40 Miles WNW of schmutz

So as I'm sure you've heard via your local news, Los Angeles County (Orange and San Bernardino counties as well) were on fire. For the most part they have them contained and controlled.

Sunday I was so excited posting about my treasures I forgot to mention the distant fires we watched from the freeways on the way to Unwind and Skein. Heading north on the 5 freeway you could see the Sylmar blaze and heading back east on the 134 you could see the fire in Yorba Linda (eventually Anaheim and Chino Hills)...

Surprisingly for two locations that were 40+ miles away, they managed to rain ash all over our houses and cars here in the city of Los Angeles, and the sky was remenicent of that movie Night of the Comet only the skies were yellow rather than orange.

I have forever been sneezing and dusting, dusting and sneezing, all of it ash and soot that snuck in through the windows.

While I may bitch about all the above, I still feel horrible for those who lost their homes. Even if they lived in fancy neighborhoods or mobile trailers, they lost their homes their belongings, their most special personal memories (and some may have lost their stashes!!! oh the thought!!!).

With so much focus on Katrina and Ike and all that happened to those devastated in the midwest over the last few years, why don't we think about those who lost their entire lives to these devastating fires?

Many of my co-workers had to evacuate their homes and fortunately they were spared both life and homes.

So if you got a little time save a little prayer for the folks here in California. We're not all a bunch of kooks living on a fault line waiting to fall into the ocean, we're normal hardworking folks who happen to like where we live, no matter how fire, flood or earthquake prone we are.

On a little happier note... CupKozy is taking the world by storm... more news on that as events develop... but I'll be soon making some as well (totally sweatshop labor).. so if you haven't bought yours yet, get it here!!!!

Tell Dinah, "Ann sent you" maybe she'll unchain me from the sewing machine and let me out into the fresh air for a 5 minute break - just kidding!!!

Oh and I stopped in at Abuelita's tonight. They have a nifty new idea, they put your new purchases into a recyclable bag, so if you keep the bag and bring it in next time you shop, you get 5% off your next purchase!!!

I'm SO there!!

I can't show off my purchase though because it involves the Secret Santa swap, so again, you'll have to be patient... sorry!!!

So soon?

So I went on another mini-yarn crawl hitting up both Unwind and Skein... I had to run up to Unwind to pick up the yarn I had on order for the Red Thread socks.



Some of the yarn is from my last trip to Unwind but I forgot to show it off. Lots of sock yarn... I love love love me some sock yarn...

I also picked up Vogue's Ultimate Sock knitting book... I suggested it to Chris for Christmas but he insisted that while we're there might as well pick it up... sigh...

I had been looking for some Noro Silk Garden because, I've fallen really hard for the Noro Scarf. First I see the Yarn Harlot post about it and even she said that she didn't typically follow knitting fads, which I like to think I don't either, but know I do...

I... fell... hard...



It's actually going to be for my sister in law.. so the colors are kinda dark (she loves dark colors). I just hope I don't fall so hard for it that I can't give it up.

I have to hit up Abuelita's today and pick up more yarn for my Secret Santa... argh! I'll be in the poor house soon, but I'll have plenty of yarn to keep me warm!

Birthday Update

Thank you guys for all the compliments for Smushie's costume, she's the cutest little booger in the whole world.. LOL

Chris' birthday went just wonderfully (well except the restaurant wrote the reservation down for the wrong night, but still managed to get all 16 of us a table). My friend came by to give him his surprise rock star massage. I even made one of the bedrooms into his backstage dressing room, complete with pictures of him hangin' with the famous (totally photoshopped of course!)

(His star was a little funky... stupid glue and stupid poster board)

Then he quickly fell in love with his new game.. Please ignore the messy room... it's his fault, honest!!!


We kinda hung out at the house and relaxed after his massage. He was a little too relaxed to want to do anything else.

Then we made it to dinner. It's a lovely steakhouse on top of a hill nearby the house. It's all lit up with Christmas lights year round, has an out door patio and sits on a golf course (fancy!)... Unfortunately our reservation was written for the wrong date, which I didn't find out until 2 days later when they called to confirm it for TUESDAY! ARGH! I made it for Saturday!!! What the!?

Thankfully they did take care of us and we spent plenty on their wonderful food and drinks.






Chris and I finished off the night sharing a bottle of champagne our friend Manny brought to us from New Mexico. We loved it so much we decided that'll be the champagne served at our wedding.

Holy cow, we actually have ONE plan made for our wedding!!!! And of all things we've decided on... the booze! LOL!

Poor Clyde was just hung over...


On the knitting:

I can't really post what I'm working on at the moment because it's for my super secret santa gift. I'm almost done with the Spring Forward sock #2, but that's on hold right now while I finish my secret santa gift. It's coming along quickly and I don't have very much left to do. I'll post that after it's been mailed and received.

I'm at a point though where I'm hitting a block. Not in a bad way though, I think I'm at that point where there's so much I want to do that I can't pick one thing and I can't get excited about anything because I want to do it all... right now!

I know I have this one thing I have to finish and I'm on a deadline so that's keeping the frustrations at bay for the moment... but once it's done... it's going to hit the fan!

So for now I must rest my arm, it's a bit sore from constantly working on my project, so a little Alleve a little rest and back at it!

I Should Be Vacuuming

It's been a whirlwind as of late sorry for the delayed post. First a little explanation of the title... Chris's birthday is coming up Nov. 12th and to celebrate, we're all going to dinner this Saturday, so I'm still sealing the deal on the dinner plans. I'm also surprising him with a massage. My friend at work does massage therapy and she's coming over to do him up special (she comes to your house to rub you down, how awesome!). Susan however is allergic to cats and I need to vacuum like crazy!

Also my friend Dinah (of CupKozy fame) got hired on at my work. I'm soooo happy! She and I were jobless at the same time earlier this year but unfortunately she hasn't had much luck in the employment arena. Finally we have an opening so she jumped head first into it!

Her Halloween party was a blast as well.. Here's me hamming it up as a dorky looking witch... so original I know! (oh and you can't probably tell but I totally have my dress on backwards and didn't notice until hours later when I was at the party)


Chris went as a bum who'd fight you for booze... He was the same last year...

But drumroll please.... my little angel niece wearing the Strawberry Shortcake costume I slaved over for her...



Don't you just want to eat her up!?



I almost cried because she was just too cute for words!

And as I'm writing this I just found out Obama won!!!! I know some of you out there might be McCain supporters, but as a country we've just hit a huge mile stone and taken a huge step toward tolerance and progress. McCain put up a great fight and if you voted either way, thank you!

I'm now awaiting the results of California's Prop 8. This was super important to me to allow marriage to be open to anyone (gay or not).

What hit closest to home on Prop 8 was that at one point in time interracial marriage was illegal. I couldn't imagine not being able to be with Chris because he's not white. How could I then turn to a gay couple and say they can't be married?? I'm hoping the people of my state agree with me.

So on a less serious note, I've been still working away on the Spring Forward socks and one of my secret santa gifts.. just have to get through this weekend and we'll be all good!

Hooray!!