If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans for tomorrow.

James isn't coming today. Not until Thursday.

It doesn't matter much in itself, and can still, I hope, be a surprise, but it meant I had to go ahead and tell my husband lamely, myself, about the plans for Saturday -- about some of them, anyway -- instead of having James's finger on the doorbell be the announcement. He seems actually surprised and rather pleased -- did he think we were going to let his 80th birthday pass without any celebration? Possibly.

I told him that Rachel and Alexander and their families are coming up from London. He started worrying about where everyone is going to sleep, which may involve me in  subterfuge if not actual lies, if he persists in wondering. The answer is that his British-based children and grandchildren have made their own arrangements, to leave Drummond Place for the ones arriving from Beijing and Thessaloniki, but I don't want to tell him that yet.

James's problem is that the Leader of the Free World has chosen my husband's birthday for a visit to Beijing, and the Economist wants James to write about it in advance, for this week's issue. He could write perfectly well in Drummond Place, but the magazine is clearly scrupulous about datelines and wants this one to be filed from China.

I was going to make Jamie Oliver's Sausages with pan-cooked chutney and leek mash for James and Kirsty this evening. It's got cranberries in it.

Knitting

So that's a picture of Thomas-the-Younger in his birthday sweater, with his mother Ketki. We didn't see him when we were in London last week. He looks a lot grown-up-er than he did when we saw him in October.

The veil progresses. I'm having some trouble with the stitch count.

On sock odd-balls: thank you for your comment, LaurieG. I don't knit socks for children much -- I did once, and the child's mother said she couldn't wear wool, and it sort of put me off. Maybe I should resume. There's a delicious sock-oddball pattern called the Mexacali Baby Ole in Knitter's Summer '03. I knit that once for James-the-Younger (Thomas's brother), and meant to do another, although I never have.