Christmas in August

"Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday!" dad said yesterday after we'd set up the new computer and fumbled around trying to get songs on the iPod nano--both gifts from dad! Yay!

(Last summer I got new tires for Christmas from dad. He said, "This is your Christmas present. Really. I'm not kidding." "I know!! Thank you!" I said.)

I've spent the past twenty-four hours loading songs for the iPod like it was some sort of race. I'm obsessed. I think I've gotten the "must have" CDs already: Beatles, Clash, Costello, etc. I've still got some good stuff to add, and I've got a little more than 25 percent of the memory left. I stayed up too late playing with it.

I finished the first My First Sweater sleeve and cast on the second sleeve Friday night. I've probably done the majority of the knitting for the second sleeve, but I haven't begun to block. My apartment space is limited, so that should be interesting. Probably have to block the pieces in turn.

Speaking of space--also Friday night I pulled out all my fabric (many bounteous hand-me-downs), yarn stash (larger than I'd like to admit), and assorted craft stuff from the corners and hiding places, and piled it all in the middle of the living room. It was a sight to behold. I went through the fabric and decided what I didn't want. I found a new place for my patterns ("the stash that dares not speak its name"), put the works in progress in separate grocery bags, and folded up and rolled away the craft table. Ah! Space! I had to make space for the new 'puter.