2010 mascots. WTF?!

If this picture makes you wonder what the hell these things are, you're not alone.
I turned on the news this morning to discover that some marketing genius had decided that these things represent our province and country. I couldn't even tell what they were.
Then they showed a cartoon that had one of them flying, so I figured it must be some sort of bird. It's supposed to be a native spirit that embodies a bird. Makes me wonder which band. But okay,they at least tried to get something that is BCish happening.
But then there's the others.
I couldn't tell what the big one was. It had to be either a beer spokesman or a marmot. Maybe an ewok? A wookie?
The big one is apparently a sasquatch. So I was right about the beer spokesman. Great.
The last one was the most confusing. The only animal in BC that is black and white and has four legs (that I could think of) was a skunk. But it didn't look like a skunk. It looked like a rejected pokemon character. That one is some sort of, get this, sea bear. It has a killer whale fin on it's head.
Seems kinda like Vanoc is pulling stuff out of it's ass.
It pains me to know that tax dollars paid for these things.
I'd like a refund.

Sometimes, day to day...

...just kicks your ass.
Don't get me wrong, for the most part, things are going fairly smoothly. All the socks sold at the Christmas sale. Gifts we've ordered are starting to arrive. We reworked the den so that it's now a very functional space. It's now an office/library/guest room/music room/exercise area. Small, but with some new bookcases and a small sofabed, it seems to actually look nice and be hugely multipurpose.
If only Ikea would help us out. We want a wall mounted unit for above my new, much smaller computer desk. Seems like a simple and reasonable request right? They carry one that matches the bookcases and have it in stock. There's only one tiny problem. We've tried to put together three different ones and none of them have the holes drilled correctly. Ikea refuses to send us one that they've already made up. They have no problem sending us unit after unit (we've had three now remember)and picking up the defective ones, but they refuse to try and put one together for us.
Now. I think that it's a reasonable thing to ask after we've wasted a few hours trying to have one of these things work. And it would likely wind up costing them less too. As they've had to deliver the thing twice and now and will have to do it again. For a total of three trips out here (we took the first one back ourselves). And hey, after three defective units in a row, I suspect that they've got a bad shipment. Something got off at the factory and no one caught it. We could be putting these things together for weeks and not find a good one.
It's high time that they stepped up and helped us out here. They have our money. Time to make it right.
I was bummed about missing the Blue Moon barn sale last weekend too. Thought I had to be here for something and it turned out that I didn't. So a bunch of my friends were off having fun in Oregon and I was here. In a massive wind storm and power outage. We were lucky and had our power back on in about 12 hours, a lot of people were out for more than 48 hours. We also lost our phone and cable, even after the power came back on. Very sucky.
Okay. That's enough complaining.
It's not all bad around here.
Check this out:


That is the fibrey Christmas that happened here last night. I didn't go to the sale, but my friends made sure that stash enhancement occurred for me anyway.
And yes, some of that stuff is Ravens.
No, you can't have it.
MINE.
I love my friends.
Gives me a big warm fuzzy just looking at that pile of gorgeous Blue Moon.
Thanks guys. You're the best.
Unfortunately, a lot of the fibre stuff happening around here is unbloggable. But I can post these:


A variation on the Firestarter socks in BM lightweight, a rare gem colour. They're toe-up with a really interesting heel configuration. A great knit if you're wanting to make socks and are sick of the ole standby pattern. And the fit is very good. Nice depth through the instep.

Thanks Anne!

Here's my tea swap parcel all the way from Finland!
My swap partner was Anne and she sent some great stuff.
Chocolate, a mug from where she lives, a candle, stitch markers that she made, candy in a lovely little tin, Regia silk which is so nice to knit with and last but not least a bunch of teas that I can't wait to try!
Thanks Anne, I hope your parcel from me reaches you soon.

Generosity, cat wisdom and deadlines

Things have been a little hard around here without the doggie. It's getting better, but every once in a while it still sneaks up on me and slaps a crying jag on my ass.
And lately, the generosity of my friends has never been more obvious.
The pic above is what I received from Jacqui today. That blue skein is yarn she handspun! It's lovely! There's gorgeous roving, tea, soap, candies (mmm apple), a wind chime to make happy sounds outside and a row counter that she made.
And there's the Dog Heaven book.
I'll be giving the box of tissues to the monkey before I let him read it.
Jacqui is also the person who got me going on the PIF thing. She needs one more person, so people, please, go sign up on her blog. It's a really worthwhile thing to do and you'll likely meet some great new friends.
There may be a puppy in our new year. I've kept in touch with the breeder that we got Loki from and had been talking to her about a new schippe before we lost him. It looks like we may have a new pup sometime around March/April.
This is a very good thing. Spike is not nearly as enthused with playing with humans as he was with the dog. But he has taught me something very valuable over the last couple of weeks. Taking a few moments to lie in a patch of warm sun on the kitchen floor is very cathartic. I've watched him do it for years. He used to do it with Loki. They'd both lie on the rug in front of the sink in a patch of sunshine for hours. I never thought much of it, but the other day, I decided, "what the hell" and joined him. It felt great! Very relaxing.
Cats are smart.
Humans, less so.
And, as for how I'm making out with deadlines:


These are the socks I got done for a friend's craft sale. I'm a pair short, but nine's not bad. The stuff for the other big deadline is coming along nicely. The deadline was Oct 15th, but I'm almost done and I promise, it'll be worth the wait.
Now off to get the Christmas shopping done!
Nope. I'm not kidding.