As promised, photos of the newest member of the family

Here's Russell on the first day. He was pretty snuggly, having been separated from his family...













And Russell on the second day, rehydrated, with his eyes open now. What a cutie, and he'd grown overnight.













In this picture you can see just how small Russell is (since you don't know how big my hands are, necessarily). He's peeking out of the fold of a facecloth.
He's now in flea or leaper stage, so we haven't been handling him much until he's a little less jumpy. Good news is that he is doing much better than yesterday, having joined us in celebrating Pancake Tuesday (or Shrove Tuesday, not that we're religious, we just like that there's a day specifically to have pancakes for dinner!) and being full as a tick. He's been spending a lot of time running on his wheel now that he's big enough to make it turn. His ears are getting bigger and bigger, though he still looks a bit like a little bear.

Bored. Bored. Bored bored bored.

That pretty much sums it up. It's not that I haven't had anything to do...in fact, life's been rather annoyingly busy at work and at home and really, everywhere.

I had to rip back the Intolerable Cruelty skirt, a mere four inches from completion. I knew one of these days, the modifications I tend to make to patterns would get me.... So, back it went, aaaalllll the way back to three rows after the turning ridge. Sigh.
So, I'm kinda bored with knitting stockinette in the round with 3.75 mm needles or whatever the hell they are. Actually, I normally like that size, but...not today. I have, however, made pretty good progress over the past couple of days, so it's possible that I'll almost finish it before my friend Kirsten gets home from holidays (she has set me a challenge to finish it). The knitting that is, not the sewing in of the lining; that will be an adventure for the fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants-sewer.

The Jackyll and Hyde hat I finished (minus the black embroidery) turned out to be a bit on the small side (filthy lying gauge), so that's got to be ripped back and reknit. Fortunately, the intended recipient has just moved to a tropical island and won't be needing his hat for some time, but still, it will mean more in-the-round stockinette.

We're also raising another mouseling, a house mouse this time, courtesy of a friend's boss who caught the poor little thing (10 days old at the time and still nursing). He's on solid food, pretty much just oatmeal right now, and he's in 'leaper' or 'flea' stage, which makes him pretty much next to impossible to handle. He gave me a real scare this morning when I found him in torpor. Me, panic much? Nah. (Nothing to do with knitting, this little guy, whose name is Russell. Pic later, and if you can't wait, check my Facebook or MySpace profile.)

My 'sabbatical' to Norway in May is on track. I have an apartment lined up and have already bought tickets to see a couple of shows in London, plus there's a little side trip to Denmark in the works. More on that later. There shall be knitting; what, I'm just not sure yet. Something that doesn't take up too much room... Already a month doesn't seem like long enough!