I'm wearing purple today also. Voted this morning. We have some local city council positions to fill and I really wanted to get my choices in. After that I took my dad's violin to a local luthier to give me his opinion on condition and value. It is at least 100 years old. I didn't expect it to be valuable because my dad played this in a grade school orchestra and the family had no money so I know it wasn't some rare find. The kind man seemed happy to see a violin that old in such fine condition. He said it would take very little to get in playable condition. I had been thinking of just getting rid of it, but since it's in such good condition and of course because it was my dad's, I am going to keep it for sure. Violin is a difficult instrument to learn so that likely won't happen for me, but I'm glad that I have been a good steward for it and hope to continue in that role.

Kathsgrdn, that is so cool that you caught the big dipper in your picture. Wasn't that whole northern lights so neat to see?

Picture from 1942. My uncle who served during the war. His nieces and nephews surround him. Of course I did not take this. I am the smallest one in the group.

Chandelier I designed with scavo glass shades from Italy, for a client who wanted a 12-arm version of a chandelier I designed that had eight arms.