Josie's sweater

I got the nicest thank-you note recently from Caroline, Ryan, and Josie for the sweater and blanket I knitted for Josie. I got them done right around the time Josie was born, but didn't get them mailed until MUCH later. I deliberately made the sweater big, because Josie had been showered with presents for her birth and I wanted her to be able to wear the sweater for a little while. The pattern is the Baby Albert jacket (the baby version of the Einstein jacket) in The Knit Stitch by Sally Melville.

Snow Mystery Solved

When I returned home from Atlanta on Friday after missing the two 12"-plus snowstorms last week, I wondered who or what had cleared the snow from 3d Street as far as my driveway, but no farther. Yesterday, I heard engine noise and discovered the answer to that mystery.

Turns out that one of the men who are working on expanding a house across 3d street was using a Bobcat to move a mountain of snow from the other side of the street, dumping it by the side of my house. I was concerned that he might be dumping it on my boxwood bushes, which I'm sure are taking a beating under all the snow and would not be improved by dumping more snow and ice on them, so I went down to take a look.

When he saw me, he stopped his motor. I said I'd been away last week and when I returned and saw that half of the sidewalk had been covered by snow plowed from the street, I knew that I'd never be able to shovel it. He was very defensive, explaining that he had had to get to work last week. He added that he was moving a mountain of snow from in front of the driveway of the house next to the one that he was working on because they thought he had put the mountain of snow there. No, he explained, the county had already left half of the snow there. He didn't say who had put the rest of the snow there -- could it have been him? Why, he was just performing a neighborly gesture by taking a break from his workday to move the snow that he had not deposited in front of their driveway. He also immediately said that he would not dump any snow on my bushes.

As long as he wasn't going to bury my boxwoods further, and as long as I was not going to be able to dig out the sidewalk from the snow already plowed onto it from the street to make room for parking, there was no good reason to tell him to dump the accumulated snow in front of the house he was working on, rather than next to my house. I guess he had'd heard the pleas of the local governments for citizens to get out and clear the sidewalks. I feel guilty about leaving the piles of ice and snow on the stretch of sidewalk between my driveway and the corner, but I can't handle all that extra snow shoveling by hand, either. Sorry, Arlington.

The Snow of the Century

I missed our historic snowfalls last week -- the first a record-breaking snowfall itself, the second making the winter total higher than any year since they've been keeping records. Where was I? They sent me out on Friday rather than Sunday so that I could miss the snow and hold hearings all week in Atlanta (while the federal government remained closed all week except for Friday, which would have been my compressed work schedule day off). This is the way life can be, sometimes.

Springerle

My friend Trudy -- who is a wonderful baker -- brought to church yesterday some springerle that she and her sister had made. She gave me one with a knitter on it. My first thought was that I should varnish it, because it is so cute. But I think I will eat it with some tea when I need a little treat.

Cameron Indoor Stadium

Duke versus Clemson tonight. My nephew Michael will be covering the game. Duke is also celebrating the 70th anniversary of Cameron Indoor Stadium and the 50th anniversary of its first ACC championship team. Cameron and the Dean Dome down the road at UNC couldn't be more different, but I confess I have a soft spot for Cameron and fond memories of watching basketball games there while a law student in the pre-Coach K. days. It was where I developed a liking for college basketball.

Two More Cards

I started these two cards shortly after the last two, and finished them today, trying to get back into the mood to create. These again began with an ArtChix image, and I found the same butterfly in another ArtChix sheet. I picked up the colors from the original image and tried to use new attachments -- the Tim Holtz tiny stapler and HappyTape from Japan.

Two Cards

I have not been doing much knitting or paper crafting lately . . . holidays, snow, etc. So today I made some time just to play around, starting with a background technique on pages from a French novel. I started with the idea of making Valentine's Day cards using two Artchix images, so I stuck with a palette of pinks and reds, with black. But in the end I left off any sentiments and will just let the cards be whatever they want to be. It just feels good to start to get back in the groove of making something.