Good morning!  It's a sunny Sunday morning here in southern NJ.  Although yesterday was not so pleasant.  It was our first rain/snow storm of the year.  This is what it looked outside for most of the afternoon.  It was cold but not enough to really snow so we got a mixture all day.

This morning our backyard has a dusting of the white stuff.  That's the area where the pool used to stand.  It still looks funny to me to see it empty.  I spent most of yesterday sitting by the window watching the precipitation and spinning.  I'm supposed to be spinning for my group but I think I messed up my roving (I tried to mix the colors together on the carder and I made some knotty bits in it) and now it will need to be carded smooth again.  I didn't feel like doing that so I spun some corriedale in Warm Wine.  It's not as soft as the merino but it has a sheen that is lovely.

I went and got a haircut and then Pk and I watched Casablanca as we ate strombolis for dinner.  I don't think I've ever watched the whole movie but when As Time Goes By came on, I found tears rolling down my face.  Something about that song....

Then we watched Serenity.  I've never seen Firefly (but have heard others praise it highly) but we added Serenity to our Netflix list because the preview looked good.  We really enjoyed it.  The dialogue is witty enough to keep your interest but not obnoxious.  And plenty of things blew up so Pk was happy.

And as promised, here's the collage that Cathy sent me.  Isn't it great?  I love that it's 3D.  I don't know if you can tell but the woman's face is felt and her lips are embroidery and the flowers are glued on bits of lace.  It is pretty darn cool.

Here's one of my finished monkey socks.  The photo isn't very good but this is a good shot of the colors.  They are made with shaeffer's anne yarn (angora,merino and nylon) and they're very soft.  It's light fingering weight so these are light but warm.  On the skein, the colors were not impressive but knitted up?  Gorgeous.  This was the perfect pattern for this yarn.  I wore them to work on Friday and washed them yesterday.  Lots of red came out in the wash water.  I was suprised until I remembered they're handdyed.  I may have to get some vinegar out to make sure they don't fade out. 

We are off to have some breakfast and do the grocery shopping.  It was supposed to be yesterday but I hate shopping in the rain. And speaking of shopping, Pk and I went holiday shopping after work on Friday.  We were fairly successful and the things we were looking for but couldn't find, I ordered online.  On our way to the grocery store, we're going to get some wrapping paper so I can wrap these things.  Last year, I left all the wrapping until the end and was miserable.  Not this time.  I'll wrap as I buy and be done with it. 

Shopping at the mall was a madhouse.  We were looking for a few specific things (and wanted to see Santa but the line was way too long) but after a very short while, neither of us could stand the crowd or the noise of teenagers running around and shrieking.  I'm fairly sure I didn't behave like that (um, at least as best as I can remember.  There might have been some teen like flirting and running around.  I can't remember back that far). 

My stomach is telling me 'go eat!' so I'm off. Lots to do today.