Poor Me.

Now I know for sure that the mailman is playing mind games with me. Today there were no packages at my door. No, instead there was an orange slip of paper telling me to come get them at the local post office after 4 p.m. Okay, maybe he was just trying to protect my packages from the much-needed rain we got all day today, but it meant that I had to wait till 4 and then drag both girls to the post office to collect a large bin of parcels. A car ride at 4 p.m. means one thing to my non-napping toddler. Wanna guess? She falls asleep. So we drive less than a mile and I have to wake her up so she can walk through the rain with me, stand in line, collect a bin, get back in the car.

Oh my, listen to me whine. I make it sound like my life is so freakin' hard. It wasn't that bad. We got to go to the library right afterwards, and I came home with another giant bin full of presents to open. Who am I kidding? I have a great life and it is all totally worth it. I am loving this project and only wish I had more time to work on the blanket itself. Only three squares today. For shame. But we'll get to that later. First, let's open some packages!!!1!one! I sure hope you all are detecting the irony in the post title.

I hate to play favorites, because every package I've received so far is amazing and generous and unique and special in its own way like a snowflake or a child or something really touching like that. But I'm going to start with my favorite package of the day because there are so many things about it that make it my favorite. First, it's the first international package I've received. Well, there's another international one in today's batch, but I came across this one first. Next, look at the stamps. You need a closer look, so scroll on down to the next picture.



Canada has some awesome stamps. Joe and I have talked on occasion about whether we should up and move to Canada - the last time the topic came up seriously was when the U.S. went to war on Iraq. Mostly it is out of sheer shame to be Americans. But now - now I want to go live in a country that has yarn on its stamps!



And the cartoon extreme sports are pretty cute too.



Okay, then we have the actual contents of the package. There was a lot of nice yarn all exactly what I asked for - from a nice lady named Helga in Ontario who wrote me a very sweet note. To top it all off, Helga (who I'm sure doesn't know that I've been sadly off chocolate since just after Sophie was born) included a generous handful of these:



High-quality dark chocolate in tiny little bars that are just small enough that I can probably get away with eating one a day without turning Sophie into a demon baby. I'm sure willing to give it a try. Helga, you made my day. Along with the nine other people who sent me packages I got to open today.

Next up we have PJ from St. Charles, MO. PJ - do you shop at Meyer's House ever? There is a very nice woman named Carol who works at Meyer's House. She gave me a hug one time when I really needed one. But that's another story. PJ made two contributions to my sport-weight wool collection, one to the wool/nylon, and one to the cotton/wool/nylon collection. All are very nice.



Leah from Seattle sent a nice package. I'm in love with the blue-speckled skein half-buried right in the middle of the pile that you can't see very well - I almost want to know exactly what it is so I can go buy more. The pink stuff is pretty cool, too. There's even a ball of koigu there. Oh, and Leah, you have beautiful children.



Karen lives just down the road from me in South Haven, MN. After looking at her blog, I want to go stalk her. She makes all kinds of awesome stuff and sells it at the farmer's market. Karen, e-mail me and tell me which farmer's market you're at. I want to come find you and buy jars of all your canned goods and that bread looks yummy too! Most of Karen's yarns are Opal - she has good taste.



Did I mention that I got a visit from the UPS guy today? Joan from Pennsylvania sent me this lovely stuff - a bunch of exactly-what-I-asked for, and a nice little egg of koigu.



Here's today's second international package. Are you ready for this?! From Australia. You read me right. I'm holding a package of yarn scraps from the other side of the planet, people. Behold the power of the Internet. It's a little scary, really. Just over a week ago I asked the internet to help me with my blankie project, and today I'm looking at a gift from Michelle in Bathurst, New South Wales. I really like the postcard showing a shepherd riding a motorcycle.



Next up is Emily, who had very little to say in her e-mail and included no note in her package of very nice yarns. We may never know more about Emily than her good taste in sock yarn and that she's from Manitowoc, Wisconsin.



Kathy in Oxnard, California send a box containing more scraps than I had in my original stash, lots of very good stuff. She's apparently another woman of few words, though.



Katherine from Massechusetts sent a good-sized box of really yummy stuff. "Mostly Opal, Lorna's Laces, with a little Koigu and some Anne" she says. Katherine, you must knit a LOT of socks. From her web page, Katherine looks to lead an interesting life. She has stories to tell about skunks, cheese making, pretty flowers, and yummy recipes, all on Martha's Vinyard!



Finally, we have a sweet little box with a sweet little hand-made note thar I love and more of exactly-what-I-asked-for.



That's the end of our package-opening session today (actually yesterday now as it was very late, Sophie woke up, and I decided to go on to bed and finish this in the morning now.) Here is your cute child picture of the day - Sophie fell asleep in her car seat in the Hail Mary position. I'm not going to be able to have her hang out in it this way much longer since she's close to sitting up on her own. I was standing right there watching her the whole time - it happened right as we came in the door from being out, so if you're going to think I'm a completely negligent Mommy, don't make it because of this particular incident, OK?



Oops - and the blankie wants to say Hi. It's growing, slowly but surely.