I been sick. Slept most of Sunday. Sat zombie-like in front of the TV Monday watching The 4400 reruns in preparation for season 3. TiVo, baby. Managed to finish the handspun socks! That brings me down to 23 projects, in case you're counting. In progress pic:

This shows the colors better:

This was the second yarn I spun on the wheel, and man is it inconsistent. Thicker and thinner spinning, tighter and looser plying. It's a mess. And it's mine.
It was cool to knit up, even with all its flaws. The whole "I made this" thing again. Plus, much better to use it now and chuckle at my mess, than to look at it 6 months from now and not want to knit with it. 'Cuz now they're socks!
We have a winner!
I was entertained by your guesses on the contest. My two favorite guesses were:
Anne:
i've been oberving your shopping habits carefully, and i know you never buy just one of anything. i'm going to randomly go with the original number of WIPs—67.
So true, can't eat just one. But what a scary guess! So high!
Kimberly N:
I guess 24 - it's a good, solid number, divisible by 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, and 12.
Girl after my own heart.
Most guesses were in the 10-40 range. Since you liked my geeky WIP Management chart so much, here's another:

I don't know much about statistics, but I hear tell there's something called a bell curve, shaped, wouldn't you know it, like a bell. The chart does have a nice bell shape to it, doesn't it?
Guess where in the curve I am. Here's a hint:
Kimberly, a better guess would have been a nice solid number divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20 and 30. Or better yet, a prime number less than 65.
The answer: I'm an outlier (surprise!). There were 61 needles in my circular solution:

About half again (or twice for some of you) what we expected.
[Pause to let that sink in.]
(Scary stuff.)
Anne, your guess of 67 was closest. Email me your address and I'll send you some fun stuff!
FBS update
FBS suffered a setback:

I thought I could perform knitting surgery. I was wrong. I frogged 10 rows.
All you can eat
Thanks for the Birthday wishes! The actual birthday was not great. It was my first one "alone", and Scott bore the burden of celebrating with me. The highlight was all you can eat sushi at Minado's.
Preparing for battle:

Round 1: Sushi, mostly eaten sashimi style (sans rice)

Round 2: Non-Sushi, mostly eaten

Round 3 (not pictured): A smaller version of Round 1, eaten sashimi style
Round 4: Banana strawberry crepe and green tea ice cream

Round 5 (not pictured): more crepe to finish off the ice cream
The key was leaving most of the rice. Can't fill up on rice.
We rolled out and headed to the movie theater to see X-Men. Great movie. Loved it.
On the way, I insisted on stopping by Macy's to photograph this:

We saw it while hunting for a comforter,

and wondered why we couldn't find a bed set that looked like it

for under $300.

I went up and down the escalators twice trying to get a good photo. Scott thought I was mad.