letter.

A query letter is what you send to an agent or an editor, explaining your ideas and hopefully convince   them to ask you for more information, or even better to pay you money immediately for your writing.

After my family's trip to Italy, I knew that I could write a very good article about handicapped travel in that country. I had a lot to say, from our wonderful experience with their SalaBlu office for the trains, to the varied modifications many of the museums made to accomodate us. It was quite a positive trip.

I wasn't exactly sure what to write, but there is a lot of information about query letters on the web, so I took a look.

I read a few examples and after an hour or two, had crafted my own. I sent it off to the editor of our local newspaper.

Nothing happened. In fact, I never heard a peep from her. I didn't mind though. I was happy that I had the knowledge, determination and nerve to even try. I will try and try again, both for articles and for the book.

It bodes well for my future as a writer.

Our Smallest Heirloom

As many of my readers know, my honey and I inherited many items from his mother Alice, who passed away last August. There are some items that he loves, some I love and luckily, most that we both love.

The smallest of these items is something I had never heard of before, a match safe. I had never really thought of a match safe before, except in the context of camping. And in today's outdoor world, most match safes are made of plastic or metal. They keep your matches dry.

But our heirloom match safe is a wondrous piece of folk art. It is made entirely of different kinds of wood. A small piece of paper inside reads: Box made by John T. Viley — mama's 3rd cousin. went west.

One side has a inlaid picture of Abraham Lincoln. Woods used include wahoo, ebony, manzanita, mulberry, and french walnut.

Apparently John T. Viley also scavenged some wood, as the accompanying list of woods states that the lines under the bust come from a "sliver from log of Mr. Lincoln's home."

There have been comments from the family that it is interesting that John T. Viley chose Lincoln as a subject. The family had land in Virginia, and there are stories about hiding valuables and sitting on the front porch when the Union soldiers rode by.

The other side has an East Indian face made of juniper, agua rita, maple, and cedar of Lebanon, among other woods.

It really is quite an amazing work of art. If the Antiques Roadshow ever comes by, I'd be tempted to take it in.

Another small note inside the box reads "Given to Romulus Payne (1859-1924) by his first cousin John T. Viley who made it."

There is even some art on the top of the box. The boy's face is made of wahoo, his hat camphor, and his tie navajo. The collar is supposedly made from "ash flooring from Henry Clay's house."

I think John T. Viley was very proud of his work and rightfully so. The final note reads: "Made on Staked Plains Texas 1894. Not an inkstain or pencil mark about it. All natural colored woods."

We are honored to have it in our home.

Cleaning House

As many of you know, my house is not the tidiest one on the block. We have way too much extra furniture at the moment, and I have a few wee problems with organization. On the other hand, we enjoy having guests visit.

So before guests show up at our house, there is usually a bit of work to be done. Earlier in the year, I wrote about cleaning up before a party. A party means that the common rooms need to be cleaned, straightened and vaccuumed.

A guest means that we need to totally clear out our second bedroom. Although there is also straightening, vaccuuming, and general cleaning involved, mostly it requires moving stuff. That's right, we merely move all the extra crap from the middle room into the back room, and voila! The room is beautiful.

I wish any of the rooms in our house were this clean . . . 

However, once our guest is gone, the boxes, papers, card tables, magazines, extra blankets and pillows, and all our other detritus gradually completes a return migration to the middle room.

Luckily, at the moment we have a guest for a month. Luca, a graduate student from Italy is staying at our house. This means our middle room is spotless and the back room is difficult to enter. We can only hope that when he leaves, we will finally start sorting and getting rid of stuff, thereby creating two gorgeous, neat rooms.

Yeah, like that's going to happen!