Some of you may have seen this in some background shots of our home or shots from the kitchen. This was a gift from my bride a few years back to the two of us. We were in Maine on one of her business trips...up the coast a bit toward Rockport and Camden. I think this came from a nice gallery in Rockland which has a lot of little storefronts for local artists. But there was a problem. We liked it a lot, but the artist would not ship it. He said, and I would have to agree, that it would not likely survive being handled by shippers without some damage. He said he would put it in a nice case and we could carry it on the plane. I was a bit skeptical, but my bride and I agreed. We returned the next day to pick it up. Now, just for a sense of scale, the slate base is 22" wide, the height to the tip of the tallest bill is about 16" from the base. The wooded case he made for it was huge...much too large to fit overhead or under the seat in front of you. It might even take half of the hanging suitcase closet at the front of the plane. The artist gave us a sacrificial screwdriver as it would not fit in the x-ray scanner and we needed the screwdriver to take one side of the case off so the screeners could see what was in it. As you can imagine, it did not go well. I'm a nervous flyer anyway and hate any disruption to the routine. The bride said, don't worry, that she would take care of it. We did manage to get it through the security area--however, no guarantee it could stay on the plane with us. Eve talked to the flight attendant, who called in the pilot because she didn't want to say yes or no and the pilot ok'd it to be placed in the bottom of the forward closet...in which it barely fit. So it ended well, just a pain to get it home...and it is a favorite--lovely and delicate. All thanks to my dear bride who can handle any situation.

From a coworker: "It took two different keys, a screwdriver, a star bit, a security allen wrench, bolt cutters because I couldn't find the second key and an hour for me to change its bulb this morning. Now that is heightened security."