How to feel like a kid again...

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

I was having a "good hair day" today, so I decided to go to the DMV to renew my drivers' license, to give myself the best possible odds of being photogenic. There was a man having severely deformed hands running the photo area, but that didn't seem to bother him one bit, and he's one of the cheeriest people I've run across, ever. It's impossible to have any bad feelings about the DMV when his is the last station before leaving, and I just love it when I encounter people who are so outwardly cheerful! Regarding my photo, however, I must say that it doesn't make a lot of difference what kind of hair day I'm having..... In fact, my hair looks fine in the photo, but somehow my face looks really red.

Speaking of driving, I've been making a lot of use of my bike lately running errands. Sometimes my five year old and I take the bus to get him to school, which is right on campus, and then I ride my bike home. (The buses here all have bike carriers on the front of them.) It's about a seven or eight mile trip, though there are bike paths everywhere to facilitate riding without worries about too much car traffic, including some bike paths which are two lanes. Also, people biking are a friendly bunch. Most of them say, "Hi," or at least nod (except for one older guy who made the sign of the cross when he saw me coming...). Anyway, the basket I had on my rear carrier was a bit flimsy and looked like this one day after I returned home: I dug around the house, and found this much sturdier crate (which I didn't steal!), and used rip ties to hold it in place instead of bungee cords, and this seems to be much more robust. I know I look like a dork with this setup, but the bright yellow is quite visible, it's quick to put my backpack or parcels in there, and at 43 years old I'm entitled to be a dork if I want to. The best part about this is how great it makes me feel! Somehow it gives me the sense of having "more control" and simplicity (well, except for the day my chain fell off and I had to figure out how to get it back on in order to continue). It makes me feel like a kid again.

Now, what I really must do is start logging the miles on my bike, calculate how much money I'm saving in gas, and claim that for my yarn fund :-)

I finished the first sleeve of my Ibenholt:
It is a sea of moss stitch, having baby cables for the ribbing. I started on the body using the same size needles, and working back and forth instead of in the round. Gauge problems -- my cables were coming out a lot looser than they were on the sleeve. So, back to size five needles, and I'm much happier with this:I anticipate having some more gauge problems once I'm past the cabled ribbing section, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I'm starting to feel the pinch of having only three weeks until I start school full time. This week, I'm cranking through a lot of sewing / mending. Next week I plan to clean like crazy. The week after that I will be a paper filing/sorting maniac. A girl can dream, right?

I will see YOU in ONE WEEK!

Warm regards,
Laura (YarnThrower)