Ice is for margaritas

(Haloscan, which I use for comments, had some issues last night. I wasn't notified of any of your comments, it wasn't keeping count of comments, and you may have had problems leaving comments, too. I'm sorry about that; I think the problems have been solved. Email me--see the email link over there on the right?--if you can't post, okay?)

It was all I could do not to call this post "Ice, ice, baby!" Because we still have ice and are still sitting at home waiting for it to melt. I know that many of you are thinking, "It's just a little ice!" However, in San Antonio, ice is for margaritas. It shouldn't be on my patio furniture.

You can't tell it from the picture, but there's a layer of ice about a third of an inch thick on the seat of the rocker. Click on the picture, and you'll go to my Flickr page, where you'll see more pictures of my ice-encased backyard. I'm hoping it will kill the weeds!

We never get ice like this. My first winter in San Antonio (January 1985), we got a 13" snowfall, which is about 30 years worth of snow for us. It was gone in about 36 hours. The ice has been here for 3 days now! Luckily, it is now up to 33º, and the rain is supposed to stop. I suspect we'll be back at work and school tomorrow.

In knitting-related news:

• Remember the Namaste Everyday bag I bought at Loopy Yarns when I was in Chicago about 6 weeks ago? Well, one of the handles broke, where it attaches to the bag. I tried to repair it with superglue and with double-sided tape, but it didn't work. So early last week, I emailed Namaste. Kelly responded immediately, very apologetic, and said it sounded like a manufacturing defect. She said they would send me out a new one, along with a free shipping label for me to use when I sent the old one back. Well, the new one came on Monday. I'd show you a picture, but it looks just like the other one. I was really impressed with Namaste's service, though.
• I'm taking part in Rebekah's Yarn Focus Challenge, to try to force me to knit from my stash for 3 months. It began on January 15. I hope that this way, not only will I save some money, but I'll get some of those projects in my (mental) queue knitted! You are allowed one day a month to buy yarn, so it's not like you're totally deprived. And I also have some yarn coming Beaverslide, destined to be, I hope, the Arwen cardigan, from the Winter IK. It was ordered before Monday, so it doesn't count towards the YFC.
  
• And last Saturday night, while we were supposed to be cropping (scrapbooking), I taught my friend Melissa to knit! She learned really quickly, and was not only knitting and purling, but doing ribbing by the time I left. If we ever go back to work, I'll show her how to bind off! ;-)