Today’s Fortune: He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.

That fortune is 100% right! Me and Mom spend a lot of time laughing at ourselves, and we keep finding lots of funny material there.

I have finally gotten over being sad that Dharma is gone, and I have been working on super-secret surprises for our sock monkey swap. I have lots of stuff to tell about that has happened over the past few weeks. Like when we went down to the south part of the state last weekend. We went to a bunch of antique stores, because that is one of the things Mom and Dad like to do. Mom looks for knitting stuff, Dad looks for camera stuff, and I look for sock monkeys to rescue, because they should be living at our house instead of at a dusty old store.

One of the stores had a whole booth of old dolls and doll stuff in it, but it did not have any sock monkeys. It did have some funny wigs, though. I tried one on and laughed at myself.  Mom laughed at me, too.

Mom and Dad did not buy much until we got to the very last store. Mom found a vintage case of knitting needles that she decided to rescue, even though she has more knitting needles than she can count. These were very nice, and she hated to see them collecting dust in the antique store. She says she will eventually find a new knitter that is just starting out, and will give them a whole set of needles as a present. I think this is a nice idea.

We could not figure out much about the needles from the internet. We think they are probably from about the 1970’s. The small ones are metal, and we think the big ones are something called “nylon.” They are not very old, but they are in very good shape, and will be a good set for somebody to have.

Mom also found some knitting patterns from the 1950’s. She is going to make both of the cover designs on these two books. She says they are wonderful “wearable vintage couture,” whatever that means.

I hope she wears those white gloves like that lady on the cover is wearing.  Then she can laugh at herself some more, and I can laugh with her.

Dad found a thing called a “Vivitar Instant Slide Printer.”  It is for making Polaroid pictures from slides.  He already bought one on ebay, but it did not work.  This one did not work either.  He spent all day last Sunday tearing both of them apart in the kitchen.  He wound up getting one of them to work perfectly, and he made a Frankenstein pinhole camera out of the other one.  And his timing was really good, because tomorrow is Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day!!  We are going to go out early tomorrow morning and take pictures.  I’ll bet we will laugh at ourselves a lot.

I was really glad he was able to get two working cameras in the end.  He did not laugh a lot when he figured out that the second one did not work.  Mom did not laugh a lot at the big mess he made in the kitchen tearing cameras apart, either.

Mom and Dad found some good stuff, but I made the best discovery of the day!!  He is my new friend, Stubby.  He is not technically a sock monkey, but Mom says his vintage sock construction gives him instant membership status in our family!  Dad said I should call him Stubby, and I think that is a great name for him!  It is good to have a new friend at our house.

In other news, I got an awesome package from my Auntie Mary a couple of days ago.  She lives in Baltimore.  She sent me some new shoes!!  I have never had shoes before, because my feet are pretty small.  My pal Big Monkey has shoes, and they have always looked like they would be really good to have.  I am hoping we will get some rain so I can see how they work for stomping in puddles.

Auntie Mary also sent a soft fuzzy kitty tape measure for Mom, and a package of tissues for Mom to keep in her purse.  These will come in handy for allergies, or for when we laugh so hard at ourselves that we cry.

I wore my new shoes when we went out to dinner at Big Truck Tacos last night.  Mom was busy talking to her friend Amber, and she hit one of the taco baskets with her elbow.  A whole bowl full of salsa dumped all over Mom and down into her big bag where me and Puglet were sitting.  It was okay though.  Mom got all of the salsa cleaned off of her dress, and me and Puglet did a very good job of dodging the salsa.   I think Mom is going to need a new purse, though.

Mom had a good time laughing at herself about spilling the salsa.  I laughed at her too, once I figured out that none of it got on me and I would not have to have another Woolite bath.  I checked out my shoes really carefully when we got home to make sure they were okay.

I did not find one spot on them.  Which is too bad, really, because I think they would be really good shoes for salsa dancing.

Today’s Vocabulary Words: Nylon, wearable vintage couture, Vivitar Instant Slide Printer