For The Pugilist On Your List...

In an odd sort of way, my good fortune continues.  I say, "odd" because some of these gifts from heaven are of the left-handed variety, but still...  You take a gift and say a hearty thanks-so-very-much rather than you-could-have-done-better.

I'd kind of hoped for an early release day from school yesterday what with the first of the weekend storms rolling in.  But that didn't come to pass.  However, nothing really started happening until 2:00 and I was out the door by 2:30 so I didn't have to drive in much of anything too horrific.  Frankly, I hate driving in the snow about as much as I seem to hate working a full day...

I took the car in this morning for the brake work that was supposed to be taken care of last week but which was interrupted by the first of the series of storms that just keep pummeling us.  While I am grumpy about having to have the brakes fixed on a car that I have driven for a mere six months, the fact that they came in under the estimate was a bit of good news.  Plus, the service staff now hate the sales staff as much as I do at this point because they stored all their cars in the garage on the promise that they would be in by 7:00 this morning to remove them and then didn't.  The young woman manning the service desk who had to move all those cars back out to the lot all by herself agreed with my thoughts regarding the quality of the Secret Santa Gifts the sales staff deserve.  

When I arrived home, I found an email waiting for me from Amazon.com.  It seems that they remembered my ordering history and those things over which I giggle and titter.  They were wondering if I might consider pre-ordering a video-on-demand rental from them for New Year's Eve.  As this was a movie with a very limited release schedule and not yet available on DVD, I was thrilled to check a hearty YES in the reply box.

For the record, I don't normally use Amazon for movies.  They are fabulous for music downloads but otherwise hate all things Mac.  Movie downloads are not compatible which leaves streaming.  Amazon, it seems, finds my DSL connection to be rather slow according to their lofty standards and periodically reminds me of this fact in their video dashboard.  But I forgive them.  They somehow knew that I would want to watch They Call Me Bruce on New Year's Eve and remembered to include my Mac-ish self on their invite list.  Me 'n Amazon are cool...

With all that good fortune going on, it seemed in my best interest to make good on that promise to reknit the mittens I'd somehow managed to knit in two different lengths.  At this time of the year it is not only Karma who is watching after all.   Santa Claus is also casting his gaze about looking for no-goodniks.  Best to do the right thing.

And so I did.  The second mitten was reknit to length and, may I just say, at great cost to my poor hands.  Wrangling a double strand of thick lopi on size 8 needles was simply grueling.  You can imagine my dismay after noticing that I'd missed a loop while fastening off the first "good" mitten.  Taking it apart to snag that loose loop was a bit of a battle and some stitches were lost.  More with the painful reknitting...

But it was the right thing to do.  And now they are done.  They are also thick enough to qualify as boxing gloves should you happen to know anyone who needs some.

I call these the Drama Mittens.  Exaggerating?  Me?  Oh, I don't think so...

I think that Karma, Santa and any other Mystical Overseers Of Behavior and I are cool at this point.  I did the right thing.  I fought with yarn and had to use a crochet hook to effect decreases.  That makes us even-steven.  I no longer feel any guilt over taking advantage of recent opportunities.  

Meanwhile, the next of the Horrible-No-Good-Trying-To-Bury-Us-Snowstorms is gearing up and should be ready to dump more snow on top of the seven inches we got on Friday night.  We here at Survival Central have all been preparing in our own ways.  I finished up the grocery shopping as well as making sure that I have gifts for my staff on Tuesday.  The car is now equipped with working brakes and washed.  Knitting projects abound and I've got that book from the school library that I took out in spite of the fact that I know at least five million kids wanted it.  I'm all set.

The felines of the household prepared as only kitties can.  They are experts in this sort of thing.

The Big, Fluffy Kitty snagged the Nappin' Basket and remained firmly entrenched there for the day.

This would normally be something of an issue since the Absurdly Gi-normous Kitty tends to think of this as his spot.  But it all worked out...

He was otherwise occupied.  Those clean jeans I'd left on the bed weren't going to press themselves, after all.

It's all good over here.  The kitties are "helping," the car is braking and the internet is willing to provide me with a plan for ringing in the New Year.  If I just don't think about all that snow that is about to fall down on my head, then it's just about perfect!

I wonder if Karma is taking requests at this point...

SA