Viral Weekend

I hate getting sick. As much as I would like to be, I am not one of those strong women who laugh in the face of illness. I immediately become convinced that I'm dying of some horrible disease, some wandering tumor. This weekend it was just a minor thing, but I was whiny and depressed. Well, I was too sick to knit for a while there, so who wouldn't be? I shudder to think what would happen if I ever were diagnosed with something truly threatening.

So some knitting got done, but not much. It was also a three day weekend for the kids, which eliminated much of Monday. I had a doctor's appointment today, tomorrow is early release for the kids, Thursday is Jr. Jr.'s birthday (7! must bake cupcakes to bring to school!), Friday is the fifth grade ice cream social (afternoon) and the school-wide 70's revival dance (evening), so it's going to be a slow week overall. And this coming Monday is once of those wonderful and well-timed "teacher work days," so I look forward to another short week next week.

I did finish the main body of Miss Lambert's shawl:


Still not much to look at, in it's unblocked state. I haven't started the edging yet, because I'd like to have some concentrated time to get a few inches in, but... see above. So I got back to work on the Dove socks, and am not far from completing the second sock.

I'll be happy to finish these. I don't love knitting with Socks that Rock yarn because it feels so harsh and twiny. I can't wait to see how these soften up in the wash. Hopefully they'll turn out soft enough that I won't dread knitting with this stuff again, because I have more of it. Here's a close up of the Raven colors, as best they can show up on this grey and pre-snowy day:

Now I'm looking forward to starting a new sock, in a nice, soft yarn, probably some Dream in Color Smooshy. Love that yarn!

The other disadvantage of being sick was that I was too woozy to follow closely what was going on in politics. My general impression is that the Democratic race is getting nasty, which isn't good for the party, and the Republican race is still fairly fractured. On the Democratic side, I can't help but think that the nastiness being attributed to the Clintons is only going to work, ultimately, in Obama's favor. The Clintons seem to be alienating one of their prior core constituencies -- African Americans. Not a good strategy. All Obama has to do is avoid playing along with them and he comes across as more statesmanlike. I still think that the differences and similarities between them are quite worth parsing out in a non-acrimonious atmosphere. Perhaps I say that just because I'm still undecided and feel like I want a lot more clarification on some of the issues and where they really stand.

On the Republican side, Thompson is out. Will Huckabee be next? I hope so. But then again, I value the Constitution as it stands and don't want it to be "brought more in line with God's laws" or whatever it is that Huckabee's been claiming out there in (certain) speeches to (certain) audiences. It will be interesting to see if Giuliani can, as he claims, win in Florida. That would really throw a monkey wrench into this primary season for the Republicans, who are already contending with a big Romney/McCain fight.