Thanks for the birthday wishes - Girlchild (who is working again) sent me a gift card for Sephora (oooh!) and Boy took me out to dinner, and I know/suspect a few more birthday surprises are on the way. I love it that way, I like having Birthday Week rather than just one day.

I found this wonderful article: boys who crochet thanks to blogdogblog. Wow. I'm adding them to my donation list, for sure, I have a ton of extra crochet hooks collected over a lifetime, plus yarns I will never get around to using.

If only we didn't have these gender/social status/age/whatever attitudes about working with fiber to overcome, more people would benefit from the serenity and pleasure it gives. I've said it before, but if more men knitted and crocheted, yarn shops would be the size of Home Depot. (Of course, it sounds like Rob and Matt are working on it.) As to the controversy of being ignored by those two if you don't have a blog, oh, bovinebyproduct. (I'm trying to make up for swearing like a sailor after my haircut.) I'm nowhere near their part of the country, we do not have any special relationship other than every now and then I give them money and they give me yarn. I am a virtual stranger to them. I have no idea if they read this blog, and I don't care. I said this before too, but anybody can put in an automated shopping cart and click one of this and two of that, but these guys go insanely above and beyond, and there's only two of them. I impulsively ordered yarn after my bad haircut and ended up in an email exchange w/Rob, who sent me a picture of my choices so I could see them together. I didn't ASK him to, he could have just filled the order and shipped it and taken my money and I'd never have thought anything of it. But they go above and beyond, and that does take time. After a couple of rounds of email I ended up with a different shade of blue and a couple of other things thrown in too, and the box came today, in the trademark lovely colored tissue paper. If you order from them and are "forgotten" don't take it personally, it's two human beings functioning as buyers, stockers, warehouse staff, mailroom staff, consultants, teachers.... I don't believe they ever forget anybody on purpose, they are just freaking overworked. I hope that the new facility will bring box-packers and shippers and other support troops. I have empathy for them because though I am in a totally different and far less fun line of work I'm functioning without support troops too, and I hate waking at 3 a.m. worrying if a deadline is looming. I don't know how they have done what they have done this long, but I hope they get extra hands by the time I get a secretary, and in the meantime cut them some slack. Please. If you've never busted your butt all day every day only to be awakened at 3 a.m. by a very important thing you are terrified you forgot, you ain't got a right to bitch. (Whoops, so much for watching my language.)

Early to bed tonight. I'm full of Carrabba's and wine and so ready to curl up in bed and watch dumb tv and plan fiber projects.