Creepy, But Still Soft And Fuzzy

All in all it was a pretty good weekend. Sort of crappy weather but I was in the mood to be all nestled in and snuggly.

The highlights:

• Yesterday B told my MIL that while he appreciates the help Gerd gives, he should not go behind B's back again to make appointments for him or anything else along those lines. Ask B first and then proceed - it's that simple. My MIL thought B was overreacting and insisted that Gerd did it with only good intentions. Yeah, we get that but it's not the point. My MIL is the sort of person that thinks nearly everything can be overlooked if the offender didn't mean any harm. And at the age of 74 we're probably not going to be able to change her way of thinking. Stay tuned to see if things subside in this area or if more hours of grumbling and being pissed off are in our future.
  
  
• Thank God and all his angels for the medications the doctors give my mother for her Alzheimer's disease. We spoke with her early Saturday evening and she was lucid for the entire hour we were on the phone. So many conversations with her have had her drifting off or her sort of checking out on us - she'll suddenly sound as though she's drunk (my mother does not drink at all) or is falling asleep - or she'll suddenly start talking in nothing but non sequiturs. This time she was as sharp as a tack. I know these sorts of encounters will eventually be fewer and farther in between until they stop but I'll take as many as I can for as long as I can.
  
  
• Last night B and I watched Zodiac and I'm happy to report that the story of the Zodiac killer still creeps me out no end. I remember my friends and I talking about this story back when I was maybe nine or ten years old, a couple years after the murders had stopped - this story and the Charles Manson murders - and it scared us all silly. Little kids being spooked by murders that happened a few thousands of miles away from us. It was the sort of thing we'd talk about at slumber parties and every creak of the house would make us jump with fright. But what made the Zodiac thing even creepier is that he was never caught. And I credit blame it on starting me on my true-crime story fascination.
  
  
• It's been a festival of yarn here today. Remember my lovely friend, Kay, who sent me a fabulous box o' yarn a couple weeks ago? She sent more. She's crazy like that. Crazy sweet and crazy generous and she's spoiled me like crazy. This time she sent another couple balls of the Rowan Soft Tweed yarn like what was in the last shipment - yarn so lovely and soft I want to kiss it - but she also sent eight balls of Gedifra Belisana in an incredible shade of lavender. It's wonderfully soft but not kissable as it's made with a lot of kid mohair, a sure fire recipe for fuzzy lips. Then there is my knitting pal, Alicia. Alicia and I belong to the same knitting website and we belong to a group that has taken on the challenge to knit a pair of socks each month for a year. In order to keep us motivated many of us have taken on accountability partners. The rule is that if we fail to knit a pair of socks by the end of the month, we must send our accountability partner enough sock yarn to knit one pair of socks. Unfortunately Alicia had a very busy August and she failed to meet the deadline. I was willing to let her slide but, as Alicia wisely pointed out, it wouldn't be much of an incentive to keep on track if we let one another slide and not pay the penalty. And I was glad she was insistent about paying up because today I got a hank of some truly stunning hand-dyed sock yarn that she picked up at a fiber festival. And it's done in shades of purple and green. I can't tell you how much I love purple and green together, especially if it's in muted hues like this yarn is. You know normally I knit socks for others but this time, the socks I make from this yarn are going to be mine, all mine.

The days are turning colder already. I need to knit faster.