Sometimes you pick the project, sometimes it picks you

I apologize that I haven't posted in a while.  I am still sick.  My cold morphed into a lovely ear infection.  I am hoping that it feels better by Thanksgiving.  I am tired of being sick.

A lot has happened since I posted last. 

I finished my Little Pumpkins socks and now I started a new shawl.  The shawl pattern is sort of a Franken-pattern.  I am using part of a shawl pattern for a fir cone section of the triangular shawl and a modified version of a Shetland pine trees pattern.  Haven't decided totally on the edging yet, but I am leaning towards the one that Evelyn Clark used on her Swallowtail Shawl because it sort of has a pine tree shape.  If I have the time I'll write it up and put it on my blog as a Christmas gift to you guys.

Here's what the beginning looks like:

The yarn is Trekking Handpaints.  Isn't it pretty?  I thought the yarn was far too pretty to be made into socks.  Perhaps I'll put some beads in the edging.

Our garage door broke on November 1.  One of the springs broke and lodged itself in the wall of the garage.  Thankfully, it wasn't me or my car that it landed on.  Unfortunately for us, the door and the springs were old (probably 1970's vintage) and it would have costed nearly as much to fix as replacing it.  So, we chose replacement.  The new door is lovely--$980 worth of loveliness.  Now we just need to work on the re-siding and roof.  It's always something.

Isn't it lovely?

This past Sunday evening the kids in the house next door had company.  Their friends backed right into our picket fence when they were leaving.  Of course, they didn't tell us about it and we didn't notice the damage.  Their mother owns the house and lives downstairs.  She told Paulette that she would pay for the fixing on Monday evening when she saw her.  The mom was upset about it because she noticed it on her birthday. 

Here's the damage:

Perhaps they need backing lessons?  I am annoyed for many reasons.  I had plans for Saturday.  Now I won't be doing that because we need to fix the fence then.  If this were summer, it would be fixed already.  Unfortunately it gets dark really early now.  I work until 4:30PM.  The fence is set into our lot by nearly 2 feet.  One has to wonder where they would have ended up if the fence wasn't there to stop them.  I suspect alcohol was involved.  The fence posts won't have to be replaced.  They are lucky because they would have been the ones doing the digging for that since it was so much fun the first time around. 

Well, time to go now.  Hope it isn't so long before I post next time.