Not quite fallen off the face of the Earth

Sorry it's been forever. Well, I'm kinda sorry. I needed some quiet, introvert time after last quarter's craziness, and I'm afraid that avoiding people and all unneccessary commitments includes avoiding the blog. I didn't really mean to take a blog vacation, but I gave myself a "week off" when we moved, and was then surprised to encounter a fair bit of internal resistance to starting up again. It's not that I didn't want to talk to you...just that I wasn't really ready to. So, I didn't. This is very unlike me, but I did it anyway. And I must say it was nice to just take a break for a while. Lately, though, blog posts and titles have begun running through my head again, and I've been thinking that I should actually start posting again.

Last night, Branden tipped the guilt scale. He checks my blog stats every once in a while and reports to me on my current visitation status. Last night, I made a comment about needing to actually blog sometime soon, he said I've still been getting almost 5 hits a day! I haven't posted in weeks, and you're still coming! Well, I guess that means I had better get myself in order and post, no?

So, here I am. If you have come and were disappointed, I'm sorry, but the quality of my posts wouldn't have been that great, as my attention wasn't on blogging (or even knitting, really). We are all moved in, the cats have decided that all of the old rules (like stay off the table and no, you can't sleep in my yarn basket) no longer apply, and the house is beginning to get the piles of things in corners that means it's lived in. We've done quite well keeping it clean and open, but the edges are softening a bit, and it's no longer strictly a "new" apartment. I really like the pristine clean of a "new" apartment (I am a recovering neat freak...just ask my husband), but it's also nice to have it feel like home. It's especially nice not to feel like there's someone in the basement every time the furnace starts up in the middle of the night (it has a great sound for mimicking the opening and closing of doors, I must say). The garden is planted, which I'm sure you'll hear more about soon, and I almost know where everything is in the kitchen now! And yes, gardens and kitchens are generally the most reliable indicators of how things are in my house. The rest of the house can fall to pieces if it must, but having the garden and the kitchen in order is essential.

I have lots of knitting-related things to tell you, too, but I think I'm going to try to spread those out a bit, as I haven't had a whole lot of knitting time lately and I don't want to run out of material too soon after starting. So, for tonight, I am officially back, will try not to disappear again, and sincerely appreciate the fact that you all showed up, even while I was off being an introverted recluse. =)

See you soon!