Wow wow wow!!

Did I mention wow? Look at what my mailman just delivered! My Secret Pal 7 Angel has really gone above and beyond this time! When I opened the wrapping, my first thought was "she used a puzzle box for shipping - what a great idea!" She, however, went a few steps further...
This is actually a 500 piece puzzle (I love, love, love jigsaw puzzles - Angel, how did you know?) She put it together, turned it over, wrote a letter to me on the back, and took the puzzle back apart to put into the box. According to her note, the letter is full of hints about her identity. What an ingenious idea!!!

The puzzle box held more goodies:

According to her note, she picked up the yarn and soaps at the Black Sheep Gathering. The soaps are absolutely wonderful - the one on the top is a knitters/spinners soap. It's made with lanolin...which is one of my favorite ingredients in soaps and lotions. The other one is called "Sugar Loaf," and it smells divine - hints of brown sugar, honey and oatmeal. Mmmmmmm... Very warm and definitely going in the shower today!

The egg held this wonderful surprise:

Stitch markers that she made!!! These are very lightweight, wonderfully constructed and absolutely gorgeous!!!

The yarn is a 50 gram ball of laceweight wool from Yarn Place. 1200 yards!!!!! Wow, this is nice yarn!! I love this shade of teal, but it gets better...look at what you see when you look at the end!

Isn't that just gorgeous? I'm thinking that this would be perfect for the flower basket shawl pattern that my SP8 sent me...

Well, I now know that my Angel is from Washington. Time to clear the dining room table and get started on that puzzle! They're calling for rain on and off all day today, so it will a perfect day for working on puzzles. Thank you Angel!!!! These things are so perfect - are you sure we haven't met? I'm starting to wonder how you know me so well... :-)

On the knitting front: this mess, believe it or not, is going to be my movie prop for knitting camp. (17 DAYS!!!!) Hint: Bring out the Holy Hand Grenade!!!

Baseball: I'm an avid baseball fan. Specifically, I'm an avid Indians fan. (You kinda have to be...it's the Indians, after all. No fly-by-night fans would ever make it around here) I've played softball since I was about 7, and I've been a carded baseball and softball umpire since I was 18. I've kept score at every baseball game I've attended since I was a kid. Dad taught me when I was really little - we'd make score sheets and sit down with the Indians game on the radio. Because of him, I have a great love for the game and a pretty extensive knowledge of the rules. (Thanks, Dad!!!) Somewhere, I have a bunch of scored programs dating back from the 1970's; I can't watch a live baseball game without a score sheet in my hands. As a result, I've been the scorekeeper for every game that my boys have ever played. Kyle doesn't play anymore, but Kelson loves the game. (You should see the looks I get when I'm watching the game, keeping score - including pitch counts - and knitting on a sock at the same time!!)

Anyway...

Yesterday was the BYS 13-14 boys' All-Star game. As the head coach for the Orioles, Kevin was one of the coaches. I brought a scorebook with me - for the reason why, see the preceding paragraph. I guess I've developed a reputation as an accurate scorekeeper; as I was sitting in the stands before the game, knitting on a sweater, the league commissioner walked up to me and said "Oh, good! You're here!! Do you have a pencil with you?" And with that, I became the official statistician for the All-Star game. :-) As it turns out, the league commissioner is a sports writer for the Plain Dealer - he even spent a year as Tom E. Hawk, the old Indians mascot. We spent quite a bit of time talking baseball yesterday while I kept stats.

Now I have to go clear the table....