Finally taking the time to post to the old blog. I keep promising myself that I will do this more regularly but it never seems to work out.

Busy day today. Our guinea pig hasn't been well for the last few days and so we took him to the vet. She diagnosed a stone in his bladder for which he will need surgery. After consulting with DH, who was surprisingly upset over the pig's troubles, we decided to go ahead with the surgery. So Midnite goes in for surgery on Tuesday morning. DD is distraught and I am not too thrilled myself. It's amazing how these little creatures work their way into your heart. On top of that I had to run DD back and forth to school for midterms and go to a meeting at Meals on Wheels. ( I deliver meals on Wednesday mornings but I am taking on some additional responsibilities which I will talk about after I've done it for a bit so I have something intelligent to say)

I've been knitting quite a bit this week. Made excellent progress on the sweater and think that I'll be starting the sleeves this weekend. I've taken more time with this sweater than I should have. For some reason my knitting mojo had taken a hike for an extended period so it languished in its bag for way too long. Checked out a new to me LYS called Knitter's Therapy. Small store, tiny even but a wonderful selection of beautiful yarns. I was impressed by how helpful and interested the owner was. She really went out of her way to help me find a project. I decided on a shawl that is supposed to be made with laceweight cashmere. Only, I'm not using it because I didn't like the colors she had in stock (or at least the ones she had enough of for the pattern). So at her suggestion I bought some Noro Sock yarn in earth tones which I like. It's the right weight and should make up a nice shawl with subtle color changes. I will post a picture of the yarn this coming week (and this time I won't make you wait for it :>)

I won a contest on Alison's blog and got the following wonderful goodies





Isn't the hat great? I've been wearing it constantly in the cold weather we've been having












While I was leaving for my meeting at Meals on Wheels the postman stopped me with a package. Took all my self control not to open it in the car. It was from my secret pal and once again she has spoiled me well and good. Here's a picture of what I got.

Knitting for Peace is a book I've wanted for some time and was very glad to have received. She also sent a beautiful ball of Cascade 220 (which I've never knitted with and always wanted to try), a skein of sock yarn (from an Indie dyer that I may buy from myself one day I really like the colors and the feel of the yarn) and some stitch markers (never have enough of those)

Thank you Secret Pal! You rock!

Tonight we have inventory at the store. It actually started last night,but they only do a few departments a day to make the process go easier. I am scheduled to be at work from 6PM to 2AM and am hoping that we get out early. Last year we didn't but the operations manager running it last year was frankly an idiot and the whole inventory was screwed up as a result. The store has a new operations manager with more experience now and we all hope that this means getting out earlier. Tonight we are supposed to be doing domestics which means towels,sheets and the like. Not my favorite area to work but I suppose I can grin and bear it. Last year I only had one inventory day to work,but this year there are two. I have the same hours on Monday as I do today. It could be worse some people got assigned overnight hours on Monday from 9PM to 5AM.

Today is DH's birthday and due to the inventory I am not going to be home to celebrate it with him. We have put the official celebration of the day to tomorrow when I am off. I bought him an iPod classic and the kids got him an iTunes card to use with it. I think he will like it as he has been talking about getting one for a while now. I know I love my iPod and DD could not survive without hers (or so she says). Now I expect him to tell me I shouldn't have spent the money on it but I think he is more than worth it. DH is the best thing that ever happened to me.

I have been having fun with the spindle that my secret pal sent. I've been using the book Spinning in the Old Way by Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. She has you using an already made piece of yarn to practice the movements you need to use. I've been mostly successful at doing that,but still feel I need to practice drawing a bit more before I commit to using the lovely roving that was sent along with the spindle. I have plans to use it this weekend some time so stay tuned for pictures of the attempts. The book Teach Yourself Visually Spinning which I mentioned in my last post turned out to be more a book for spinning on a wheel. I am glad that I found the Gibson-Roberts book at my local library. I will have to go out an buy it so that I can refer to it as time goes on. If any of you know of good spindle spinning resources I'd be happy to hear about them.

On New Years Day my family has a silly tradition. We all go out to the mall and buy calendars at half price. It got started as a joke when DH and I were first married and over the years has become part of our holiday celebrations. This year I bought myself the knitting pattern a day calendar ahead of time. I really wanted it and was afraid there wouldn't be any left by the time New Years rolled around. DD was took issue with this and has not let me live it down. Just now as I opened it and got it set up she called me a traitor. In years past I'd often get a wall calendar and a desk calendar, but this year I don't think I'll get the second calendar. Since we got a new computer a few months back and set it up in our living room I am no longer in our home office enough to justify hanging one up in there (that's where I typically hung them in the past). But if I see an especially good one I might buy it anyway and find a place for it later.

Our New Year's Eve get together was a good one. This year instead of buying a giant hero we got a meat platter. I think it worked better than the hero and we will probably do this again. We don't really drink much on New Year's Eve. A couple of glasses of wine or beer is our speed. We also had a shrimp platter and various hot appetizers courtesy of the local warehouse store. I baked chocolate cookies and brownies (DS wanted to bake and I had no problem indulging him) and our friends brought a carrot cake. I have enough food to last for days. But our philosophy about party food is that you can't have too much. (or as our friends put it "God forbid the army should show up and go away hungry")

Speaking of the Army, DS got a call a few days ago from an Army recruiter. I quietly told the woman that DS had Autism and was not a candidate. She apologized for the call and got off the phone quickly. We had a call from the Marines some months ago too. I guess they got his name from the school district. I don't like the idea of these people calling the kids at home and trying to recruit them. Seems a bit invasive.