Beautiful ending to an otherwise crappy day

I guess fire is good for one thing...beautiful sunsets.
How about another one for good measure. :)

Smoke

I took these photos down at the end of my road today at 6p. I had Photoshop do it's own photomerge, hence the slightly odd looking triangular areas. :) This is what we see every day, all day. This smoke cloud is actually darker and brown as you get more into town, towards Goleta.

Bats Outta Hell!!

I received this email earlier today and I received permission from the writer (my cousin Kalah) to post it on my blog. Please feel free to laugh your ass off. :)

See, I don't like winged bitey critters. That normally is about bees and wasps, but it also includes bats. Bats are bigger and fly erratically and AT NIGHT when you can't SEE THEM. When bats are flying at night and I'm outside? That is my clue that it's time to move myself inside. When bats fly overhead, I cringe and duck. I hate bats. They totally give me the heebie-jeebies.

This evening, when I was walking from the kitchen heading back downstairs, I see this dark spot on the wall of the Dining Room (overhead, right before walking down into the Living Room). There weren't any lights on, so I reach over the dining room table to turn on the light (hitting my toe on the chair and swearing in the process). I start wondering to myself, "How did a frog get way in here?! Stupid thing, he's going to dry out up there."

I turn the light on and freeze. Hellooooo! That's a BAT! In the HOUSE. THERE'S A BAT IN THE HOUSE! How do I get it out? How am I supposedtocatchaBAT!? Enter Panic Mode.

I call my folks in AZ. No answer. I call my wonderful brother and tell him what the deal is. (He laughs.)

Alan: "Do you have thick leather gloves you can use?"

Me: "Yes?"

Alan: "Use those, maybe a glass jar...."

Me: "Ok, do you understand how much bats freak me out?!"
Alan: ~laughs~

Me: ~trying to breathe~

Alan: "Okay, how about a fishing net? You can net him."

Me, thinking to myself, 'That only gets me about 12" from the bat...'
Me: "That only gets me a foot away!"

Alan: "Ah, you REALLY don't like them... You can open up some sliders and get the bat flying around; his radar is probably freaking out and he just wants to get outside."

Me: "Um. Open the sliders? There are more bats out there!"

(I think this is the point where my dear brother realizes he's talking to a GIRL.)

But he does give me an idea. Tape a fishing net onto a pole. Bloody brilliant!

So that's what I head out to do when my Dad calls. They wanted to know if everything was okay (I unblocked the number when I called them, and I never remember to do that.) Dad also does the "Get a jar and put it over him, maybe use a piece of cardboard or paper to trap him in, an-"

"DAD! Bats! Freak! Me! Out! I am NOT getting that close to it!"

By this point, I locked Stella in my hall by closing the hall door. Just what I need, have the bat fall, Stella grab it, and end up with the bat having rabies. (We've had to have a bat tested before. German Shep and I were in quarantine until we found out the results.)

Dad: "Well, you know your side of the house is okay, so just leave him there."

Me: "I can't do that." (as my heart beats faster. A bat? In the house? Where it may move somewhere and I won't know WHERE IT IS?)

Dad: "You can always call Tom (neighbour), he'll come help you."

Me: "I think I have a plan, but I'll keep him for back-up."

So I get the fish net, pole (that the spiderweb getter is on), and duct tape, and start taping. I go upstairs. I really really wanted to put on a thick jacket with hood and my ski goggles to cover the only part of my face showing, and I had an image of fishing waders, and of course thick gloves, BUT I was brave, I snuck up on Bat (if being 10' away is sneaking up), I had to scrape him (with the metal part of the net) to get him into the net, then I took him through the living room out to the deck. (Me and one end of the pole on the inside of the slider, bat and fishing net side of the pole out the outside of the slider.) Shook him out, he hugged the deck, and there he sits.

I hate bats. This is the second time I've had a bat in the house (first time he was flying in circles in my room. I promptly shut the door and told Dad to go gettem! This was many, many years ago.). (I had an owl in the house at a place I was housesitting... when does something become a pattern?)

I think my hands have stopped shaking enough for me to paint my toes. Whew!

Bloody bats.

hehe, fire fire!

Okay, I am just a bit old to be quoting Beavis and Butthead but that's all I can think about these days is the fire. I am referencing the Zaca wildfire which is sorta, kinda just a little bit threatening Santa Barbara and Goleta. I really do mean that it's just a little bit of a threat. If our Sundowner winds (similar to Santa Anas but they come in when the sun goes down) start up, which apparently could happen, then the fire becomes a real threat. But here is a photo of what I can see at my house:

Jason and I went on a motorcycle ride yesterday up 33 past Ojai. We actually ended up running into a wall of smoke and had to turn back around so I didn't get any really cool, upclose photos of the fire. But I will show you one of the pictures I did take.

Saturday's Shower

I have never seen so many knitted items at a baby shower! I was expecting a little sweater or two, a hat, a crocheted blanket by the new grandma, you know, the usual. Let's just say I am SO glad mine was the second gift they opened. The blanket went over very well and I got my oohs and aahs. I had forgotten though that the sister of one of the mom's is a crocheter/knitter as is their best friend. AND they received some hand me down items that were over 40 years old and had never been used. I think they ended up with 5 blankets, 2 hats, 1 pair of socks, 2 booties, 2 diaper covers, 6 sweaters, and a few pairs of pants.

And now, as my boyfriend put it, "Now that the blanket is done, you can go back to the mystery stole!" So understanding, that man. :) He is right, I will be picking up the mystery stole on which I am very far behind. I have discussed this with Chaun and both of us know that if we put it down, we probably won't go back to it. I am also going to work on the Silk Garden sweater for awhile and then pick up Julia. I have been spending a fair amount of time over on Ravelry. I am very impressed with what those two have created. One of my favorite things to do is to find a pattern I want to knit and then go search to see who else has knit it with what type of yarn. It's very time consuming, updating everything on there but it's well worth it I think.

In other news, the ash of yesterday has turned into mush today from the misty fog. It's lovely. Oh, and I did get some really cool pictures of cloud formations and the sun yesterday on my drive home.

Gift knitting and some ash

I wish I could do it. I wish I could selflessly give to my friends and family my lovely, hard worked, knitted items. But I can't. I love them too much! See, I have a baby shower to attend in Long Beach today. And I decided to make a baby blanket. I chose the Tiramisu pattern by Alicia Paulson done in LionBrand CottonEase. And I bitched. I moaned. I groaned. For two weeks. Until last night. Last night it all came together. The creamy color for the body combined with the dark burnt orange of the edging topped off with a beautiful grosgrain ribbon. "It's beautiful!" I exclaimed. "All that hard work was worth it!" But why did I do it really? Oh. :) I did it solely for the Ooh's and Aah's at the shower. :) I am just so bad. I am sure the parents will love the blanket as I do. I am now considering a larger sized one for myself.

And for those of you outside of Santa Barbara, a picture of our ash. :) Due to a long burning wildfire northwest of us, we were covered in ash yesterday (well, some parts of
SB have been ashed for over a month now). It was literally snowing ash.

Looking for some HP closure?

J.K Rowling did an interview recently where she discussed the lives of the people in the epilogue. I was happy with the end of the book but I do feel a little bit better after reading the article. :)