Why Do You Rock So Hard?*

Seriously. Dude? Seriously.

Three boxes on a Monday. THREE! MONDAY!! (Psst: Can you spot the cat? Introducing Indiana!)


First up, the stuff I paid for - all acquisitions from a Destash seller. The first six skeins from left to right are her own handspun (I love handspun). There's also a Habu Silk Kusa (the teeny green ball with great yardage); the second from right is some handpainted School Products cashmere (40) silk (60); the far right is Lorna's Shepherd Sock in Black Purl.


Next! Goodies! Golden goodies!


I got distracted momentarily by the bubble wrap.


My Tea Swap treats! Valerie (who is still freakin' awesome, in case you were wondering) provided loads of hard-to-find and gourmet goodies. Having tasted pretty much everything, I can say it's all fabulous. Wanna hear the best part? The yummy strawberry & pepper dark chocolate (no, you read that right) is delicious, and Travis doesn't like it. (Hallelujah! I can keep it all for myself without feeling totally greedy and selfish!) There's also more tea (more tea!!), a rose black tea - there are whole little rosebuds in there! - and a Mate Latte, which smells delicious, a lot like something Travis would love. Travis came home to something like this:


Then I let him smell the Mate Latte. And it got ugly.


But WAIT! There's MORE!!!


My Secret Pal has struck....ALREADY!!!! She is freakin' awesome too - get this, she sent me an email on Friday to let me know that Bono was going to be on Larry King! (So thoughtful....and yet I still ran late for call time at the theatre and totally forgot to set the TiVo - boo!) She burned me a Tori Amos MP3 CD (we both love us some Tori Amos) and the latest Pete Yorn disc, both of which I will very much enjoy jamming to during my telecommuting day tomorrow! There's food (peanut butter cups, taco soup mix, chipotle chili rub, and a big ol' bag of vanilla base and recipes for all the goodies I can make with it - I love that she provided starter course, main course, and two desserts - 'atta girl.) There's notecards, pens, and a notepad, which all coordinate with the new decor in my "office" (a special term I like to use for the now-yarnless tiny corner of my fiber room necessitated by the teleworking arrangement). There's the Harmony Stitch Guide (Volume 2) - I LOVE stitch guides because I love knitting dishcloths, scarves, and socks from off-the-cuff patterns I generate with the help of a stitch dictionary. This one's got some GREAT stuff, and tons of cables (I want to make a butch man-scarf for Travis for Christmas, and I want something with beefy cables.)

And there's the yarn.


I think I'm reading the label right - Hub City Knits (I think?), a sock yarn with 65% superwash wool and 35% silk. Luxuuuuuuryyyyyy! The colors are so perfect for fall, and this yarn just jumped to the tippy-top of my must-knit list. (For myself - damn this holiday season!) Maybe I can sneak in a few rounds here and there..... (It doesn't hurt that the label has a picture of a teeny perfect little McLambykins...I'm a sucker for lambs.)

I would have taken more silly photos of me playing with all my swag, but Travis got home from work and I didn't have a need to entertain myself with the camera anymore. (When I'm alone with my camera and some props, I tend to take all sorts of ridiculous photos. As you've seen many times in the past...Sock Hat Lady, Crazy Yarn Lady, and so on.)

Pals, you have made my WEEK! Already! And it's only Monday! The rest of the week oughta be smooth sailing! Smooth, high-calorie sailing. Rock.

*Footnote, Aija-style: A few years ago, I got to be a part of a fantastic show, Noises Off, here in the area. It's a spectacularly funny play about a play, and my costar Josh and I played a couple in the play-play - him a well-meaning bumbling oaf who never finished a sentence, me a ditzy blonde incapable of dealing with curveballs. Our chemistry worked and the show was a blast - every time we came offstage trailed by uproarious laughter, Josh would turn to me and ask, "Why do we rock so hard?" which has since become part of my regular vocabulary. The show was a smash success with a sold-out run and huge reviews...we liked to assume it was totally because of us. The entire cast was spectacular, though I've no doubt Josh's comedic timing was responsible for a lot of our energy.....but I'm going to pretend that the fact that I was a size four at the time and spent 2/3 of the show in flashy lingerie might have had something to do with it.