Thursday update day?

Harmien, I'm sure you will be glad to know, is still alive. She's in a bit of a stitching slump, though, and in order to crawl out of that slump, she thought it would be a good idea to ask me, her closest friend and partner in stitching crime, to join her in an SAL of Little House Needleworks' Poinsettia House -- fully expecting, of course, that I would say 'Are you %@#&*! kidding me??? I'm involved in three SALs as it is and I have a deadline for work which I couldn't even make if I kept awake and working from now until November 16th, and you're asking me if I would like to perhaps join you for another freaking SAL just to get you out of your stitching slump?'

Being the good friend that I am, of course I said yes. I said I'd just momentarily put the Thursday SALs on hold to stitch with her on Poinsettia House.
Harmien was shocked into silence and then proceeded to ask me if I wouldn't get into trouble with the SAL police if I did that.
Then I was shocked into silence, because my reputation with the police (either stitch-related or real live) isn't as pristine as it should be. Shoot. Is there even such a thing as a SAL police? Because if there is, I'll surely be in big trouble. I've met the NRR police. They're not nice at all. But the SAL police... I think the guys running the Thursday shift may work something like this (picture them in their patrol car if you will):

SAL policeman 1: Nice day for it, isn't it?
SAL policeman 2: Yup. Lovely day. Oh look, there goes Nicole, from Nicole's Needlework.
SAL policeman 1: Ah! Excellent woman. She finishes her SAL pieces before their designers can even get their stuff to the publisher's, or so I've heard.
SAL policeman 2: That's the rumour in Stitchy Blogland.
SAL policeman 1: Admirable. Hey, who are the ladies following on her heels?
SAL policeman 2: Why, I think it's Karen V and Barbara from Mainely Stitching. Oh look, and there we have Linen!
SAL policeman 1: Ah yes, how lovely to see them all. Hard-working women. Oh look, and there's Giovanna, and Cris.
SAL policeman 2: Uh-oh.
SAL policeman 1: What?
SAL policeman 2: Oh, bloody hell.
SAL policeman 1: What is it, man?
SAL policeman 2: Well, I don't want to alarm you, but I think there's that Annemarie woman coming 'round the corner, just there.
SAL policeman 1: Oh bollocks. Just when you think this is one of those days when you can just sit and relax and think that nothing will happen.
SAL policeman 2: Well, of course, with Annemarie nothing much ever does happen on the SAL front, does it?
SAL policeman 1: Well, exactly. That's why we're here, right?
SAL policeman 2: Oh, right.
SAL policeman 1: Damn, though. Have you been following her blog lately?
SAL policeman 2: Don't tell me it's the one with the coat.
SAL policeman 1: It is.
SAL policeman 2: Christ Almighty. I'm losing the will to live over that one.
SAL policeman 1: Apparently, so is she. I've heard it on the grapevine that she wants to stop the Thursday SALs for a while and concentrate on a new one. A new SAL.
SAL policeman 2: WHAT??? How can you sit here so quietly and tell me that she is on the verge of committing a major, major faux-pas and do absolutely nothing! What are we waiting for, man? Let's go and arrest her! NOW!
SAL policeman 1: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Are you sure you want to do that?
SAL policeman 2: HELL yeah! That's what we're here... oh. Oh... I see what you mean.
SAL policeman 1: Uh-huh.
SAL policeman 2: You mean to say that if we let this pass, we might finally see some action on that blog and not have to witness that drrrrreadful, painful, agonisingly slow progress on Noah's Stocking?
SAL policeman 1: Exact -- as The Fonz would and did say -- amundo. And you know, she's been through such a rough time...
SAL policeman 2: Oh, you mean with our colleagues at the NRR department? Yeah, I heard about that.
SAL policeman 1: They say she's very traumatised.
SAL policeman 2: Well, she should be.
SAL policeman 1: That's true, but still, poor sausage.
SAL policeman 2: Poor sausage, my ass. How old is she, anyway?
SAL policeman 1: Actually, last Monday was her 19th birthday.
SAL policeman 2: You're joking! She's 19? Blimey. Poor girl. Anyway, I think you're right. We should just let her get on with it.
SAL policeman 1: Yeah. Who cares about her three stitches a week anyway? Pass the donuts, will you?

So. I think I've just given myself the all-clear. Hence the lack of stitchy pics. I hope you can stitch without me for a week or two or three, Giovanna, Cris, Nadia and Mariangela! Harmien, here I come. Whoopeeeee!!!

Yours SALlingly,
Annemarie.