Two Phos to Go* - and a Party

I've actually got one FO and one almost FO to show you when the sun comes back.

I blocked the Flower Basket shawl for my grandmother in the midst of a Gilmore Girls watching marathon** yesterday. Using blocking wires made such a difference. It usually takes me an hour to block out a shawl like that - instead, it took me about 20 minutes. Thanks again, Alison!

I also finished all the knitting on my mudflap girl tank - rather, my mudflapless girl tank - I didn't include the intarsia as I want to be able to wear this FO to work. I've got the sides seamed, now I just need to kitchener the shoulder, do the edging and block it. (I probably should have blocked it before I seamed it, right? Whoops - someone was a little overzealous. If I have enough yarn, I'd like to do what Knittypants did with hers. But I'm not sure I have enough for the edging. We'll see.

Saturday was my darling SIL's 40th birthday. My BIL, along with some of my SIL's amazing friends and family organized a surprise party for her. Can I say amazing, when I was one of the helpers? TOOT! TOOT! Sorry, that's my own horn honking there.

At 6:30pm Saturday night, I called my BIL's cellphone from my own while standing among a very large and loud crowd of people in her kitchen. My SIL answered. EEP! I quickly ran to the bathroom and closed the door:

Me: "Hi Birthday Girl! There you are! I've been trying to track you down all day!"

SIL: "Hi! I think I must have had I've had my cellphone off."

Me: "What have you been up to all day?"

SIL: "Oh, we were out for a bike ride with the kids and we're just getting gas before heading home."

Me: "Are you going out for supper?"

SIL: "Yes, John says I can choose where I want to go."

Me: "Well, why don't you call me when you get to your house and Andrew
and I will come over and join you."

SIL: "Ok, that sounds great. We're almost there now."

Me: "Ok, we'll head out now. See you in a bit."

SIL: "Bye"

Me, running out of her bathroom: "OK everyone, they're almost here, get into the family room NOW!"

*Stampede of people*

Moments later, they came through the front door to find about 45 people in their family room - she was thoroughly shocked and delighted. My SIL is an amazing, wonderful, fun-loving, caring person and it was easy to see, with all of her friends gathered around, that she is well-loved in return. We had a great night and, we ate well:

I made the cake with the 40 on it. When my SIL saw it, she grabbed my arm and said, "Did you make a Chocolate Blackout cake for me?!?!?!?" And I had to inform her that I hadn't made one... I had made two. 'cause you never know with this crowd how much they're going to eat. Other desserts were Pumpkin cake with chocolate cream cheese icing, cupcakes for the kids and baklava provided by the caterers, Anatolia's. I managed to snag a piece at the end of the night. It was delicious!

I've promised her a birthday "wrap", so we'll be going out yarn shopping, hopefully some time in the next week or so.

*Pho Hoang Minh is a little Vietnamese restaurant in our neighbourhood - Mr. Happy and I were having supper there one night when someone came in and ordered "Two Phos to go", which struck me funny, for some reason.

**This is only my second experience with watching a TV series on DVD, and the temptation to watch an entire season in one weekend is overwhelming.*