Happy Easter, everyone!!!

A Happy Easter to everyone! It's a fine, if a bit cool, spring day here near the ATL. Thankfully we suffered no damage or even near misses from last week's severe weather. And we did locate DF Heather, who is quite thankful there was no damage to the loft. We were too.

Where have I been, since it's been over a month since my last post?? Check the calendar, folks.... it's tax season, and I've been paddling like mad just to stay afloat! I'm thankful that my business is up this year. I don't advertise and all my new clients come in as referrals, but it does keep me busy. Only a few weeks left in it though. I'm hoping things will start calming down after April 1. Usually by then people have gotten their stuff to me to work on, or they want an extension. People are unusually timely this year due to the incentive payments coming out from the government starting in May. One of the requirements to get one is that you have to have filed your 2007 return. (If you need more info about the incentive, click here. End of public service announcement.)

What else other than working? Well my mom had a little health scare -- got extremely dehydrated and I ended up spending a couple of days in Rome to make sure she got to the doc. This was at the same time Richard got shipped to Toronto for a week-long business trip, so things got a little hectic. I'm happy to report that Mom's better and has gained back most of the weight she lost (when you're 92 pounds to begin with and lose down to 86, there's not much room for error), and Richard made it out of Canada without incident. The highlight of his trip, other than seeing enough snow to do him for several years, was the sighting of a black squirrel. I continue to go on follow up doc visits with Mom, altho she insists I don't have to. I've got a pretty wicked case of tendonitis in the bicep tendon of the recently surgically repaired shoulder, and a round of steroids for that is providing insomnia and paranoia which is *really* attractive.

Sometimes you get some neat surprises. I realize on a daily basis I have some great friends who I've never really "met". Like my friend Jerry in Chicago who sends Oscar treats on special holidays like Easter. And last week, I found a package at my door from Needlecraft Corner.... I thought "Kewl, my Just Nan stuff is here.". But when I opened the box...Isn't this just the biggest, fluffiest sheepie you've ever seen??? And there was a sweet card wishing me a Happy Easter from Kathleen, Drema, and Amber (the shop dog, who looks much like the dog on the card). Evidently Kathleen had been shopping, saw the huge sheepie, thought of me, and they sent it down to surprise me. I'll admit I had been having a **really** awful morning, and the sheepie just set me laughing for the rest of the afternoon. Gave me warm fuzzies -- not so much from hugging the sheepie as from knowing people were thinking of me kindly.

And the same day, a box arrived from DF Teresa with some sock yarn she had picked out for me as a "cheer up, tax season is *almost* over" kind of thing....(Pardon the gratuitous dachshund shot).... This beautiful yarn is called "As If I'd Let You Dance On My Grave, You Evil Bitch" -- the color doesn't show up well here but it's a great combo of pinks, greens, and blues, by Politically Incorrect Yarns and Fibers. Those are my kind of people. :)

And I have been remiss in not posting shots of the bee-yoo-ti-full birthday pressie Teresa sent me. Just how many samplers do you see with a wiener dog in the corner??? The picture doesn't do it justice *at all*. It's gorgeous beyond words, and I'm a total slacker for not having it framed yet. I was so tickled that she stitched that for me to commemorate my 50th year on this earth. :) And with it she sent one of the kewl project rolls that DF Judy gave us instructions on how to make...They are ever so handy for making sure projects don't get messed up till they're framed... :)

In my spare (?) time, I've been participating in the Victory Junction Afghan Competition on Ravelry (do you knit or crochet? Are you on it yet? Friend me! I'm doxietrek! If you're not on it... don't just sit there... click the link!). The idea is to either knit afghans or squares that will be assembled into afghans, and these will be sent to the Victory Junction Gang camp in North Carolina, a charity started by the Petty family in memory of Adam Petty. It provides camp for seriously ill children every year, and they attend free of charge, and the week they attend is full of children with the same illness they have. Every camper leaves with a hand knitted or crocheted afghan. As you can imagine, they need a lot of them. (For more info on the camp and how you can help, click here.)

So anyhow, the NASCAR group on Ravelry decided to start knitting, and it evolved into knitting "for" your favorite driver (Dale Jr., of course). I started with squares, but I soon discovered that Gauge is Not My Friend, and I wasn't able to get the size they needed. Upon the suggestion of my friend Min on Ravelry, I decided to tackle a whole afghan to avoid the gauge issue, and I chose the mitered throw in the latest edition of Creative Knitting. My work so far:Yeah. It's possibly the World's Ugliest Afghan. Cheap acrylic yarn... colors aren't my favorite, but it was what Michael's had that passed as "bright". But maybe it'll make a good snugglie for a kid. And maybe the kid will know that even tho it's not the prettiest on earth, it was stitched with love.