Firstly, I need to rant. I have spent all week wrestling with the ACT RTA about my motor vehicle registration. It was due Dec. 28 and they said to allow 5 working days so I electronically paid it Dec 21. All right I screwed up here. I made a typo in the first payment so I sent a second payment right away with the total amount. All the correct account numbers, etc. So on Jan. 2 when I had no valid car rego I called the RTA to find out what was going on. They told me they didn't work between Christmas and New Years (I was supposed to know this?). Then they had "lost" one of my payments. I printed out my bank statement and had the Bear deliver it because both payments were there. I was promised a call back. Yesterday I called again, went through the whole dance again and was promised a call back. This morning I called and was angry at the person who answered the phone (I didn't yell or anything but said I was really tired of this and they better get their act together). I was promised a call back "right away" at 11 AM. I dithered, was afraid to get into the shower than begin the long process of washing my long hair, finally gave up and did it anyway, read my email, read blogs, updated podcasts on my iPod, etc. Finally I called again at 3PM and was told they found my money and I would be getting a new sticker for my car. So much for "we'll call you right back." On Monday when I go back to work I will be driving with an expired rego and the traffic devils are known to cruise public carparks looking for violations but I hope I will safe in my hidden handicapped spot. The ACT government is not known for its intelligence but up to this point I haven't had a problem. Oh, and for you folks in the US, it costs $625 to register my car for a year which includes 3rd party insurance cover but I get no choice in the fee or provider.

On to fibery things. I have been weaving away and am within eyeshot of the end of my first band. I find this tremendously exciting and want to do this all the time when I should be doing other things. I really don't want to go back to work because I feel so much better healthwise, I do get a lot of things done (even of it is spent on hold with the RTA), and while I do love my job, not working is a lot more relaxing. I've also almost finished replacing the toe on the Bear's green socks which had a hole too big to darn. One toe has been replaced with blue with nylon reinforcement and this one is a heathery grey/brown Trekker with nylon. Nobody sees the toes of his socks and his feet are so big that they often have toes of something different.

A comment about the Internet world. It seems to me that the number of fibre-related blogs has exploded in the past year. I can't keep up with all the ones I find interesting so I sort of graze. Some aren't very interesting and some are simply amazing. I love "I'm Knitting as fast as I can" and others too numerous to list. With the volume of posts on the 2 spinning lists I read and all these blogs and podcasts, one could be inundated. But the high points are messages from long lost relatives who read my blog and found it interesting, pictures of my English penpal's grandchild with a promise to knit her something for next winter, and the other things that keep us all connected. We are definitely not alone in this world.