Did I Ever Tell You What Happened?

I became determined to finish kayleigh's valentine over the '08 winter break. my master's class wouldnt begin until the middle of january. we were starting the pruning in the vineyard, so my evenings were open. i started bringing my big sturdy box of shells, the valentine box and my copy of Sailor's Valentines: Their Journey Through Time down with us every friday and back every sunday. i made slow, steady progress on the valentine.

feeling pretty good about the progress made, i said to ger: i think i may leave the box and valentine down at the farmhaus—after all, i don't work on it after work during the week. ger agreed this made sense. so i did.

then a pipe burst at the farmhaus. right over where the box of shells, the valentine and the book were tucked out of the way. what a mess. the book is ruined and will have to be replaced. the valentine—well. the box is not so terribly bad for the most part. but the heavy paper that i was constructing the valentine upon took heavy damage. constructed of layers of paper, the heavy paper separated back into these layers. the shells are still attached to the top paper layer, but that layer is heavily warped and not likely to adhere flatly to another heavy sheet of paper.

i think i may be able to salvage parts of it, but i'm not sure how to go about it. the valentine had to wait through the clean up and repair of the farmhaus—then classes 5&6 started. its not likely that i will be able to work on the valentine until this upcoming winter break. i'm in the middle of class 7, then we'll be entering harvest season, and then of course classes 8&9 will be underway.