Nice people

There isn't much that can compare to coming home after a hard day's work (hard, but not unhappy) to find your household in some semblance of order. Today, in my household, that fine, fine semblance of order contained some of the following:

* a tired husband who'd spent the day wrangling installers to provide TV for his poor mum who's laid up with a bad foot,

* a girlie who'd done her homework and picked up in her room as requested,

* a father-in-law who, upon hearing you enter the house, immediately proposed dinner out,

* a spaniel who'd refrained from vomiting, (he's fine, we'll discuss it another time)

*a comment from lovely Kathy (a damn-fine knitter) awarding me an award.

I am tickled all shades but pink, and in keeping with the spirit of the award, will happily bestow it upon to ten deserving others. Instructions are "give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times."

Easy peasy.

Tarty Crafty because Della's my gal across the pond. She knits beautiful things, she rides a cool bike, she has a bunny, and now, as a special added bonus, she spins!

Pea Soup of the Day as Suse can surely write. And shoot great photos. And make me want to go down under. And her knitting's got a sense of humor (read the comments) and when she swears in print, I love it.

Lookie What I Made cuz KT and me, we go together like corn and peas, Flatt & Scruggs, and KT and kt. PLUS she has the supercutest smallholleringboys in the known (and unknown) universe, and we think our DHs may have been separated at birth. The knitting? It just goes without saying....

Yarn Miracle cause Em knits socks like they're going out of style (but they aren't, are they EM?) and she's a hoot and a half she turned me on to Icanhascheezeburger and she's joining the ranks of us CoolMoms!

Say La Vee due to the fact that I want to be blackbird when I grow up. Just go read. You'll understand.

Knitting Weather because I love Alaska and Kathy is a proper Alaskan who knits incredible things. SO impressed with her knitting, and reading her blog is like getting a letter from an old friend; full of newsy bits about family and comings and goings and doings. Just plain nice.

And speaking of nice, may I introduce you to Woof Nanny? Barb is an incredibly sweet, multi-talented woman who has several blogs about cool, crafty stuff. She's a well-kept secret who shouldn't be secret at all! Spread the word!

I'm probably one of the last knitters in the world to fall for Franklin, but if you haven't found The Panopticon, scoot your tush over there and get ready to marvel at luxurious lace, darling baby knits (and a darling-er baby), and a sheep named Dolores who must be read/seen to be believed. Go.

Now Norma Knits is what all blogs aspire to be; literate, classy, easy-on-the-eyes with a huge side of ROTFL and kick-ass knitting. Norma rocks, and she rocks it hard.

Ok, that's 9. As we all know by now, 9 is my favorite number. The Award, however, calls for 10 blogs. I have a tenth blog in mind, but there's a small wrinkle. I don't remember it's name, and I'm working without my favorites list! I'm using Mr. Smartypants' computer because c'mon people, we've only been here 16 days! Give me a break! Jeez!

*ahem*

Anyhoo, we'll just save that last tantalizing morsel for another time. I'll just say that it's a blog I found through flickr and my love of elephants. The blogstress makes DIVINE little aminals (no, it's not spelled wrong, it's just twee on porpoise) and I will share them with you as soon as I can.

Off to eat chocolate now and bask in the last hour of my nice day.

If you knew me, you'd understand that this is hilarious.

Your Celebrity Style Twin is Gwen Stefani

Trendsetting, unique, and stylish.

Who's" Your Celebrity Style Sister?

Things I've thunk

After 10 days in Washington, I find myself with some newcomer observations. Wanna hear?

1. People here, men, women and children, wear scarves. I think the Great Dane I saw yesterday was wearing one under his windbreaker, too.

2. It's really, really hard not to gawk at Mount Rainer from the bus in the morning as we cross the lake.

3. Land o' java, I'm home!

4. I have yet to see anyone actually ON the huge, glassed-in rock-climbing wall at the ginormous downtown REI.

5. The redhead and the girlie have comparison-shopped, and Fred Meyer will be our friend for regular groceries. Albertson's actually expects people to pay $6 for a bottle of Soy Vay! Gad!

6. People do not chat while waiting for the bus. Even when the guy with the Arlo-Guthrie-hair and the big bag of who-knows-what walks up behind them, sets down the bag, and raises his arms up over his head, chattering all the while. Downtown bus riders pay him no heed.

7. I am waiting for my complimentary I-Pod to arrive. It looks as though every other being in Seattle has one, so I guess it'll come when they drop off the recycling bins? I mean, I'm pretty sure that Great Dane had one!

8. Redhead points out that with all these trees, you'd expect maybe an "Oak Street" or "Pineview Lane", but no, we got numbers! 132nd NE and NW 85th and the 502 and on and on...

9. I don't generally wear a hat to work because of the hair-flattening properties, but working in a big hospital in a big city where I walk a few blocks from the bus each day makes me really want to have that cap-tossing MTM moment.

I'm really liking it here. It may snow again this weekend. Camera cables have been found; we may have photos some time soon.

We are here, we are here, we are here!*

No photos yet as the camera cables are in a box somewhere....(oh puh-lease, what do I own that ISN'T in a box somewhere?), but we are in Washington!

It snowed the day we got in; something that clever KT ordered up for the girlie.

The girlie loves her new school, I am liking the new job, and the redhead and the canine are calming down slowly after being physically flung into the gypsy caravan last Saturday. Multitudinous thanks go out to the Brother of the Redhead (himself a redhead, as well) for playing the part of U-Haul driver with panache and aplomb. (Also for driving the car down a foggy, rainy mountainside at night when I was clenched into a giant knot of FEAR in the seat beside him.)

More to come. Soon.

*anyone recognize this line from a famous book?

P.S.--WTF is going on with Flickr badges? We DO need those steenking badges!

One day and a hot breakfast.....

(courtesy Red Kid--too cool!)

Blame it on blackbird

She who is the queen of blogging, IMHO.

Thus do I humbly bow down and kiss the hem of her garment for bestowing on me this tiny break from manic packing. (We leave for Seattle on Saturday. Egad.)

25 things of which I never tire:

1. redheads. (natural-born ones, any age.)

2. dark chocolate.

3. grey skies.

4. my pet ball of yarn, Tahki/Stacy Charles Shannon in many a hue o' purple.

5. my beat-up pickup truck. MWAH.

6. cheez-its.

7. elephants.

8. the delighted look on a stranger's face when they've received an unexpected compliment.

9. good, reasonably-priced hotels.

10. the magic o' the internets.

11. Miss M's pre-K teacher.

12. puns.

13. birdwatching.

14. the marvelous ability of my husband to ALWAYS pick the good restaurant in an unfamiliar city.

15. watching Miss M sleep.

16. listening to anything being played at the wrong speed which leads to laughing until I snort.

17. good, thin-tipped black ballpoint pens.

18. finding typos.

19. my dog snoring.

20. receiving snail-mail from a real person.

21. flowers. any. weeds or gardens, just show me the petals.

22. reading things I wrote long ago.

23. icy-cold beer.

24. bookstore browsing.

25. memes!

Away now to wallow in dust and cardboard. If you don't hear from me for a while, know that I'll come up for air as soon as I can.