Catching up -- I'm so behind!

My grandparents' wedding
portrait from 1945.  Photo:
Elizabeth Urbach.

We've been keeping busy around here lately.  My grandma, who passed away last month, wanted to be buried in her hometown of Hibbing, Minnesota, up near the Canadian border with the U.S., and the weather has finally warmed up enough that they can have her interment.  So, several members of my family will be flying out to Minnesota next week and spending a few days there with the family for my grandma's second funeral and burial.  It will be a lot of flying and driving, and hopefully, a really good experience with the family, since it will also probably be the last time we go out to Minnesota, and maybe the last time we see those relatives in person ...



In better news, Antiques Roadshow is coming to the area -- the Santa Clara Convention Center, in fact -- and since their visit is scheduled to be the day after my birthday, and I actually found out how to apply for tickets *before* the deadline, I applied for tickets and won a couple!  You have to enter your e-mail and mailing address on the website, and they put your e-mail address in a drawing (they do cross-check names and mailing addresses, so you can't put in more than one entry per address); you have to check back after the deadline and see if your e-mail address was chosen.  Another friend from my costume guild (unbeknownst to me) also applied, and posted on Facebook that her e-mail address hadn't been chosen; that reminded me to check my address, and I was thrilled to find that it had been chosen!  Each winner gets two tickets, and each ticket holder can bring 2 items to be appraised on the day of the event.  I messaged my friend to see if she would like my second ticket, and unsurprisingly, she does! so we'll be making a day of it, going to lunch and driving there and back together.

Palace of Fine Arts illustration from The Splendors of the
Panama-Pacific Exposition, 1915.  Photo: Elizabeth Urbach.

Now to decide what to bring!  My family isn't wealthy, with old houses full of antiques to choose from, but we have a few things here and there.  I've chosen one item, a souvenir book of hand-colored illustrations from the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, that was left behind in the farm house my mom's parents bought in 1946 or so.  My grandpa had the book stored in his work bench in the carport and the garage for who knows how long; I'm surprised it's in as good condition as it is!  The illustrations and text are still almost perfect, just a little bit of browning and foxing at the edges of the pages.   I still have to choose a second item, but I'm so looking forward to this event!