Yuma Symposium 29

So, yes. I am finally posting about Yuma a month after the fact! Yuma was great, as usual. Fun people, fun times, and here are some of the pictures. If you don't know about the Yuma symposium, it happens every February. It's a three day event with a pin swap, lots of artist lectures, slide shows and demonstrations. There's also a student show, a pin auction, a show for presenters, a relay race called the saw, file solder sprints and a nice dinner the last night. Plus, there's lots of alcohol and junk food. This is really just a small percentage of the pictures I took. I tried to pick the ones that show the whole experience without making anyone look silly, myself included. (Remember how I said there was alcohol involved?) Anyway, without further delay...

This was on the drive over. Don't worry, I'm holding the wheel with my other hand :)

The famous Yuma pin swap. Yep, I got a few!

Victoria, Lynette and Ellie at the pin swap.

Flavia at the pin swap putting ketchup on each individual fry.

Ok, I just love this picture of Ellie, Lynette and Vic. They didn't even plan it!

Lynette, Vic, Jim, Jonathan and Ellie in the hotel room.

The campfire.

Aw, Lynette and Ellie are cute!

I wish I knew what was so funny. Vic looked cute in this picture, so I couldn't resist.

The next morning (too early) we went to see David Clemons give a talk and demo. Very interesting guy with very intriguing work.

At Diane Falkenhagen's demo. Her work is really beautiful. Look at her website: http://www.dianefalkenhagen.com/

I liked the fountain...

It was mesmerizing.

These are the lights in the theatre where I went to see Robin McClosky and Margorie Schick (http://www.pittstate.edu/art/marjo.html)

So, this is Lute's Casino, the restaurant we tend to gather at. It's also where the pin swap takes place. I recommend that you order the especial or the Cesar salad. Both good.

Ah, so here we are at the saw, file, solder sprints. Jonathan is sawing.

Lynette is filing and probably also yelling back at the people who are probably shouting things at her. It's a noisy affair, lots of cheering, lots of well... anti-cheering.

And Vic is soldering. Those torches suck, by the way.

Jacie did the sawing for our team. What a trooper!

Flavia, who got a new nick name (Flavo-flave) did the filing.

And I did the soldering.

This little guy became the unofficial Yuma Symposium dog. I guess he was wandering the streets of Yuma was adopted by some of the symposium attendees.

Walking back to the hotel just before dinner.

The sun sets on the final day of the symposium.

So I headed home that night. It turns out I drove through Gila Bend that night at the exact time a murderer was on the loose. He carjacked some poor man around that time too. Glad I didn't stop to pee! So you can probably see that Yuma was a blast. I really can't wait until next year, but I think maybe we'd all like a little more space in the hotel room next year. Maybe we'll get two. Two fits seven better than one does :)