And a good time was had by all ...

Thanks to all of you who sent me birthday wishes and e-mails wishing me happy birthday. I love getting comments, messages, and anything resembling mail, so I really enjoy birthday notes.

As I suspected, the evening of my birthday was just as great as the day was. Tim baked a marble cake with homemade chocolate frosting with slivered almonds, and we had that with ice cream. Yum! He also gave me a beautiful necklace, so the birthday combo of cake and shiny things was perfectly accomplished!

I got a few knitting related things, such as Victorian Lace Today, which I had looked at a few months ago, and really loved. But since I am a beginner (being kind to myself here) at lace, I figured it wasn't really practical. But Tim said maybe it would inspire me - which now that I think of it, makes perfect sense. Because it is an inspiring book. I would be happy if I could do any of the designs, even poorly.

I also got a wood swift, which is made of cherry, and is beautiful. It's also good for me, because I don't really have room for an umbrella swift, and this one breaks down easily and stores in a bag on a shelf or someplace. I had asked for a ball winder, and was going to save and buy myself the swift. I had sent Tim some pictures of ball winders, so he would know what I was talking about, and there were also swifts in the pictures. He said the swift was nicer-looking, so he got me that, because "don't they do the same thing?" Ask me if I care that he doesn't know the details of the winder/swift relationship. :-)

A friend gave me a gift certificate to Rosie's, which is always a good thing. I'll just have to make the sacrifice and go choose something. (This falls into the category that my sister refers to as White Man's Troubles ...)

I also got great (though non-knitting) gifts from the cats and from some of my other friends. So don't cry for me, Argentina, it was a fun birthday! And, since in our family, you have your birthday day, and your birthday week, I'm still enjoying my birthday week, thank you very much.

I do have to say that I didn't get as much knitting done as I'd thought I would, at least not yet. Yesterday I spent more time than I had planned trying to balance the checkbook (grr), and then met a friend for lunch. Then I spent a good part of the evening on the checkbook, and finally got to a point where I could live with what the bank was telling me ...

But today since I have that out of the way, I have plans for some things around here, baking some soda bread, and working on the second sock I'm knitting. I figure tomorrow I should work on the Shamrock Shawl, being St. Patrick's Day and all ...

And finally, please join me in a chorus of Happy Birthday to my friend Carol, whose birthday is today. Her Etsy shop, Black Bunny Fibers, just turned a year old a couple of days ago, and today is her day, so she has lots of reasons to celebrate. I only met her about a year ago, but I consider her one of my dearest friends, and have learned more about knitting, yarns, and patterns from her in this past year, than in all of my previous years on my own.

Happy Birthday, Carol, and many, many, more!