It feels like eons since I’ve posted, so let’s catch up a little bit…

For a day or so before Dave and I left for Las Vegas on the 16th, there were huge fires raging in the area. We could only see the smoke from one of them from here, as it obscured all else. This smoke was from the Anaheim Hills/­Yorba Linda fire as it moved from east to west. We have a lot of friends who live near where that fire raged. All were lucky, and none lost their homes. The mother of an old friend of Dave’s lives just a couple of blocks from one of the worst areas, yet she wasn’t even evacuated. We thought that odd. Turns out “they” were right, though. She was safe where she was. A bunch of us from the Monday knitting crew got on Ravelry regularly to check status, as a lot of members live close to where the fire was burning. It was nice to have one place to go to check on everyone. We were all quite relieved that we are all fine.

The day I took those photos, November 15, was our five-year anniversary. Dave got me a lovely pair of Swarovski pearl earrings from Beadiful Things on Etsy. I love them, and have been wearing them almost every day since. We had a nice dinner, a lovely bottle of wine, and probably drank just a wee too much… We were slow getting out of bed and out of the house on Sunday, running a full two hours behind our original schedule. Oops. Ah well.

I was a bad blogger when we were gone, taking only a handful of photos of our rooms the day we got there. They’re too boring to share here, but if you want to see them, they’re in the gallery.

The only knitting I’m going to share with you today is the initial swatch I made while we were gone, the beginnings of a new shawl pattern. I haven’t decided yet if this is going to a rectangular or triangular one. It keeps changing. From the bottom up we have honey bees, something I gave up on, clover, and honey bees next to a pattern that’s supposed to be butterflies, but looks more like hearts to me. Anyone know where I can find a good lace butterfly stitch? Or do you have any ideas for what would go well with clover and honey bees? The yarn is Elann Peruvian Baby Lace Merino in Cypress. It’s a 50/50 blend of alpaca and merino, and is lovely to knit with. It’s going to make a wonderful shawl.

Our wonderful next door neighbors took care of Ricki while we were gone. They are amazing neighbors. Just take a look at what they left for us: a wonderful anniversary present consisting of two gorgeous olive-bowled wine glasses, a bottle of Cote du Rhone, a bottle of Moet Chandon champagne, a hunk of fabulous cheese, a box of Triscuits, and that gorgeous tray. Don’t we have the best neighbors ever? Oh yeah, and a trio of Ding Dongs—as the next play in a silly game between Dave and Bob. We haven’t opened the wine yet, but there is now considerably less of that hunk of cheese and the box of Triscuits.

On Saturday we went to a book sale at the Tustin Library. They were selling off books from their small bookstore at the rate of $2.00 per bagful. We got quite the haul—16 books for our two bucks. It seems that Ricki likes them almost as much as we do! I have the list of books we got upstairs, but am too lazy to go get it right now. I’ll provide the list later.

Kristie shared a link with a bunch of us early this morning: Cookie A has a sock book coming out early next year called Sock Innovation. Cookie has a preview up on her site. Be sure to take notice of the fabulous sock called Rick. That’s the one that Kristie knit for.the.book. You go, girl.

Finally, I leave you with a bit of silliness…

Yellow Snow - Miller Lite Commercial