Happy New Year!

I hope you are having an outstanding 2008 so far. Many apologies for being MIA; my life has been taken over by a giant, red, cable and lace...mystery project. I cast on for it on the way home from New Orleans and it has accompanied me everywhere sonce. Including the 5th grade field trip on the Metro to the Smithsonian Building Museum (where I would have knitted more had i not been sucked into their most excellent gift shop) and the movies to see 27 Dresses (where I couldn't knit because I couldn't see. Cute movie anyway despite its formulaic predictibility. I was almost snorting with laughter during the "Betty and the Jets" scene).

There has been no other knitting, but there has been a lovely holiday swap through the Yarnie Group at Ravelry. Irene of Jolly Jumbuck sent me this pretty sock yarn she dyed just for me


with a few other goodies including this adorable sweater key chain from Lantern Moon. I haven't seen these, but then perhaps I'm not frequenting to right places. But then again, Irene is in Australia, so who knows. The thing that is disturbing to me is that I must have put her swap on a slow boat to China, because she doesn't seem to have received it yet. Is shipping down under THAT slow? Well, go check out her site anyway because she is fabulous and her yarn beautious.

In other news, we have added a new family member. While we weren't necessarily looking for a cat to replace Cosmo (and Jack was adamant that he wanted a dog, in fact a puppy, NOT a cat), a lovely red boy has moved in with us. You may recognize him from Gryphon's blog, as Trudge used to live in her house. Now he is our baby, and very happy to be fussed over by the Boy and Girl.

He's not completely assimilated into our house yet, but is adjusting nicely and having a loveley time exploring every corner of the house in that particularly cat-like way. He has a very cute squeaky voice and loves attention. Today, he lay on the floor next to my chair when I was knitting, and when he got really relaxed, he rolled over on his back and relaxed his legs. Reminded me of a certain big brown dog who lives with me too. Who knew some cats like tummy rubs?


Here she is now, reading with Lia, Gryphon's daughter who joined us for a dye party.


As you can see, Lia also helped wash the dishes albeit in a rather unconventional manner.

Finally, a very big birthday was celebrated this month. The boy child turned 7! So we threw


him a party, with face painting,

(note the very helpful girl child)

breakdancing,
make your own pizza and lots of general mayhem. Behold the birthday football rapper:


Thank goodness my mother and father in law came with their dog Scout (see above) and helped us manage the kids and feed everyone! Hurrah for birthdays!