On the knitting front I am still working on my vest and hoodie sweater. It's been hard knitting the last week as we have been in Santa Barbara with my daughter Heather. Heather kept Lucy and I so busy that we were barely able to knit a couple of rows. We did go into a LYS in SB but like our store in Paradise better. We went to Ventura on Friday and shopped for formal dresses for our Hawaiian cruise in January. Saturday we shopped around downtown SB and went to a picnic for the employees of the Santa Barbara Bowl. Sunday we were off to Universal Studios and that really was a kick. We laughed until we were crying. Monday we went back to Ventura to pick up the dresses that we bought on Friday. They had to be altered a little so we made arrangements to pick them up Monday after Heather got off of work. Then Tuesday morning we headed back to Paradise. It was a beautiful drive. Thanksgiving was wonderful with family. We shared many enjoyable moments. This morning we got up at 3:45 to go to Chico to purchase a computer (lap top) for Lucy's sister at Circuit City. Ok, I have to tell you that if I don't have to go back there, I never will. The employees were nice enough but there was zip, nadda, no organization. Yes I know that they are not used to having the mob of people in their store at one time but you would have thought they would have given a little more thought to the check out counters. For about an hour they only had two checkers. That's right only two. They added two more stations about an hour later. But.....I was in the line for the laptops and it was moving so slow. I finally went up to the register and just kind of hung around to see why it was taking 30 minutes per customer to ring them up. Well, each customer was wanting tech support and explanations to the freebies etc.Then they had to get the freebies out of the back warehouse yada yada yada. They could have had a sales person talking to each of the people in line answering their questions etc. That would have eliminated some of the people in line right away. Like they wanted the freebies, so an employee would go get them (printer, router, spyware & case) only to find out that they had to pay for them up front and send the rebate in to get their money back. Some people were so mad (certainly not the Christmas Spirit) that they left everything they had gone and picked out right there and walked out the door. Ah well, we were in the line to pay for 4 hours and 15 minutes and we were about number 40 in the line. Crazy. I will go to the LYS later, but I totally do not enjoy line stuff. Too bad we didn't take our knitting with us. That would have been kind of cool.

Random Wacky Fact about myself that perhaps others would not know about. I emailed this information to my lovely hostess Kerry, and she said I had to post it here also.
I survived being bitten by a rattlesnake in 1998. My husband broke every law on the books getting me to the hospital (but not until he had captured the snake and put it into a jar with a lid on it). So, yes I carried the snake on my lap in this mason jar. He wanted to show them what I had been bitten by and it was helpful to them. Three days later I came home. Very interesting things happen to your body when bitten by a rattlesnake. First your skin turns black where the bite occurred and then the pain travels. But blood work is really strange. All of my blood work was so far off of the charts (normally it is fine). You become anemic, you become dehydrated etc. etc. I don't recommend this to any of you. :-)

I started the celtic vest a couple of days ago and I have finally fininshed the first 10 inches of ribbing and am ready to change needle sizes and at this point it should move a little quicker. I am working on the hoodie sweater as well. I really enjoy working with it. I think I told you that I got an iPOD last week and I've been downloading all kinds of music and podcasts that have to do with knitting. I'll have to get together with Heatherly because she had some podcasts that she was going to share with me. I sent my first secret pal gift off in the mail today so that little task has been completed. Tomorrow I am traveling to Roseville and will be there most of the day. We think we finally have a design for out Rosewood Knitting Needles. Will keep you posted on that. Last night after I went to bed I was listening to a podcast called Cast On. I liked that one.
Just left the LYS and saw some beautiful Schaffer yarns. I love their sock yarn. Can't wait for that to arrive. Hopefully I will be able to knit some socks. Until then, have a great day.