Then when I got home, I walked up to my door to find a package for me from Intarsia Bindoff!  I was a like my landlord’s little boy when he sees Jimbo and Kink – squealing with delight!  I opened it to find 2 skeins of my favorite yarn – cascade 220.  One skein is a beautiful heathered moss green the other is a heathered oatmeal color.  (I’m thinking I need to get more of those colors for a sweater, but we’ll have to see …).  Then a skein of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes worsted weight in a color called Mink Heather.  Also quite lovely and I may also have to look into a project so I can buy more of it   Not one, not two, not three, but 4 patterns!  The stackable kitties from MochiMochiland (and the stuffing,and some brown yarn for the nose and whiskers and some green yarn for the eyes), the Sherbrooke Cowl pattern, the Under the Tree fingerless gloves pattern (and cute little buttons for the eyes of the owl) and the Olive Branch Yoga hoodie pattern!  There was a cool notebook and a small notepad with a robot on it a Doraemon pencil, cute stitch markers (an owl, a ball of yarn with needles in it, and a pair of scissors), a heart shaped tape measure (I seem to be forever losing them!) 2 candy bars – a Yorkie by Nestle and a Cadbury CurlyWurly.  I’m assuming they are not from the US.  Not that it matters…. it’s candy, it’s going to be amazing!  And mystery book called Knit One, Kill Two! I was wondering what I was going to read on the plane ride home and now I don’t have to worry about it!  And most of this came in a cute little handmade bag (that I’ll be using to transport my knitting back east with me for the holidays) that has a magpie on one side and a quote from Jane Austen on the other side (the quote being – How quick come the reasons for approving what we like!).  I am so spoiled!  I love all of it!  I’ll be taking it with me to work so I can take a proper picture of it.  There’s much stuff, I’ve got to have room to spread it all out!

I should get going… I can hear a cat toy skittering across the floor and a poor defenseless paperbag being brutally attacked by Jimbo.

And now onto the training.  Yesterday I was hurting.  Apparently I keep all my stress and tension in my shoulders.  And when I run that’s when it makes it known that I have some stress.  So I decided to take a day off and recover.  Today was the make up day.  I did around a 4 mile run and a half mile easy swim.  It actually wasn’t bad.  I can’t say that I love running, but it’s tolerable.  Tomorrow is a long run – 7 miles.  I think I may need to get a new pair of running shoes this week.  I have a feeling the miles are my current sneakers are pretty high up there.

Tonight I’m just gonna take it easy.  Hopefully I can finish the sleeve for the French Braid Sweater.  Here’s what I’ve got done so far.  It’s the body to the under arms.  Then I need to do the sleeves and attach them and from there, hopefully it’s just a few short hours of knitting and then I can wear it!

Yeah… it’s sick.  She’s constantly showing her “goods” to anyone and everyone who might be visiting or looking in my windows.  i think she might be running some sort of kitty peep show while I’m at work.  There’s a lot of cats in the neighborhood and there’s one cat, Rodney, that tried to invite himself in to our place.  Perhaps she’s got something going on with Rodney.

I finally took a photo of the chicken viking hat.  It happened to be on Kink at the time, but hey, at least you can see what it looks like… on an angry cat.

It’s a little blown out but it was the best I could do.  It had to be a sneak attack.  If it wasn’t I probably would have been torn to shreds by her.

She’s a true Red Sox fan – note the Red Sox cat nip toy and the fact that she’s had too much to eat and probably drink that she’s passed out.

And here’s a picture of Jimbo.  He has a girlfriend.  Unfortunately she doesn’t know he’s alive.  It’s like the cat version of a John Hughes movie.

And as for what I’m knitting, well, let me show you.

That’s right!  It’s my friend’s wedding present.  Yeah, they now have a child.  This will be finished by the time I head to Portland for my hopefully annual Yarn Train trip.

And on geekier news:

Seattle is the home to Nancy Pearl – the librarian that they modeled the Librarian action figure on.  This is not her only claim to fame.  She’s also the author of the Book Lust series of books.  Here’s where the geek comes out – She’s my superhero.  Once a month she heads over to our local NPR station (KUOW) and gives great book recommendations.  Now she’s come up with a 4 question survey to help her figure out what books to recommend to you!  When she was on the air this morning, you could fill out the form and it would be mailed to her. Then sometime this summer she and what I can only assume is a large staff of interns from the UW iSchool (the school I’m hoping to get into – feel free to flood them with recommendations about me.  And let them know I should get a full scholarship.) will send you a list of book recommendations!  I’ll let you know if and when I get my list!

Today I also went to the pool.  We hammered out 1350 yards.  Now that may not seem like a lot to those people who are or were swimmers, but to someone who didn’t really start swimming until last year, that’s dang good!  I’m so tired that I don’t even think that I can knit.  I have to admit, it feels good to have worked that hard and be so tired.  And it wasn’t just freestyle.  It was butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle.  It was like 1350 of IM order.

And now, I’ve earned myself a banana and some peanut butter.

Don’t let her little innocent face fool you.  She’s got gas… bad gas.

Early this morning, around 4 am or so, I was asleep.  Dreaming happy dreams, when all of a sudden I woke up with such a foul pewtrid smell.  I thought there was something that was dead and rotting in the walls.  It was that foul. When I opened my eyes, I was eye to… well, butt with the problem.  My cat’s ass.  She was purring like she was the happiest kitty in all the world.  When all the while, her ass spoke of something different. There had to have been a battle of epic proportions going on in her bowels.   It was so bad, that even when I flipped the pillow over, the smell was still there.  I’m probably going to have to burn my sheets.  Even  my other cat wouldn’t come near the infected area.  I’m not quite sure what goes on in her system that makes whatever they both eat turn out so horribly wrong, but it was vicious.  I’m convinced she was a frat boy in a former life and that drinking and eating greasy nasty food is just in her system from a past life.  Not to mention the urge to fart in my face. I have a feeling that the reason she was purring was because she was actually laughing at farting in my face.  I might have to set up a web cam to see what the hell goes on when I’m not at home.  I’m thinking she might be eating out of the food waste container.  I’m not sure how she’s getting the top off as it’s ceramic and she doesn’t have thumbs.  Maybe she’s been partying with the Shamwow guy.  If she starts slap chopping me or tells me that I’m going to love her nuts, I’m going to need to have an intervention.   When I came home this evening I was expecting to see a green fog sitting over the house.  But so far, so good.  Maybe she just waits until undercover of darkness to “drop a bomb.”

While’s he’s upset that he didn’t win, he did want me to remind everyone that you can vote for his sister Kink this week.  So go and vote!

And now for some good news.  I got a package from my Secret Pal!

That’s what it looked like when I first cracked open the box.  That’s when I tore into it.

I got two skeins of grandma’s favorite dishcloth yarn, a skein of beautiful mohair blend yarn, a tin of altoids, my favorite row counter (to replace the one I left on the plane!), a cute little magnetic notepad with little ladybugs on it, and the thing that truly made my day – my “What Would Jane Knit” shirt!  I can not wait to wear this to our next knitting group! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

And here’s a little something that I’m working on for my aunt. The Leaf Lace Scarf!

Now I’ve got to update my wishlist!  I was also thinking about trying my hand at dying some yarn.  I’m checking out a bunch of books about it at the library.  Hopefully if I use natural dyes and such the smell won’t be so toxic.  I hear dyeing can get rather stinky.

Tonight I did a little bit of finishing up some small knitting things I did yesterday.  I did them both with my HSKS swap yarn!  The little sweater was made with the yarn from my swap partner Lavender Ollivander.  And the heart was made with yarn from my Random Act of Kindess package that Ophelia Ballycastle sent me!

Check it out -

And Jimbo didn’t really seem too thrill to pose for the photo, but hey, I took the photo anyway.

And here’s a picture of my Christmas tree (see I really did get one).

After looking at this photo, it looks like I don’t have a whole lot of ornaments on the tree.  The ornaments are those smaller round ornaments, so they seem to look a little like the lights on the tree.

And I got my HSKS House award!  Check it out!

And on that note, I’m going to drink a bunch of nyquil and try and sleep tonight.

Oh!  Before I forget, tomorrow night is the luminaria down on Lake Washington and the Argosy Christmas boat.   Hopefully I’m feeling good enough to go down there for a few minutes and take some pictures!

And in the spirit of the season, here’s a few pictures of the kids…

And here’s Kink doing her best model poses…

and one more