Off to Freiburg

I'm off to Freiburg for a short academic conference on book history and print culture. Yesterday was one of those typical (typical for me, that is) pre-conference days:

• Checked weather report for Freiburg
• Said "Waaaaargh! What do you mean, rain on Thursday?!?!?!?"
• Panicked.
• Made sure my shoes (for walking around) are waterproof
• Worried  about my conference shoes (What if I get wet feet?)
• Loaded the mini-Kindle.
• Wondered whether four full-length mysteries plus all Mapp & Lucia novels will suffice. (I will come back home on Saturday.)
• Just to be on the safe side, I also copied Howard's The Complete Mackenzie Collection and a few Suzanne Brockmann books onto the Mini-Kindle. (Just in case I'm in the mood for a nice romance novel.) (Or in case all the books I just bought turn out to be horrid.) 
• Packed conference notebook and writing notebook.
• Packed sketchbook and watercolors.
• Agonized over which suitcase / bag to take.
• Panicked.
• Packed suitcase
• Panicked some more.
• Finished paper
• More panic (Waaaargh! It's already 11:30 p.m.!!!!)
• Put together some kind of PowerPoint presentation.
• Went to bed.
• Couldn't sleep.

:-)

The Pig-Dog in my Cupboard

Yesterday a pig-dog* moved into the cupboard where I keep the sweets (among other things). The common German pig-dog (Schweinehund) is something that keeps you from starting a difficult project or task - either because you succumb to laziness or because you're riddled with self-doubts or fear of the unknown. In other words, pig-dogs are our weaker selves.

The pig-dog which moved into my cubboard, however, is a new variety of pig-dog and is supposed to help you with a difficult task. In my case, the pig-dog sits on my gummibears and chocolate and reminds me to eat something healthy instead of sweets. Like, you know, fruit.

So far he has been moderately successful.

Well ....

 At least he's been successfuly in so far that I now feel the need to justify myself whenever I grab a piece of chocolate. As in, I'm talking to a stuffed animal that's sitting in my cupboard.  O_o

___________

* The pig-dogs name is Puntito and has been designed by my Weight Watchers coach. Just so you know whom to blame when I go completely ga-ga.and start writing odes to the pig-dog in my cupboard. ;-)

LLC Sketchbook

With little more than three weeks to go until the LoveLetter Convention in Berlin Spandau, I thought it was high time to upload the mini-film of last year's sketchbook. I'm going to take another leporello sketchbook to this year's LLC - leporello books are a pain to work with, but I always LOVE the finished result. :-)