It's official, I'm "dead"...but oh, the goodies!

I made the walk to the end of the drive to get the mail this afternoon and there was the package I've been waiting for. My Sock Wars socks! I had fair warning that they were on their way and therefore knew of my impending doom. But this sealed it. So while that's sad news, the good news is that Jaci from Wisconsin, who was my assassin, sent me all kinds of goodies along with the socks she made! So without further ado, here is a look at the wonderful care package that she put together.
First, here are the great socks that she made. The color is super and I was even wearing a t-shirt of that same color today!

And here's everything that accompanied them...a bar of scented soap this is so yummy you could eat it(!), a bottle cozy (which Mark immediately took from me and put to use on a bottle of Sam Adams!), some "orange citrus" lip balm (all from Leinenkugel's Brewery in Chippewa Falls, WI), Silver Springs honey dijon mustard/mayo spread (from Eau Claire, WI), a ball of yarn that I can't wait to cast on for some socks, and some wonderful stitch markers that Jaci made herself!


I can't begin to tell you how excited I was, like a kid at Christmas! Thanks Jaci for being so thoughtful, you made my day!! I really appreciate all the trouble you went to! Oh, and I still have about a third of the second sock that isn't done, so according to the rules I guess I'll be sending them your way to finish...that is, assuming you're still in the game?

In other news, I worked on the bathroom today. Last weekend I tore down all the wallpaper. Surprisingly this task wasn't as terrible as I had been warned it would be. There were definitely areas that were troublesome, but all in all I was pretty happy with how it peeled away. Today I went back and did some patching and cleaned the walls and ceiling in preparation for the paint. A much needed facelift for an outdated bathroom.

As an aside, a while ago I got an audio book from Mardens, which is a large surplus and salvage store up here. Kind of like a Big Lots, Odd Lots or Ollie's if you're familiar with any of them. The book is called Clubland and is a well-researched, journalistic look at Michael Alig, his rise to fame as the "King of the Club Kids" and his eventualy involvement in the murder of Angel Melendez. This lead me to rent Party Monster which is a movie based on those true events. It's all a pretty interesting, though sick and twisted, story. The movie was fairly entertaining and it was fun to see Macaulay Culkin all grown up and back in action as Alig, but Seth Green as James St. James really carried the movie. Plus, Dylan McDermott was in it and he's just plain hot!

LISTENING TO: DEAD CAN DANCE - "Within The Realm Of A Dying Sun"

Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry fill their third album with a sense of foreboding, mystery and beauty. They've made many stylistic changes since their debut and by this time have set aside most traditional rock instruments in favor of classical ones. The Gerrard-sung "Summoning Of The Muse" is a particular highlight.