On this day 70 years ago we went swimming in the Great Salt Lake. My father told me to remember – not the swimming, so much, as September 3, 1939. By the time of Pearl Harbor I was eight, and didn’t need to be told.

I don’t think that funny business the other night was a computer virus, and I’m glad in a way to hear of your similar experience, Tamar. The multiple windows that kept popping up didn’t have time to download content, as I clicked frantically to close each one while battling my way down to the Start button. But I got the impression – perhaps they were pink -- that they were multiple copies of Stephanie’s blog which I had been reading.

I’ve got Norton, and it’s up to date. I did have a virus once, Klez H I think it was called, years ago on a different computer. The first thing it did – as you say, Sabrina – was to disable my virus protection, McAfee at the time and not entirely up to date. It then sent itself to all the people in my address book, enabling my sons to tell me I had a virus and to name it. It also sent messages to me from people on the list. I wish I had saved the one from “James Miles” telling me to click on the link provided to get rid of the Klez virus. There was something about the prose style which suggested that it had not been sent by the James Miles I know and love.

My husband’s computer has a virus called Form which I am very fond of. It causes each keystroke to make a hollow, echoing sound on the 18th day of the month. It has no other effect whatsoever. And the effect only operates in DOS, so it doesn’t linger to irritate my husband once he has loaded Word Perfect. But whenever I carry a disk from his computer to mine, Norton makes a great song-and-dance about eliminating it.

Knitting

Old friends are coming to stay tomorrow, so yesterday was largely devoted to a thorough clean of the spare room and Downstairs Lavatory, much used by itinerant family during the summer. By knitting time I was too tired for anything but the nice, easy, deliciously soft Griswold.

I have formed a new resolution. Every time I yield to the temptation to buy yarn, I will give some away from stash to a charity in Alyth which knits for various good causes. Helen C.K.S. and I have provided it with a lot of material in recent years.

I’ve got more stash than I could possibly knit in my lifetime, even if I’m still knitting at 90, but it’s remarkably hard to find anything I can bear to part with. This time – when I ordered that Araucania for a February Lady Sweater the other day – I chose the Fyberspates Scrumptious DK I bought earlier this year to knit a Child’s Surprise as my Games entry. It’s good stuff, wonderful on the hand, but an unfortunate gloomy colour. An expensive mistake.

Tomorrow I will be able to tell you all about Combination Knitting, after my class with Annie Modesitt. She will certainly mention Edinburgh in her blog. I feel a bit as Alice did when she was told that she was only a figure in the Red King’s dream.