so I have two laptops . . .

And they are both crippled. This one at least gets onto the internet, but won't pick up e-mail. The other one, just yesterday, quit connecting to the internet. DH can't fix it and we have no idea what happened. So I have to borrow his laptop to find out who to expect for the knitting party on Feb. 13.

The theme is "Pink." I have two pink tablecloths with napkins. If there are more than 10 guests, I'll set up in both the living room and the dining room. I have any number of cups and saucers with various pink flowers on them, or pink backgrounds, or pink somewhere. I have white and clear glass plates. and as for the menu, I'm getting ambitious. I think I'll do mini quichelettes, rosemary wafers (heart healthy), pain-in-the-butter cookies (butter, sugar, white flour and eggyolks. A heart attack waiting to happen), radish roses, red grapes,and DH, has volunteered to make a chocolate/expresso cake with dark, sweet, cherries. Hmmm - rosepetal black tea, coffee, and maybe sparkling pomegranette juice in wineglasses. The garden store has potted primroses that will make nice decor and maybe even door-prizes - hmmm, what else?

On the knitting front, I decided that if the hat needed a brim, then I should go with wool and felt that puppy. I had a vest that I have never worn because it just doesn't stay buttoned. And it's a merry, happy pink. There's my yarn! Rather than make a gauge swatch, I started the hat from the top and increased 7 stitches every other round till it was 25 inches in circumference, then knitted straight down for 8 inches, then increased in every other stitch to make the brim flare. Now I'm knitting away on the brim. I'm going to knit a bit past the spread of the increase and let it roll back to provide a bit more structure. Then I'll drop it into the washer with a couple pairs of jeans, and pray. If it doesn't work out, I can always use another tea cozy. If it DOES make a decent hat, then it's time to add the whimsey.

And Lucia, a filbert is another name for a hazlenut. The Wilamette Valley is the world's premier producer of hazlenuts. When it's time to harvest , the farmers hire a helicopter to fly low over the orchards and use the down draft to shake the nuts out of the trees. Then the farmer drives a big sweeper through the orchard, sweeping up nuts and leaves and whatnot, runs them over a big screen that lets the nuts drop through and everything else filter off, and then it's off to the roasters. Filberts are not especially labor-intensive crops.