Well, go figure. I've been having a pretty darn lousy day, one in which I have found myself near tears of frustration more than once, and I get bombarded with good knitty things. I think it's one of those laws of nature: oops, she's had so much negative, let's balance it with some positive.

First is this yarn. Handspun by Betsy of K2Tog (You know the blog, right? Well, you should! Betsy and Omar have fabulous knitted goods, handy advice and really cool layout)

Anyway, Betsy indicated that she wasn't crazy about the yarn, but I commented that I am--I think it's bee-yoo-ti-ful--and Betsy said she may be willing to part with it since little ol' me is a fan. How cool is that!? Wow, only day 2 of my knitblog adventures, and I meet someone as generous as Betsy. This bodes well!

Then I got an email from our receptionist that some packages had arrived for me. For my birthday last week I accumulated $70 in B&N gift cards (props to Dad and The Boy!) and I instantly put them to use on some knitting books I've been salivating over. I went to the B&N store near work, but found out that I could save $22 by ordering online + I got free shipping since I spent more than $25 (significantly more, in fact). Yes!

So today I got The Yarn Girl's Guide, which I've been ogling at my LYS for a good couple of months now; The Ultimate Knitting Book, which I think is far superior to the portable quick reference version; and The Big Book of Knitting. I foresee an evening of oohing, aahing, post-it-ing my favorites and generally ignoring my home, The Boy, The Cat and everything else. Sigh. This should redeem the day at least a little bit.

And speaking of The Cat (a.k.a. Puff Kitty, a.k.a The Beast, a.k.a. Tyrannosaurus Max), last night I gave him his first taste of hot dog (I don't generally cotton to giving people food to pets, particularly with The Beastie's tummy troubles, but he was begging so cutely, and I'm a bad mom). The Boy warned me that it was just going to sit there untouched. Well, I was so proud when I looked over a minute later and the hot dog was gone from where I'd put it on the floor, by the table. I gleefully pointed out to The Boy: "See, he ate it!" Then The Boy pointed out that Puffy was actually batting the hot dog end around and chasing it through the kitchen and living room. It was quite a sight to see, actually. The Boy said that The Cat was 'killing' his food before eating it. I was so proud that I gave him two more little pieces, just to watch him running around, batting the pieces. He was so proud of himself. Yeah, I know...but I don't have any kids yet, so this is what I do, people!