Socks are factoring into the Open House for some reason, everyone seems interested in Maria’s. I buy most of Maria’s socks at Heather’s Over The Moon Store on Main Street – she always yells at me for it, and I get a lot of messages about Maria’s socks. Last week, I got a new pair, and this one was from Mass MOCA, the sprawling museum in North Adams, Mass. They are zombie socks, Maria loves them.

Maria is an artist, and she dresses like an artist, and it’s part of my job to make sure she has the socks of an artist. Since Maria never ever buys anything new or retail, and would never buy a pair of zombie socks, this is a great way of giving her gifts and contributing to her artistry. She did yell at me for buying them – she caught me at the register, she had gone to the rest room – but when she saw them, she relented and smiled. Perfect for her.

I warned heather today that some visitors to the Open House are already planning an assault on her bead and socks shop – it’s right next to the bookstore, Battenkill Books. She got a new shipment of socks in today, I might run over there myself before the mob strikes.