Do I Have The Best Big Brother In The World Or What!?

My brother and his sweetie just got back from a week-long visit to Seattle. They loved it there, even though there was apparently only about a 5 minute pause in the rain the entire time they were there. J. thinks Seattle is even cooler than Toronto, and he really likes Toronto. He was especially blown away by Hardwick's hardware store where, he said, he had an almost religious experience. (The man loves his hardware stores...what can I say? He keeps saying things like, "They had eighteen different kinds of door stops! Eighteen! And those were just the straight ones!") They had great food, a good hotel, very successful trips to used bookstores.....

But I love him because when they went to Kinokuniya, he thought of me. And he brought me a gorgeous book of Japanese stitch patterns (the book shown at the top of this page) and another little book of needle felted animals which, he said, he couldn't resist because of the hedgehog on the front. It's plum adorable...if my scanner worked, I'd scan in a picture of it. I'll try to take a photo this evening.

Thank you, mein brutter! This makes up for all the times you made me carry your trombone home from school for you!