I had the most wonderful birthday ever. What makes a great birthday? A spirit of celebration, a few presents, completeness of family. Oh, and chocolate. Dan and Jennifer brought their contribution to dinner--a box of See's dark chocolate truffles.
Our visit to the Getty Center was fab. There were a couple of great exhibits, especially the French medival illuminated manuscripts. I love the delicacy and beauty of color of the old illuminations and whenever the Getty displays any of its massive collection, I try to get up to see them. I have always said that I just enjoy walking around the buildings and touching the travertine marble and gazing out at the various vistas. If you face north and look out from the northwest corner of the museum, the grounds around the area look much like Hadrian's Villa just outside of Rome. Of course, the climate, terrain and flora are similar (Mediterranean) but the winding road up the back side of the Getty through the groves of trees is just like the old road that meanders through the olive groves surrounding the ruins of Hadrian's buildings. We stood there and looked out, just enjoying the views, sipping our drinks (it was my birthday, I could have a mocha at 11:00am if I wanted) while we waited for Deb and Jeff to join us.
We all arrived at our house by 6pm; John had the barbie fired up and we ate and talked and laughed and after dinner I opened my presents. Gift Cards! Yeah! The best kinds! Starbuck's, Border's, Pier I Imports, and some green to go to the Huntington Library for tea one day soon. Mia and Tim must have heard me mention how much I admired the cream and turquoise cup and saucer set at Starbuck's because they got me one. And Kristie had given me one too, so I have a matched set. What a wonderful day my birthday was! Thank you to my beloved fam for making the effort (hours and hours of driving) just to spend it with me. Several friends sent cards and emails and others called to sing to me! I am so blessed with many good friends. And brothers and sisters-in-law.
Scuse me a sec--gotta get a little truffle--
OK, I'm back. We are enjoying our visit in Redondo Beach. I am currently at home waiting until John finishes his class at the Union Rescue Mission and then we will drive back down to RB for one more night. Little Trooper has entertained us and you know how cats are--always choosing the guys to cuddle up to. Tim and John are both favorites. The only not favorite part of house sitting is taking stuff back and forth--clothes, books, shoes. I understand how children of separated parents must feel about their two household families. It can be confusing--where DID I put the tennies? I thought they were in RB, oh yeah, I remember, I wore them yesterday and changed shoes at the other house...
This afternoon I went to lunch with one of my favorite people to celebrate her birthday. Dorothy chose DownTown Buffet on Crenshaw, so I drove over and picked her up and we sat around and ate and ate yummy things from the buffet. Dorothy and I always celebrate our birthdays together. It really doesn't matter to us WHEN we celebrate, we just make sure we do. Dorothy's birthday is in December, so we celebrated her last birthday. Now we can scheme and plan for my birthday celebration for a month or two. I think I want to take her to Tender Greens, that place in Culver City where John, Mike and I went a couple of weeks ago. Dorothy spends Christmas and Thanksgiving and sometimes Easter with us. She always makes me laugh and that is a good characteristic in a friend.
I am currently separated from my camera. See paragraph above about two homes. But I hope to be able to show you all a cute little photo of Trooper and a snap shot of the cards the first graders made me for my birthday.
Nope, no more chocolate...I didn't walk today...gotta stay away from the See's box...get some tea, that'll help take my mind off the truffles...
This is the honey comb cable. There will be two on the sides on the front and back as well as a large aran diamond in the middle. That's quite enough for a child's sweater. The moss stitch makes the sleeves look a bit fussy for my taste, but I think when the whole thing is done, it will recede a bit into the background.
I don't have a good mental eye for color and design, so I have to design visually. I bought six different colors of Cascade 220 yarn and started to play around with the arrangement of the balls. I realized that equal amounts of each color did not give me a realistic idea of how the colors work together.
This is the last swatch I have to knit. I still have two reports (six kinds of fiber and blocking and care of handknits), two design book reviews, and two knitting magazine reviews to write up. I also have to design and knit a Fair Isle hat and an Aran sweater. I spent yesterday practicing the hat pattern, both the style and shape of the hat and the color changes for the Fair Isle pattern. I also spent some time reading about the history of Aran sweaters in a book by Alice Starmore. Will I finish all this by the end of March? I don't know. But I'm going to try.
Jasmine is growing on the fence between our house and the school yard. I wonder who planted it so many years ago. I hadn't noticed it before because our neighbors park their car by the fence so I don't walk over to that part of the driveway.
John rode the 22 mile Bike Tour.
The ocean was a bit broody yesterday. This photo doesn't really show the height of the waves along the Pacific Ocean, but to give you an idea of how windy and cool it was, I can tell you for most of the time I was sitting in my car, there were no surfers or anyone else on the beach or in the water. Finally about 3:30, one lone and hardy surfer showed up, went out in the surf, never got up on his board and came back to shore about 4:00.
