a few weeks ago, a friend of mine at my old workplace gave me something he said he’s been carrying around for years and didn’t really know what it did but that he thought maybe i’d know what to do with it, so he gave it to me. imagine my surprise when i see a lovely miniature wooden swift! i was so tickled pink all day long – and that was a day that needed tickling, believe me you.

hi there ~ happy 2006! i got back yesterday morning and i think i’m finally caught up on sleep. now, today and tomorrow it’s all about clean up: pay old bills, return library books, organize papers, clean the apartment, return some gifts, etc etc. also, tomorrow i’m sending out some much overdue mail and little packages .. more on that later. and then, on saturday, it’s back to the fiber! (there’s a spinning guild meeting, yay).

hello! i arrived in maryland a few days ago and it’s just been a whirlwind: my nieces are enormous! my feet are killing me. i’m a knitting fiend. i have no wrapping paper. i’m entirely foregoing any watching-what-i-eat thoughts. it’s all so great.

i’m so proud of bolivia: yesterday they elected evo morales as president, making him the first indigenous bolivian to hold the presidency. a former cocalero, he has vowed to de-criminalize the coca leaf and wants to kick the u.s. military out of bolivia. he also wants to nationalize the vast resources bolivia has, particularly natural gas, rather than let them be sold for enormous profit by multinational corporations and no one else. in a country where the last presidents won by mere 20-somethings percent, evo morales’ win of 51% of the population is incredible. hopefully, this will mean big changes in bolivia, with the majority of the population being finally represented in the laws and decisions made by the government.