A day with Esmeralda

I'm heading up to my old stomping grounds of Tehachapi, CA. I haven't been there in years, and my nephew's birthday party is the perfect reason to make the drive. Of course, I headed up early and stayed with my friend, Es, in my not as old stomping ground, Lancaster.

My first stop, The Yarn Palette. It's a cute little shop that is still in their first year of business and working out all the kinks. She said that it was a bit of a shocker to the knitting community. There are not many knitting resources outside of the Red Heart selection at Walmart. I felt so bad for the town missing out on all the wonderful yarns and so happy that Melissa is bring it to them.She is so sweet. Very excited that I came by being I live 90 miles away. She is partially deaf, but left her aid dog at home today so she could care for these little kittens. One of her neighborhood cats abandoned between her backyard fence and the neighbor brick fence. So, after tearing out a ton of wood, that her boyfriend will undoubtedly be fixing this weekend, she saved these little critters. They were at the shop for feedings every 30 minutes and waiting for an Abandoned Cat Shelter from Van Nuys to pick them up. I have to say these little guys made going to the yarn shop for an hour fun for Haley. And I walked away with yummy sock yarn. Rio de la Plata Merino Sock in Slate Rose. After my yarn detour, it was off to Es'. As I pulled up, she was apologizing for forgetting about her scrapbooking group. She has been trying to get me to do this for years. I've been insisted that I don't have the patience to pull out a ton of supplies, spent 2 hours decorating a piece of paper just to spend 30 minutes cleaning up. (Portability and lack of clean up are some of the things that make knitting so great.) She insisted I do something and even gave me a very nice book to start me off. I tried to explain how I would have nothing to put in the book. You see I just made these last Christmas.I went on Shutterfly.com and put together little digital photobooks. They are for every two years. I don't want to go out of the pattern and start making scrapbooks for the next years. Turns out they have a similar program, or you can buy the fancy program and be able to do more cut and pasting and what not. I said maybe when it is time to make the next photo book. In the meantime, I still have the book Es gave me. We finally decided that I would put Haley's professional portraits in it. So, I walked away with a book, paper samples for brainstorming, a catalog to order the paper I decide to use and the promise that I would come to the group a few times this summer to make a scrapbook. I spent the rest of the time knitting. Look!!!! I turned my heel.Finally, we wrapped up the night at the Lancaster CHP office. No, we weren't caught driving crazy and hauled off by the Highway Patrol. Here is Es' husband, Chris, cleaning the windows of his cruiser. She wanted me to see her man in uniform. I felt like a delinquent running around the CHP parking lot taking pictures. My juvi self wish I had some toilet paper and eggs. I do have to say this wasn't my fault.Sadly, this was almost Chris. Some drunk ran a red light and hit Chris's partner driving right behind him. The driver, Vicki, is okay and I actually got to meet her, too. She's a scrapbooker.

So, what did I learn today? People in the Antelope Valley like to scrapbook more than they knit.