Happy Day-After-Valentine's Day

Well, I'm overdue for an Olympic update. The Irish Hiking Scarf was decidedly slow to start...I've never done cables before, and I'm not used to working with such small needles either, so it took quite a while to get any level of speed or rhythm going. I even made an unpleasant mistake towards the beginning, but didn't notice it (or didn't care) until later, so there it will stay. I am SO not ripping this puppy back! I've also not had a huge amount of time to work on it, so I'm feeling rather uncertain as to whether it will actually be finished on time. It is darn pretty, though, and I'm pleased with what I have thus far. Besides, it's nice practice for the big huge enormous cabled guy sweater I'll be making for dh soon, so that's a bonus.

Speaking of dh, he's scored some brownie points lately. Y'all know how hard this whole sick family thing has been on me, right? I've gotten virtually nothing done around the house, since all I had time for was caring for the children & knitting a stitch or two here & there. When I came home from the yarn shop on Friday, I found a wonderfully clean kitchen, with all the previously filthy dishes drying in the rack, looking all kinds of sparkly & shiny clean. It was WONDERFUL. It darn near made me teary, it was that much of a relief. Then, after agreeing that we weren't going to do anything for each other for Valentine's Day (no money, which kinda sucks), he came home with a sheepish, I've-done-a-stupid-thing grin on his face, and said he wasn't sure if I was gonna kill him or kiss him. It seems he had a fit of guilt about the holiday, and stopped at a fairly high-end chocolaterie down the road from his lesson studio, and spent WAY TOO MUCH on really exquisite truffles for me. Really good chocolate, but omg, it was WAY too much money! If I'd spent that much money on chocolate, he would have laughed at me for a week. (He knows how desperate my chocolate habit can get...) Still, as much as the price tag made me choke, I am really touched by his thoughtfulness. He was especially proud to have picked out some cinnamon-espresso truffles, and some particularly awesome maple ones, because he knows I love those flavors. He's awfully cute when he gets so proud of himself.

The kids, fortunately, are feeling much better now. I'm actually sleeping at night again, and I'm hoping that we're done being sick for the whole winter now. Of course, I never got sick at all, just really tired...I've got this bullet proof immune system, and no matter how ill everyone around me is, I never get anything. I think maybe it's just a mom thing, that my immune system knows that I simply don't have time for it. Anyway, I'm really glad that the kids are back to semi-normal again.

The rest of this week will hopefully be spent working on my Olympic scarf, since I'm feeling terribly far behind right now, and catching up on household chores. I also get to spend my time looking out for my new best friend, the mailman. I've got all kinds of kickass knitty things coming this week--I won a knitting book on Ebay that was published in 1942 (SO cool!). I also won a brand new ball winder (woohoo!! I'm so excited! I'm such a geek!) that should arrive this week as well. On top of that, my dear friend Kerrie has created the COOLEST little stitch markers EVER, and will be sending those along shortly too. I can't wait to see them! She's sent pictures, and they are incredible...the detail is just amazing. I'll post pics as soon as I can...they're just so cute! And, the big honking group order from KnitPicks should be coming sooner or later too. I'm hoping sooner rather than later, because I'm an impatient cow, but last I checked, it was still being processed. In the meantime, I'll wait patiently, knitting away in my little corner, and watching old Bugs Bunny cartoons with the boys. Yeah, this will be a good week.