Pay it Forward

I read about the pay it forward gift exchange over at PoMo Golightly and had to instantly sign up.

Here’s the deal. Be one of the first three bloggers (sorry, blogless and blog-free friends; maybe you should get blogs so you can play these reindeer games!) to leave a comment on the post requesting to join this PIF, and some time during the next 365 days, I will send you a hand made gift.  All you have to do in return is make the same promise on your blog

I have been on a good finishing kick this weekend.  I finished the trellis sweater I have been knitting (but never got around to blogging about) and I finally finished the tuscany shawl as well (pictures to follow at some later date).   After getting the house picked up this morning and sewing a Christmas thing for a friend, I feeling pretty darn industrious.  With the clutter cleared from both my brain and my house, maybe I can get around to blogging more often.

A year older

So today I turned the big 3-0.  I woke this morning with more melancholy than cheer.

It might have been that I am overcoming the after effects of a friend hangover after spending four great days with friends in San Antonio and their teeny baby.

It might have been that it had been a week since I got to see the baby that holds such a big chunk of my heart these days.  (This was luckily corrected with a lunch date.)

It might be that I am feeling guilty for having boarded the cats for the first time over the long weekend.  After the great Quincy debacle of our last vacation, we didn’t want to leave them with a cat sitter and risk another random escape.  After five days at the kitty inn (cats only, no dogs allowed), however, Muffin has lost a ton of weight.  She’s all bones right now.  She’s eating and seems to already be filling back out, but I feel bad about the stress it caused her.

It might be that my birthday is on a Wednesday and, really, who wants their birthday to be on a Wednesday?

However….

If I look at things with even just a smidgen bit of perspective, I am pleased with where I am at thirty.  I am living a much happier, more fulfilling life that I might have predicted.  I never expected that I would actually get to go to college, especially a college like Reed.  I always knew I had the grades to get into college, but I was never convinced that the finances would be there to make it actually happen.  The same goes for graduate school.  I can still remember how elated I was to find out that you do not have to pay (and in fact get paid) to go to graduate school in the sciences.

Growing up I didn’t think I would ever get married.  I never expected to find someone that would love me and the family that comes along with me, idiosyncrasies and all.

What I’m trying to say, I suppose, is that I am thankful for all of the unexpected delights, big and small, the last thirty years have brought with them.  Happy birthday to me.

Whoops!

I realized on Wednesday that everytime I thought I had been replying to a comment that someone on my blog left for me, I was actually just replying to another one of my email addresses.  So pretty much, I have discovered that I am an inadvertent jerk who never replies to messages on my blog.  Sorry about that.

Monkey Sock Swap 3

I got an awesome monkey sock swap package this past week from Cheryl. She knit me a pair of monkeys in some wonderful colors. Aren’t they great?

She also sent a great assortment of monkey items, including a cute little monkey pendant, a barrel 0′ monkeys, some monkey mechanical pencils, an awesome monkey project bag, and the most cutest monkey bowl ever. She sent the Cookie A Thelonious pattern and some louet gems yarn in the crabapple blossom colorway as well.

I really enjoyed participating in this swap. Thank you, Cheryl, for a great package.

Punkin

Oh little blog, I miss you so much, but I am almost never home any more to update (never home in the best possible way, because it means that I am out and about doing fun things).

I wanted to share my most recent finished object.  I knit these legwarmers for my friend’s baby to keep her knees protected as she crawled around.  Of course, by the time I got around to knitting them, she was pretty much walking.

They were simple to knit.  I cast on 60 stitches and did a K3P3 rib for nine inches before casting off.   The yarn is Perchance to Knit (sport?) weight yarn in the spring bouquet color.  We got a chance to test them out in a little trip to a Half Moon Bay pumpkin patch.  Aren’t they (the legwarmers, the baby, and the pumpkins) cute?

I’m off for a weekend in Monterey.