Hot Diggity DAMN!

OK, this has been a good week.

In non-knitting news, I accomplished something. Small potatoes to many of you, but sweet potatoes for me.

Background: 13 years ago (I was 16 -- HOLY COW!), my parents commissioned a wooden trunk for me in a slightly Southwest style (remember the Alamo?). I have lugged that thing from Texas, to Maine, to Texas, to Washington state (via Maine and Rhode Island) and now to Oregon. A notable feature of this trunk is that there was nothing for the lid to catch on. If you opened it, you needed to rest it against something or it would fall closed.

Well, three years ago, I was digging around in it and decided to rest the lid against my head. Anyway, a cat fight ensued (literally) in the vicinity of my backside, causing me to jump. I hit my head on the lid, causing it to fly up and (remember, no catch) back. Well, that lid kept falling back until a combination of gravity and momentum pulled the lid from its hinge. In the three ensuing years, I have lugged that trunk, now in multiple pieces, to three dwelling spaces. With no lid, the ability of that trunk to contain junk grew in Jenga-like proportions. I finally got sick of it when the contents were so high I couldn't see over it.

After I cleaned the crap junk out of it, there was enough stuff to cover a queen-sized bed. Anyway, with my trusty powerdrill and the help of the self-same cats, I managed reattach the lid last night. As an added bonus, there is now a chain to keep that damn lid from ever falling off again.

Yay, me. I am such a power-drilling bad-ass chica! I can now conquer the world -- or at least small household projects. (I'd show a photo of the newly repaired trunk but my crappy camera died. Who'da thunk batteries were so vital?)

And now the knitting...

With the holidays mostly over, my knitting tasks are feeling a bit dull and overused. All of my projects are/were small things that are either completed or ones of which I'd already made similar versions.

I needed something new. I was broke. Two contradictory states of being. But....(I just love a good "but") the Yarn Fairy had good things in store for me. First, I received an anonymous gift certificate for my favorite LYS. I have showed remarkable restraint in not spending it all in one go. I'm actually saving it for the store's big yarn sale in February where I hope to stock up enough for my first sweater.

That wasn't all the Yarn Fairy had in store for me.

Earlier this year at work, they had this idea thinger. You submit an idea that was more efficient or saved money or enabled the CEO to talk to God, and if it was implemented, you received cash.

Well, I received cash. $250 to be exact. As PsychoHubby and I are in the broke stage of married life, some of this money must go to the mundane things like electricity and food. But some of it I get to keep. (Some of it I've already spent.) As a teaser, I'll tell you it involves Lorna's Laces and an idea for a nifty baby blanket. And with an end-of-year sale at another Portland yarn store tomorrow, I'll be adding to my small stash. Details and pics to come.

Mwah to all.
K