...I am, once again, at work.
Hi, how are ya?
I hope everybody had a good holiday, be it Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or just a celebration of the winter solstice.
Us? Well, it was very low key. I did finish wrapping the gifts (but not until 1 or so) and then put them downstairs while the DH, who promised to stay up and help, fell asleep. The boys were tricksters getting us up in the morning. Instead of their usual hollering upstairs to see if we're awake, they took DH's phone, recorded themselves singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", set it as an alarm tone, tiptoed up the steps and placed it on the nightstand and waited for it to ring. They were apparently waiting at the bottom of the steps because when it started to go off, all we heard was giggling from them. Yes, very cute and very funny and very creative, and we just loved it.
The big gifts went over like hotcakes, Matthew's being a bike and Robert's being a Nikon Coolpix camera, but the things that went over REALLY well were the Power Tour electric guitars, which have a DVD and actually teach you something about guitar. Matthew has progressed to lesson 6 and Robert is at lesson 4, and I spend more time than usual wearing my iPod headphones.
Speaking of gifts, I want you to see what my Secret Pal sent me!
I actually received this yarn a couple of weeks ago. It is the Stary Night secret pal 13 colorway yarn from Zarzuela's Fibers. I absolutely love the color and the sheen of this yarn. I think it wants to grow up to be arm warmers.
On Saturday, the postman brought another surprise from my Secret Pal:
A bag of Christmas candy (all mint-themed)...
Ghirardelli hot chocolate mix and a gingerbread man notepad! Thank you so much secret pal (aka Holybobbles!). Everything is yummy and I am tickled pink with delight! I have already been into the hot chocolate mix and it is wonderful.
Remember the Birthday Cowl I've been promising you pictures of?
Thank you to our intrepid models, Frozen Rhododendron Bush and Matthew.
Pattern: Birthday Cowl by Novamade.
Yarn: Autumn House Farms Finnean's, wild berries (or some such name) colorway
Yardage: The whole skein
Mods: I added more purl rows at the end so I didn't have as much of the yarn leftover - probably added 1 or 2 more rows. I can't remember now, as I knit this back in November!
Work on the Norwegian Woods shawl continues, and I must take an updated picture. I am about halfway through the 2nd repeat of the 2nd chart. I think it may be time to think about the beads that need to be added to the edging (but probably not quite yet).
Also on the needles: spiraling socks continue to grow (same colorway as Christina's footies). I tried to reverse the spiral but that was met with doom, so I am now tinking back about 8 rows of knitting. The leftovers hat (I don't know how else to describe it) also continues to grow, and I wish I had it here at work so I could knit a stitch or three when nobody was looking. I haven't touched the Goddess Anniversary Knitalong Shawl in a long time, and really need to get back to working on that cobwebby thing. Maybe it will be done in time for next winter.
Last night, we ventured to Best Buy in Cranberry Twp. to do a little gift card/holiday cash spending. The line was long. There were 3 registers operating, but only one would take cash. We don't have a credit card, I didn't want to use my debit card, and needed to pay cash. Apparently Best Buy isn't excited about cash, because we were in line for 20 minutes.
I went back to the gym today. Attendance has been spotty over the last few weeks. I stepped on the scale and had gained a pound. I did the usual 30 minutes on the elliptical and then some resistance training. I think I need to change the music on my iPod, as I'm skipping quite a few songs looking for something more upbeat. Any suggestions?
I think that's all I have to say today. Tune in tomorrow...who knows what may happen!






