And so it begins...

Kande sighed as she watched the Mystics on a cold, dreary Saturday. She picked lint off the couch and then pretended to pick it off her Significant Other (S.O.)

"Knock it off," her S.O. told her as she tried to concentrate on her laptop. She shifted irritably when Kande tried to get her to rub the top of her shorn head. "What's your problem?"

Kande threw herself sideways onto the couch. "I'm bored," she whined. "I don't have anything to do. And I already TiVo'ed this game."

"The dishes need to be washed," her S.O. informed her archly. Honestly, Kande never stirred her stumps to do any housework. She inclined her head towards the kitchen, where stacks of cutlery and plates were leaning precariously.

"Don't wanna." Kande stuck out her lower lip. She wanted to do something fun. She wanted to do something interesting. She did NOT want to do anything that even vaguely looked like work. She was no dummy, if doing dishes were fun there would be no stacks.

"Fine." Her S.O. carefully put the laptop down on the coffee table. "I have something you might like." She heaved herself off the couch and walked over to her desk and rummaged around in the top drawer. She glanced over at Kande who was watching her expectantly and took a deep breath and tossed a package in the general direction of the couch. Kande snagged it deftly out of mid-air before it crashed into the laptop.

"What's this?" She read the label. "A sock monkey?"

"Yes. Although..." her S.O. slanted her eyes towards Kande and then back at the laptop. "You know, maybe it's not such a good idea. I know you're not domestically inclined." She sighed. "In fact, maybe you should just give it back and I'll send it to your sister. She could probably make it. I don't think you're capable."

Kande glared at her. She was capable, she was sure of it. Sure, it involved socks, and needles, and cotton batting but she'd grown up with a seamstress mother. Nobody was going to tell Kande she wasn't capable. No way, no how. She looked at the label with the picture of a sock monkey and studies it for a moment. She could make a monkey that was ten times cuter than that insipid goon.

Ten weeks later, she called her sister Heidi. "Guess what I'm doing."

"Picking your toes?"

"No! I'm making sock monkeys."

There was silence on the other end of the line. "Excuse me, did you say you were making something? Sock Monkeys? Are you delusional?"

Kande scowled at the phone. "I'm capable. I can handle needles, and socks, and cotton batting."

"Huh. Do they look like sock monkeys?"

"Of course they look like sock monkeys! But I'm getting bored with sock monkeys, I need to branch out. Show off my talent."

On the other end of the line, Heidi looked at the phone incredulously. "Your talent? Just how many monkeys have you made?"

"Um...enough that I had to build a special shelf for all of them. Maybe 20 or so?"

Heidi dropped the phone and then picked it back up. "You made 20 sock monkeys? I don't believe it! Send me one..."

And that's when it all began.