The Grand Duchy of Stollen

"W ell, Sir," as my maternal grandmother used to begin the occasional statement, good fortune has smiled on us again here in the Grand Duchy of Stollen.  Thanks to lots of hard work and crossed fingers, not only has the Grand Duchess been offered a plum position at a Big Ten University, but they have also offered yours truly a full-time lecturer appointment, which seals the deal.   Generous compensation, moving allowance, excellent schools for the Young Master, further opportunities for professional development, more interesting service possibilities, and so on, and so forth.  The kind of opportunity that does not come around very often you might say. We will sell up, pack up, and leave our digs of the last seven years here in Central Illinois (where the Grand Duchess has been since 2001) come mid-June for snowier environs (and much better skiing conditions) in East Lansing Michigan where we'll both join the faculty of  Michigan State University -- followi

Here's where things stand with the pioneers at the moment. T hings have been slow on the painting front the last month or so thanks largely to lots of student papers, conferences the week before Spring Vacation, and so forth.  You'd be surprised how much time it can take preparing for and conducting these post-Topic Proposal Paper interviews in which I try to coax most students through the process of actually narrowing their proposed topics and deciding what it is they want to say about them.  This particular task should have been accomplished and/or articulated within said papers, and there were explicit written directions circulated well in advance of the assignment due date, but there you are. However, spurred on by General de Latte's own impressive recent efforts with a fine looking batch of SYW Prussians (???) at The Duchy of Alzheim, I sat myself down at the start of this week to get going again.  Enjoyed a couple of evenings applying oil glazes over my usual w