What a weekend I had!

One of the benefits of having a partner at the shop is that now I can take a Saturday off. Every month, in fact. The third Saturday of the month. Even though it is winter and Doug and I would generally have gone skiing, this past Saturday we decided to drive over to Michigan. To meet my new niece, who wasn't born yet when I had my previous Saturday off.

So ... we woke up around 7:30 am, looked out the window, and thought "This doesn't look good. Perhaps we'll wait a bit." So we did. And the weather and roads improved enough that we hopped into the car and drove off to Michigan. We were astounded that as we drove past London we saw absolutely no snow in the air. That never happens. The car handled the snowy/slushy/icy roads just fine, thanks to the newish snow tires.

We had a lovely visit with my family, and the car continued to handle the snowy/slushy/icy roads just fine. Better than many other vehicles, in fact.

What it didn't handle so well is this:
The Battle Creek/Kalamazoo area had an ice storm Sunday evening. We were staying at my son's house in Ka'zoo, and discovered that his tree had a weak spot. And the branch came down. From far up, and it brought along a friend. For comparison purposes, I took a shot showing my foot alongside the branches:
These puppies came crashing down around 11:30 pm. Neither Doug nor I even got out of bed right then -- we didn't really want to know what had happened. Some time later, Doug looked out the window, and heaved a big sigh. I knew it wasn't good. He manfully scoured Jeff's basement until he found a garbage bag to protect what was left of the car ... I snored.

In the morning, this is what I saw:
The front passenger window was shattered and all over the inside of the car, along with various pieces of the branches and lots of ice crystals. As well, the passenger side of the windshield is shattered -- you just can't see it because of the half-inch of ice on the windshield. See the mirror dangling? We had electric mirrors. And there's a wee bit of damage to the framing around the windshield. We're currently waiting to hear from the adjuster and the body shop in terms of repair estimates, etc. At least we had a nice visit.

Right. The whole reason for the visit to Michigan was to meet my new niece. She was born the last week of January, and was named Evelyn. She's a very nice young lady, and does pretty much everything you would expect of a three-week-old infant. I got to hold her and dance with her, and it was great!

Jeff got to hold her too!
Doesn't he look comfortable? Later in the evening, we went back to Andy's house and Amelia (the big sister) insisted that Jeff should hold her baby doll because he needed the practice.

To celebrate the arrival of the baby, I knit a Big Sister Sweater for Amelia. This is Polka Dot from Berrocco ...

I love the whole circle thing in the back. Unfortunately, the sweater needs a button on the front because it wants to slide right off Amelia's shoulders. I used Northern Worsted, and have asked Amelia's mum to keep me posted on how well it washes and wears.

I also finished up Evelyn's sweater, finally. This design is from an older Pinguoin (or however it is spelled!) magazine. I used 4 balls of Sirdar Snuggly, and picked up the buttons right here at the store.
This is a 12-month size, so it'll be a while before Evelyn wears it. I didn't even try for a photo shoot with it and her ... she is SO tiny! I forget how small newborn babies are, even if they are 8 lbs!