To You and Yours...

Merry Christmas!

Sights Around My 'Hood

Here are a few photos of two of the more decked-out homes around my neighborhood. The families start decorating right around Thanksgiving. That's a LOT of lights and a lot of work! My SIL's father has a saying for decorations like this - "Looks like GE threw-up on their yard!" It may be a bit much, but I think it looks magical.

Always Remember

"...a date which will live in infamy..."

A Scary Experience

This is the broken housing which caused the cruise control cable to get stuck while I was driving my mom's Ford Taurus on Wednesday while we were doing last-minute errands for Thanksgiving. I had been slowly accelerating to about 30-35 m.p.h. when the car just "took off" without me stepping on the gas pedal. I pressed on the brake pedal which slowed it a bit, but the car wouldn't stop. I was beginning to panic. I got the car to slow down enough to where I put it in neutral and then park and it came to a very abrupt stop, but the engine was really reving - it sounded like it was going to explode. I turned it off quickly and we both said "what the hell happened?" The gas pedal was not stuck, so we were not sure what had happened. I called both the Auto Club to get a tow truck and then my dad. He came down to wait for the tow truck with us and to see what the cause was. We waited for about 30 minutes and then he told us he would wait for the tow truck and that we should go finish our errands and he would call us when the car got to the repair shop. The above-photo shows what happened. The housing to the cruise control cable broke, causing the cable to get stuck. That is, in a nutshell, what happened. Our mechanic put the clamp on as a temporary fix to hold the cable to the housing, but it is now disconnected.

I am so thankful that this didn't happen while any of us were driving in traffic with cars in close proximity or on the freeway at 65 miles per hour - I don't know how the car could have ever been brought to a stop safely had that been the case. It is a very scary thought indeed. We were very, very thankful, to say the least.

A "Noble" Knit

This is one of the knitting projects I'm currently working on. This is "A Noble Cowl" by Emily Kausalik. It is an easy knit and I love the pattern. The yarn I'm using is Shibui Baby Alpaca DK - it is so soft! I'm making this one for myself and one for my mother in blue. I love the subtle variations of color in this yarn. It is one of the softest yarns I have ever touched and is an absolute joy to knit with. I love me some alpaca!

I am also knitting Christmas gifts this year, but I can't share those with you right now because a few of the intended recipients read my blog. I'm really liking how those are turning out and I have almost two finished already. It will sure be nice having them done in plenty of time.

Are any of you making your Christmas gifts this year? If so, what are you making?

Happy Halloween!

Here's wishing everyone a safe and Happy Halloween!

I Wish This Wasn't Necessary

Cancer sucks. I'm knitting another chemo cap for one of my aunts; I wish it wasn't necessary. The pattern is one that I've unfortunately knitted-up before for another one of my aunts. I love the yarn - it's a very soft, machine washable DK weight and will be easy to just throw into the washer. The pattern is very easy and has such a pretty pattern at the crown. I will post a photo of it when I've finished. I found the pattern on the "Head Huggers" website where they have lots of patterns for both knitting and crochet, along with great information.

On a happier note, we survived the first rain of the season and the mountains have stayed-put for now. We are only about 1/2-mile away from the foot of the mountains and the mudflow has been forecasted as possibly traveling as far down as a mile to our main boulevard. The city and county are taking precautions very seriously this time around. We had a wildfire way back in 1978, which was nothing in comparison to what we just went through in August/September, and had mudslides as a result. It was bad. Come to find out that the debris basins had not been cleaned-out. Well, it's completely different this time around, thank goodness. We still have a long rainy season to get through and with an El Nino forecasted, we are still not out of the woods, so to speak. The danger of mudslides can remain for up to three years, but today is a beautiful, sunny, crystal-clear day with temps supposedly reaching into the 80s! Only in California do we go from the 60s to the 80s in the span of a day! Go figure

I am so excited for baseball tonight - the Dodgers play Game One of the NLCS against the Phillies. We lost to them last year. Hopefully, this year will have a different outcome. I'm dreaming of a Dodgers-Angels World Series! That would be so awesome!