Business Trip? You Betcha!

So one of the new duties in my position description is to do professional development. The very first few days I started working at UWMWC, WiLs put out a call for the first "Good WiLs Ambassador" to attend the Midwest Interlibrary Loan Conference in Dubuque, Iowa. I was fortunate enough to have the chosen essay, and got to attend the conference.

Dubuque is almost a 4 hour drive, so by the time I got to the hotel, I wasn't up for sight seeing. I also chose to go by myself. A) Brian hates ILL, and pretty much everything and everyone that has anything to do with it and B) I thought about a night to myself in a hotel room with the TV, my knitting and some wine and REALLY decided driving by myself was worth the peace and quiet.

After a lovely evening, it was time to attend the conference. It was very strange that the person at the check in desk had already heard of me, knew I had to do a "report" back, and told me that I shouldn't make it boring.

Haha! I did learn some useful stuff, met some fun people (most of them from Iowa) and got to see the beautiful campus of Loras College.

And just as I was walking out at the end, I put my car into reverse and it's snowing.  Then I pull out of the parking lot and it's sleeting--in sheets, like rain!  On the way home I ran into some white-out making snow. But what can I expect on April 8th in Wisconsin?

House news: Still moving right along. They are doing the loan underwriting and we are waiting for the appraisal. Considering we are supposed to close May 13th (and we have to be out of our house here by June 5th) I'd really feel more comfortable with some progress.

So I'm working on a shawl (the one I bought from Rhinebeck), still working on my cousin's slippers, turning the heel on my Cakewalk socks and tonight after hearing a suggestion from a FB friend Lisa, I started a temperature afghan in crochet.  Every day you do 1-3 rows based on the temperature following a color key. I did find a color key here and here, but I changed it up a bit, mostly because I had Royal blue in my stash, today was 35 degrees, thus the 30's will be Royal blue ;)

My other news is that I was fortunate enough to go with my friend Genelle to see Bernie Sanders!

Our best chance!

Tim Robbins was there to give a speech imploring our fellow Dems to support Bernie

Shawshank!

...and I got to shake Bernie's hand on the way out. They were soft and doughy, but not wet. LOL  Last Tuesday I cast my vote for him, and he won Wisconsin, taking all but one county. Emily posed with her super cool shirt I picked up for her:

So I think that's all the news for now. Tomorrow is very exciting, because I pick up my order from The Fruit Club for fresh pineapples! I also get to have a monitor meeting with Autumn and Mandy, so it should be fun. :)