Back from the West Coast

We're back. LA rocked and rolled during last week's magnitude 7.2 quake (courtesy of the Laguna Salada fault). You could surf in my brother's swimming pool, the waves were that high. But look at the view along my parents' walkway (above). And this is the sidewalk in front of my brother's house:

Hard to resist, eh? This was the first time in 30-odd years I found myself thinking about living again in California (lived there twice; moved from there twice). But when the earth trembles, I stop sleeping. And when I stop sleeping, I remind myself about all the reasons not to live in LA.
Thank you readers who sent wishes for my parents. I appreciate the good thoughts. My mother has age-related degeneration, and unfortunately will only get worse. My father, thank G-d, is doing better.

On the knitting front, my sister-in-law was enchanted with the Shetland Triangles shawl. My 5 year old niece now wants one, in pink (of course), with beads (naturally). Any excuse for me to buy more yarn (as if I need excuses, right?).
Carefree's parts are done; I need to put them all together and pick up/knit the neckline stitches and it is done. To keep myself sane during the flights, I bought some wooden circular needles and started another Evelyn Clark shawl out of some Jamieson's Shetland fingering weight (Spindrift) I had in stash. I have no idea who will get it. Too bad it's blue (official name of color is Twilight). Evenstar needs to have clues 4 and 5 knitted; today would have been a good day to get a move on except my house was looking very neglected. So I cleaned it: Three bathrooms. Polished silver. Waxed furniture with hard wax. My hands asked for a break after that. I'll take photos the next chance I get (I have about 150 photos from LA to upload, annotate, crop, and fiddle with first).

I'll leave you now with one more shot of LA: down the block from my parents' house.