The cactus and the ufo

What do a cactus and a ufo have in common?
Nothing.
Except that a lot of my attention was focalized on both for most of last summer.
Let me tell you about that cactus. I am very proud of it. It was a lovely gift that my dad gave me seven and a half years ago, when we moved into our new house.
Exotic plants are terribly expensive here, and this particular one was definately expensive. Since then I have been doing all I can to make sure it survived and not only it did survive....it grew! Yes, we have repotted it twice already with the enormous efforts of the whole family and it is no joke, believe me! My biggest hope was to see it flower so I did a little research but with great disappointment I read that an echinocactus (that is the botanic name) will not flower until it reaches the age of seventy.
Can you imagine how pleasantly surprised I was when I realized that those strange lumps growing on top of my favourite cactus were FLOWERS??
I had no idea it was so old...
Now for the ufo.
I can hardly bear to look at it...it's the Fir cone shawl I started at the beginning of last summer and that for some misterious reason I dropped into my knitting basket never to be picked up again. I have asked myself so many times what possessed me to start it in the first place...don't get me wrong...I like that shawl and I can't believe I gave it up at only 30 rows to the end. I mean THIRTY ROWS. If I had had the patience of knitting one row every six days it would have been finished by now.
I feel so stupid and frustrated. Now I have two choices, I can just rip it and use that pretty pink wool for some other project (have plenty of ideas)...or take courage and MAKE myself knit those last 30 rows.
I need a little more time to make up my mind.