Slacked Off

 


My frenzy of making slacked off today.  I spent the morning chatting, knitting, and eating with friends so that's a little making.  I finished up the tiny mitten for the it-won't-be-done-for-this-year Advent Garland...

... and then added rounds to the felted hat.  I got through the first decrease round in the brim and now I get to knit around for 15 more rounds until the next decrease round which takes me to the crown.  I looked at what I have knitted and how much yarn I have and wonder if I'll run out of yarn before I run out of pattern.  I have another skein of the wool/alpaca blend and two more of the black wool, and there's another couple skeins of a different shade of the wool/alpaca which would work.  Hmm, I've also got a skein of a silver gray; I wonder how that'd look between the dark ones.  Maybe good.  I'll see how far I get before time to add the next skein.  Sometimes it pays to have a deep stash.




My amaryllis is growing.  Not so quickly that it'll be blooming for Christmas, but it's grown a couple inches in the last few days.

On my way home from knitting with friends I stopped at the chocolate store for Christmas stocking supplies and then at Target for an electric blanket for the guest bed (thanks for the nudge, Aunt B!).  What does it say about me that I spent almost the exact same amount of money in each store?  All I bought in Target was the blanket; I can't say that about the chocolate store.  But I did find a single can of my favorite flavor (Cinnamon Orange Rooibos) from The Republic of Tea that I haven't seen in years so, of course, I had to buy it.  It wasn't cheap.


I got my itinerary paperwork for my February trip to Ft. Myers today which made the trip seem very real all of a sudden.  I should pack.  Well, maybe I can wait until after New Years.

16 December--Barbara Malcolm, Spies Don't Retire. 

Dimitri crowed with delight when he spotted the laptop thickly wrapped with bubble wrap.

He reached to pull it out but George stopped him.  “Better to leave it wrapped.  That way you can unwrap it at home and if Irina sees you can tell her it came to help you keep tabs on me.”

“Good thinking.”  He stirred the remaining packing around until he found the wireless router.  He pulled it out and handed it to George.  “How are you going to explain this to Sonia?”

George tapped the side of his nose.  “No need; I always unpack boxes at the post office because Sonia is death on clutter.  I’ll just tell her it’s from the office, that it will help me track your movements or some such.  She’s so involved in sniping at your missus she won’t question me.”

Dimitri shook his head.  “It is the same at my house.  I think I could bring home one of the island’s wild donkeys and as long as Irina thought it was a way to get back at Sonia, she would accept it.”

They both stood in silence, considering the hostile ripples still flowing out from the bombshell that Billie had dropped on the four of them at her party.

George was first to come back to the present.  “Damn that Billie.  Without her interference this charade would not have been necessary.”

Dimitri nodded.  “Da.  We could have become friends and our wives would have tolerated each other and we would have had peace.”

They repacked the laptop in its carton, making sure that George’s son hadn’t packed a letter in it, and then he relabeled it with Dimitri’s address.  George took it back into the post office, waited in line, and handed it over telling the clerk that it had been delivered to him by mistake.  He dropped Dimitri off a block from his house and went home to set up the router.

By the time Dimitri picked up the package the next day, the router would be set up and running so they could keep in touch without the danger of their wives or anyone else with a wagging tongue catching them.

I finished the gift wrapping/bagging/boxing this evening.  I feel like I have a very odd collection of gifts but it is what it is.  Everyone will like what they get (I think, I hope) and anyway we all have so much stuff that being together is the best gift.  I try to get mostly consumable gifts, especially for the grownups.  I can't wait until we're all together, talking and laughing, with little people swirling around our legs.  It'll be epic.  And there'll be ham, at least at my house.  I like ham.
--Barbara