Embroidery sample received from Debbie A; stockings received from Susan J and Monique N; 2 pair gloves received from Linda F. Riches.

Penny and Shaina spent the day cleaning the office, not the big workroom, but the office. The office is a medium-sized room.  There are two bookshelves, about 12 big plastic tubs that hold fabric scraps sorted by content and color, plus a mess of stuff that has no other home. There’s also a big desk that holds the phone and the old computer, a temperamental behemoth which is currently on vacation in the IT manager’s workshop. The past couple of days I have thanked heaven and Robbin for the laptop many times a day. The office also houses everything I had no other good place for. Plus my filing system is haphazard at best. I usually think I will only remember things if I can see them. Out of sight, out of mind. But the desk had gotten to be an archaeological site - I had to find things based on how long ago I’d last seen them. Not good.

So Penny and Shaina volunteered to “help” which meant they did all the hard work. They moved stuff, filed the obvious, vacuumed, dusted, washed, threw out what needed to go and repeatedly encouraged me when my attention wandered. The office looks absolutely great, and I only have three smallish piles of stuff I don’t know what to do with. One of the piles is left over from the great office cleaning of 2003. The other I inherited from my predecessor, from whom I learned my filing system. Ahem.

Mark made some more spangles today. He worked in the Crafts Center, thus visitors to Plimoth were able to watch and ask questions. I saw him on his lunch break and he said he was having fun. So we’ll have more spangles for next weekend’s session (not tomorrow, a week from tomorrow), plus a great exhibit into the bargain.

The other thing I did today was consult with Kathleen and Marcia about food for the 4/11 - 4/14 session and let them know how many we’re expecting. I’m delighted to say that we’ll have more than a handful of workers next weekend - the first time we’ll have embroiderers and lacers working together. I can’t wait. We’ll be in the wardrobe office, and tomorrow’s first job is to send a note to the participants. There’s still room if you would like to join us.

**If you’re having trouble getting in touch with me, please call if that’s convenient (508-746-1622 X8119) or leave a note in the comments. The office computer’s rest cure means I can access new emails to the jhall@plimoth.org address (ones since Wednesday) but not old ones. So I can’t return emails I got before Wednesday. Plus we have a new spam filter, which works excellently but has kept out some legitimate mail. So if you think I should have written back by now, please call or leave a comment.