My, I had many errands today. Among them was a 3.5 hour visit to the VW dealership to fix (replace) the car stereo that was damaged in my accident. A tape got stuck in there and the computer said “NO TAPE” when I tried to eject it. Fortunately, my insurance company (State Farm) has been pretty great about this whole thing, a sort of good thing for them because I was ready to deem their rates too high but now I’m clear I’m paying for good service.

So today I have a new (refurbished, actually) radio/cassette player in my car. I did have to pay for this expense up front and will be reimbursed (since the work was done by a shop that doesn’t typically do collision repairs). Fortunately, I had some funds I could float for the purpose of tunes and I did that. It’s so nice to be able to play cassettes, again. I have really missed that. Commercials really upset me sometimes and I really prefer driving with some sort of music so I’ve been switching stations a lot lately.

Last night at the bluegrass festival (and in the car to and from it), and today in the dealership lobby, I knit an eggplant cap (pattern by Ann Norling, and it is elegantly simple in design, I love it) for my friend Anne’s baby. She is just over a year old now, and was only 3.1 pounds when she was born. I knit her a strawberry hat last August and she is nearly grown out of it now. Anne was lamenting the loss of the hat but now she’ll have another. I got to show it off at Habibi Dancers tonight. Everyone humored me with their oohs and aahs, and I appreciated it.

Kay, our costume queen for Habibis, brought an even better kid gift today. She had sewn a costume for Denise, who has a toddler who loves all the costumes and glitter associated with our dancing. When we have rehearsals and Denise has to bring the darling child, we make sure there is an extra piece of fabric she can use as her own veil. She dances around us and with us with her veil, very sweet.

Well, today Kay brought in the cutest little belly dance costume for Denise’s sweetie, made from the scraps of the costume she had made for Denise. Now plans are in the works for a mommy/daughter costume photo portrait. I will be eager to see it. We are just afraid that the little girl will not want to take off the costume when it is necessary! Mommy isn’t as worried as we are, so I’m going to let go of that concern for now.

I got to see my friend Ulyana for a while today, also. She is preparing for a trip to learn more massage training and will be going to a contra dance this weekend on the way out there. She is pretty excited about it. I’m happy for her. I was there helping her with her computer, but it is always great to have an excuse to talk and talk.

Since I once more am here typing and Brian is out, I will share with you my sock number 40, dated April 2002. It was made with the Sole Solutions software by Mary Moran, as a toe-up pattern. I had two skeins of Debbie Bliss DK Merino (washable wool, gorgeous stuff) and was afraid I might run out of yarn if I made them top-down. I love these sox. They wash and dry in the machine and still look fabulous. They also feel really good. I am just used to making sox top down, or I would do this more. These are very nice, useable sox. And pretty, too!

Oh, and last but certainly not least: Happy Birthday to my friend JoDee, my godchildren’s mother. Jo and I were in first grade together for sure, maybe kindergarten. That is a lot of years! I thank my stars that we are still friends after all these years, so many people don’t have friendships that go back that far.

Jo had my children for me, I always say. Michael is 20 and will be attending Central Michigan University as a Junior, next fall. Sara I mentioned last week, she of the dance recital. She also is a lovely singer and a very fine, strong young woman. She will be a Senior in high school next year. Amazing.

I like to say that Michael looks like me, and Sara acts like me. Michael looks more like his own family now, but it was really true when he was a little one, that he looked more like me than Jo. Sara is a creative, talented, tell-it-like-it-is grrrl, even more than “her Lynnie.”I adore them all!

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