What is it with me and passwords? I'm sure there's a therapy session in here somewhere about why I can't remember passwords, even the simplest ones I create for myself. I haven't been able to post for two two weeks because...well, because even when I found the time to blog, I spent it trying to figure out what my effing password is. Can you say "lame-ass blogger?" Sure, I knew you could.

Yesterday I went to the Pasadena Bead and Design show with CosaMama, and we took a class in creative bead design. Essentially coiled wire, wrapped with shiny yarns. It was fun, and I started t think about weaving, even though I swore I would never do such a thing given the knitting and spinning obsessions. But I'm starting to accumulate enough hand-spun yarn that I am feeling a need to figure out ways to use it up faster than hand-knitting will allow. But I didn't buy one, because I'm not quite inspired enough yet. And Stitches West is coming up, with several design classes in the works for me, but I know there's some great design software out there, and I think I'd rather have that than a loom. For now. Unless the ever-indulgent MixMonster wants to research smallish looms. Really, though, I think I need to wait for MookMac (the "little" boy) to graduate and go to a college dorm somewhere (anywhere!), which will allow me to fumigate his bedroom and turn it into Fiber Art Central. That's a good five years away, which leaves me with too much fiber and too much yarn, no matter how I add it all up.

FiberScore since Jan. 29: 4 skeins of yarn; 1 baby hat made of previously hand-spun merino and silk, 1 Blue Moon sock and the mate cast on; 7 or 8 fiber beads; and 6 or 8 skeins of red KnitPicks "Elegance" ripped out of a shawl-in-progress that I was starting to hate, re-skeined and washed, now waiting to become a long red sweater-coat.

What I'm reading: The Best American Short Stories of 2008, edited by Stephen King and worth the price of the book just for Mr. King's excellent introductory essay. But the stories are pretty fabulous, too.

VespaScore: 0. MixMonster too sick to ride, and mostly too sick this week to even move much beyond the long journey from bed to sofa and back. I took care of him as well as could be expected from as far away from him as I could get. And I'm just too damned lazy to get the Vespa out and warmed up and down the driveway unless it's for fun. If it's an errand, forget it. I'll drive the car with the heated driver's seat, thank you very much.

No Fear

2008. The year of living fearlessly, except for things that involve heights and steep cliffs. Knitting and spinning? Those I can do, but I'm going to do more of my own work this year....which means getting over my fear of math. Vespa rides with Cosa Uno aka MixMonster? With pleasure...unless it's cold. I'll dress more warmly and ride more often. I go toe-to-toe with my children already, which seems like an obvious parenting skill, but not every parent I know can say that. I've even jumped out of a plane to cure my acrophobia. BTW, it didn't work - I jumped because I was afraid I'd fall out of the plane, and I was petrified all the way down. I'm still petrified on the edge of a cliff, the top of a Mayan temple, and a even some freeway overpasses. Aside from that, I'm moderately gutsy, but I've lived in fear of going public with my writing via blogging or having any sort of online presence, which in the world of fiber-worship seems inconceivable these days. It's not that I was lurking, exactly. It's just that I'm a little shy. So I'm going to write more fearlessly and join the cyber-fiber world. Starting now.