YES and it’s a HANDMADE birthday surprise! I'll ship it out on Wednesday because I have to bring it to knit night on Tuesday to show it (well, them. It's a set of..things.) off. They saw me working on it when I was there Tues before last so I thought they'd want to see it finished. This is a really nice group of women - much, MUCH nicer than the group where I ran into Agate. They were a bit..SCA for my taste. This group meets way over by UNM but we both decided the people are worth the drive. A really nice group with a diverse range in ages and outside interests. All genuinely nice people who are very tolerant of my blurting tendencies and need to show off my latest little projects. One of the knitters just finished her first year at the law school. The non-studying guilt, particularly about torts, seems to be a common trait.

It's interesting you chose the black and green because that's what I'd made for you originally but the other ones turned out well too so I couldn't decide. So hopefully it'll be there by Friday. (ed- I'll be posting pics of them all when I know it's gotten there)

Melon's doing a lot better today. I'd been keeping her shut in the guest room the last few days so I could gauge how much she was eating and the litter box action but I let her out last night - she seems to be much happier to just get attention. She's still not eating voluntarily really. So I've been doing the liquefied food with a syringe thing and giving her water with a dropper. She's been surprisingly compliant about that but it still makes a big mess. The last two nights she's eaten a few treats and has been following me around the house. It's clear that she's been feeling a lot spunkier. She even scratched the sisal pad and clawed her way to the top of my desk chair this morning. I gave her the last of the pills this morning and hopefully she won't need any more anti-nausea pills. I'll probably get her in to the vet for more blood work this week just to check those liver levels.

Cody took this week off of work to help get some spring cleaning done. The house has gotten way out of control (ed- but certainly not this bad) and I could really use the help for a good jump start. I'm sort of hoping to get rid of about half our crap but I know that's not happening. I would like to reclaim my studio so the bags of yarn stash can stop living in the den.

I told my parents they could come anytime after this week and I think they're planning the last week in June. They took a trip to DC a few weeks ago and had a good time visiting all the museums and new memorials - Dad particularly liked the new one for FDR. It's a cheap nerd's paradise with free admission to most places, well, paid by our taxes anyway. I had no idea about that and only vaguely recall the family trip we took there when Carter was in the white house. We've been planning a trip to New York in September. Not exactly a cheap nerd's paradise but there'll be no shortage of museums to visit. We'll be staying right by the new planetarium. Is it a bad sign I'm going to be taking my Last Minute Knitted Gifts book and insisting on a trip to the store owned by the author?

I hope you have a great birthday and Chris takes you somewhere fun. Bet there are great hot dogs at the A's game.