as promised

I took a picture of the stocking I'm needlepointing for Matt.

This is what it will look like when it is done (except I think I'll put "Matt" instead of "Jason" at the top!):

And this is what the actual stocking looks like right now:
The first step was the black and white boxes because they are done with special stitches (satin and Scottish). Then I tackled the dark blue, which is almost complete except for a few tiny spots in the more detailed areas. Right now I am working on the slightly lighter blue that appears under the dark blue - you can see I've filled in most of the right side with it. After I finish with that color, I will start on the cardinals and area inside of the circle.

I'm going to the ranch today to hang out with Mom. Pene's coming too, of course. Then I'm coming back tomorrow afternoon in time for family dinner at the Roberts house. Luke is in town for the weekend so it'll be the whole gang.

I'm loving my new iPod. Matt and I discovered checking out CDs from the public library; they have quite a collection! So we are being introduced to a lot of new music. So far we've mostly been getting CDs of artists that we have heard on satellite radio (I listen to Sirius through our TV and Matt listens to XM on his computer at work).

We picked up Rock Band 2 on Sunday and are enjoying it. I agree with one review I read, though, that it is more like an update to the original game than a true sequel. But that doesn't bother me a bit. The developers really listened to the gamers and fixed a lot things that weren't ideal in the original. The interface is a lot better and the new "Tour" mode is a big improvement. And of course there's all the new songs. We don't have a favorite yet, but there are definitely some good ones. We've only unlocked about half of them so far. Unfortunately our guitars are on their last legs - the Guitar Hero III wireless guitar's green button is completely shot - and we had to start using the Rock Band guitar, along with our Guitar Hero II guitar. The Rock Band guitar isn't 100% either, but it works well enough. So I've been doing more drumming and singing that usual, and my drumming has gotten inexplicably better since we stopped playing lots of Rock Band. Don't know how that happened...