Fit of Organizational Mania

I inevitably start the year with good intentions. I've finished shredding the 1999 files from the file drawer and started going through the desk drawer. The shredder is getting a good workout. This should enable me to get my study into some kind of respectable shape, too, since there are things lying around my desk there which can go into the 2009 files.

I bought a new planner (since the old one was falling apart) and I need to get that set up. Calendar management takes up way too much of my time.

I also have things to take to recycling (#5 plastics go to Whole Foods, as our recycling service doesn't take them) and things to list on freecycle and so on.

Unfortunately, these fits of organizational mania tend to run themselves out in days. If I could only get them to last a month or two, I'd achieve anti-entropy nirvana.

Knitting Party

My knitting group had our annual post-holiday potluck and gift exchange this afternoon. That always means a bigger turn out than usual and it was good to see people who I haven't seen in a while. Lissa showed off the "Naked Knitting" calendar she got as a gift and Tom brought along the male equivalent. You can tell women who knit because, when confronted with a picture of a nude man in a bathtub full of yarn, we all said things like, "get a load of that yarn."

I brought spring rolls to the pot luck so I now have only about 140 spring roll wrappers left. (And too much of the filling ingredients, too, but those are usable in stir fries and salads and the like, so not actually a problem.) We're supposed to post recipes on our group's ravelry page, but I'm not sure that my random cooking method (take a handful shredded cabbage and carrots and a little of the cooked bean threads...) is all that amenable to recipe writing.

As for the gift exchange, I contributed a Yarn Harlot page-a-day calendar and a few chocolate bars. (Chocolate counts as a knitting related gift, in case there was any doubt.) I ended up with a copy of Sweater Design in Plain English. I may already own that, but if so I can easily save it for next year's gift exchange.

Good food, good friends, knitting ... not a bad way to kick off the year. (And, by the way, I finished another 1/9 of the back of the sweater and actually got started on the next block, too.)