Merry 12 days before Christmas! I am nearly done with the gift-knitting. Working on the penultimate project now: a pair of mittens for K, a homeless woman who lives under the stairs at work. She leaves her little area very early in the morning with all her things packed up in a big backpack, and I thought a pair of mittens would keep her hands warm on a cold day/night, but be small enough to fit in the backpack without adding a lot of weight in warmer weather. They are rather large, as I figured she could still wear them if they were too big but not if they were too small.
Yesterday I finished the last of the fish hats. I've got the whole school of them here in this photo (the dark blue/purple striped one is the one I just finished). Well, not quite the whole school; I left out the ones I made for Ralph and myself, and of course I couldn't include the one I sent to Cheapet in Oklahoma earlier this year. I need to get a box to pack them up & ship them out. Hope they are well-received.
Before moving on with the next topic, I need to sort of explain the layout of the streets around here. We're on Maine; to the south of us is Barnett, to the north is Hill, and behind us (to the east) is Daisy. In the section behind us, Daisy is a two-way street, but when it hits Hill it splits into two one-way streets with a wide stretch of grass dividing it. This section of one-way streets is the City's "Christmas Tree Lane," and every year the City puts up decorations in the grassy area (I'll get some pictures later today) and many of the residents put up some amazing light displays.
So last night was the annual Christmas parade. It starts at the intersection of Daisy & Barnett, goes up the east side of the one-way section, back down the west section, turns onto Hill then comes down our street, ending at the intersection of Maine & Barnett. I went for a walk last night to looky-loo the lights, and as luck would have it the parade started just as I was nearing the intersection of Daisy & Barnett. I went back up Daisy a ways to find a place to sit that wasn't too wet. This is only the second time I've seen the whole parade in the eight years we've lived here (it's only been coming down our street for the past two years; it used to end at Hill). It's sort of a dorky parade--poorly spaced, with some groups too close together followed by long waits for the next group to come up--but I enjoyed myself waving madly at the people in the fancy cars & fire trucks as they went by.
I especially liked two things about the parade. The first was this really cool police car. It was the normal-for-California black and white, except where the paint colors met it was painted in flames so there were black flames extending from the front of the car into the white section, and white flames extending from the middle of the car into the back black section. Really awesome. My other favorite was a group of cheerleaders. They were quite good, very enthusiastic & energetic, but what I really liked about it was that they had girls of different ages & sizes, not just skinny teenagers. The youngest was probably about seven or eight, the oldest I'd guess to be about sixteen. One of the girls in the front was about, oh I'd say thirteen or so, definitely on the heavy side, and IMHO the best performer in the group (which is probably why she was at the front). This girl could *move.*
Once the whole parade had passed by (ending, of course, with Santa Claus & his reindeer atop a fire engine) I walked back home only to discover that SOMEbody had locked the door. Did I have my keys? Nooooooo, of course not. I rang the bell but no reply. So I sat outside for a bit & re-watched the beginning of the parade as it started to make its way past our house. Ralph eventually came out (he'd been in the jacuzzi in the backyard) and let me in. Luckily it wasn't too cold out or he'd have been in big trouble :-)
Today's exciting plans include grocery shopping, maybe a little Christmas shopping, wrapping some gifts, and yay laundry.
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