I'm good; no tears.  (Cluuuuuuuck!  Bawk, bawk, bawk.)

We had a very fine bon voyage dinner for Katie last night.  We were seated at the table I wanted (cluck) and I didn't have to get all hot under the collar about it (cluck, cluck).  It was so pretty with the big windows and the water -- right there, right below us, even -- and the moonlight; the girls want to live there.

Katie said she had the perfect day-before-departure day -- lunch with a good friend, afternoon coffee with another, dinner with her family.  She's been packing and unpacking and repacking for the past six days, relegating clothing to be either packed or worn (not both) these past few, so there wasn't much last-minute angst in that department (she didn't learn this packing method from me -- BAWK!).  She can only take as much as she can carry herself and that's hard packing for an extended trip.  She slept well and is now on her way to Chicago/O'Hare with London/Heathrow as her final destination "tomorrow morning."

So, there they are (cluck, peck, cluck, cluck, cluck).  The next time they'll be all together, we'll be in the midst of birthday season -- Ali will have turned 19, Katie 21 (celebrating in Munich, no less), and Maddy will be on the very cusp of 15.  (BAWK!!!)  As I sent Katie off this morning, I just couldn't help remember how different she was the last time she flew/returned and know that she will certainly return "different" this time, too, but how different/different how, and will there ever be so dramatic a change again?  (BAAAAWWWWWWK!!!!)  Um, yeah, okay, I better stop thinking about all the possiblities in that vein right now.

I needed a distraction in the knitting department last night.  (Obviously, "distraction" is going to be the name of the game for a little while here -- let's see if "concentration" might be worked in, too, however slowly!)  I still have not located the yarn I was looking for last weekend (BAWK!), but the Lana Grossa Luna that I received from my employer for Christmas has also been on my mind a lot.  I cast on 25 stitches or so and worked several inches of the Brooks Farm Four Play Scarf pattern (pdf file) before Ali came through and I nabbed her for an opinion.  (The camera is temporarily MIA, so pics have to wait, or I'd definitely be asking you, too.)  She said it was okay, but wouldn't it be better as "one of those shawl thingies you wear all the time?"  I haven't been wearing scarves because I don't really have one, not because I don't like them.  The Luna looks nice in the scarf pattern, but I have to admit that I thought of a shawlette, too, and wondered if perhaps it wouldn't show the yarn to better advantage.  I've only got two balls of this, so it wouldn't be a very big shawlette, but ette means smallish, and I don't have a problem just knitting and seeing how it turns out.  It was purchased locally and I'm pretty sure that there's more to be had if ette isn't big enough.  Anyway, I didn't rip the scarf yet, but I did grab the second ball and have a start on a shawlette.

Thank you, thank you (cluck!) for all your well wishes, comments, emails, the chucks under the chin and pick-me-ups and encouragement for me, as well as the well wishes for my daughter as she embarks on this fantastical adventure... far, far, FAR (cluck, BAWK!!) from home.  The apron strings are attached by only a few fraying threads now and it won't be long before they just give out.  (Cluck.)