I'm not certain what I'm doing up at this unholy (to me) hour, but I'm awake enough to be excited. I'm going to Maryland. Specifically, to the MD Sheep & Wool Festival!

Chris is my traveling companion, and this is our 3rd year attending.

Matt is so very kind and handsome, and is driving me to Chris', who will drive us both to the airport.

Again, let me state that I am excited (and being off work may have something to do with it).

Matt and I are participating in our food this year and attempting to grow a garden. Last year, we played at this and had a few containers going, but the crazy Texas weather and sheer laziness got the better of us and our plants. We have bigger plans this year.

Okay, I purposefully misspelled squee just to make a clever. (One "u" or two, what the big whoop?) It's not the first time I've done this, and probably not the last.

We've taken some random pictures over the past week.

In the immortal words of the Byrds, "There is a season / turn, turn, turn " -- hang on, wrong part of the song.

As I was saying, in the immortal words of the Byrds, "[there is] a time to be born, a time to die." For our friend Angi's iPod Nano, the former was February, 2006, and the latter was now.

The battery in the Nano just wouldn't hold a charge anymore, which made it less of a portable music player, and more a small, shiny rectangle. Instead of tossing it, she asked if could change the battery for her.

I said sure, why not? I was positive that a stiff shot of liquor would calm my nerves and steady my hands. Besides, it wasn't like it was my Nano, or anything. gulp.

'Cause a sock for the Nintendo Wii® would be ridiculous, right?

Nanc and I noticed that a notable birthday recently passed. In March of 2003, toysaregoodfood.com was born.

We picked the name 'toysaregoodfood' after hours of domain searching. Once you realize that every single possible domain name that you want has been taken, you get a little punch-drunk. It still doesn't make any sense, but I can't imagine the name being anything else.

This past weekend was a blur of activity, including buying a truck, gardening, and building gardening accessories.

Alas, the truck has no name, and we are at a stalemate. Click the link to read more and make truck name suggestions.

Now that I've cleared my knitting past, I can post something a bit more up to date. True, these projects aren't exactly today, but they're recent enough for me.

Looking back, there have been some significant knits that, although completed and enjoyed by their recipients, I never blogged. These projects were all knit in 2007, most in the later part of the year, ta' boot. But still, that's no excuse.

(Long and picture heavy post.)

We just got back from a long weekend visiting with Rachel, Jason, Ben, and Sam of welikedogs fame. We had lots of fun. We played with Sam, who is wee tiny and super-cute. Ben was also fun, and is a super-awesome big boy. We ate ridiculously well. We played video games.

As our Roomba started getting older, we noticed that he didn't have the same pep. He would peter out after vacuuming for 30 minutes or so, and he wasn't doing the best job, either.

I checked my manuals, and tried reconditioning the battery, but to no avail. There was no way around it. Roomba needed a new battery.

I could have just bought a new battery from irobot.com, but where's the fun in that? How could I turn that into an article?

This morning, I went to uphold my civic duty and serve on a jury. This afternoon, most of us were sent home. Huh.

I recently finished wiring and putting together our den/theater room, and was stumped on how to decorate it. I came up with an idea, which Nanc readily agreed to. (Remember that did you agreed to this, Nancy.)

I thought that it would be fun to decorate the room with props from some of our favorite movies and TV shows. After doing a little more research, I realized that the stuff that I really wanted was just a tad out of my price range.

Being the resourceful guy that I am, I decided to build some of the pieces myself. It's fun, and keeps me from doing anything useful. My first piece is finished. Pics and details inside.

This weekend Nanc and I realized a dream that was years in the making: one bookshelf to rule them all. A bookshelf big enough to contain our books.

Come inside for a photo of the mammoth and some ridiculous statistics.

There may be a plethora of lyric versions for this anthem of the great white north, but I have just two socks named for it. (Although each is a bit different by accident.)

I finished my first pair of socks for the year! Never mind that I made the first sock back in June.

Per a personal request and to post something to the blog, I give you this past week in bentos.

It's been a while since my last PEZ update, and you might curious to find out what PEZ hath wrought in the past few months. Look inside for more.

Please note: There is a new dispenser that has forced me to swear in this post. If you are offended by salty language, or are too young to know what salty language is, go watch something on youtube instead.

Both Matt and I have this delicious and easy curry leftover as lunches today. This doesn't make for pretty bentos (thermoses just aren't that attractive), but it does make for a tasty lunch.

Okay, so the title doesn't invoke excitement or make one want to read this post, but I promise that the pictures are worth it (for knitters, at least). Come see what my washing entails.