Well, the good news is what ice we had this morning (a very thin layer coating the leaves on my evergreen shrubs) melted off. A very cold rain is falling right now but it does not seem to be freezing to things.

And I forgot to say: God bless the Communicomm guys. The person I talked to (slightly after noon yesterday) said she'd TRY to get someone out to remove the branch, but she wasn't tremendously sanguine about it. But when I got home yesterday afternoon, the branch was gone, and there was a note on my front door saying that the guy had been.

I'm holding out hope that maybe it will stay warm enough long enough that we'll maybe dodge the worst of the ice (the outdoor window thermomenter I got as a Christmas present from one of my uncles - and it's a really neat present, it's one of those things I wouldn't have thought to have bought for myself but now I use it every day) says it's 43* outside. Granted, it's sheltered a bit where it is, but it does seem to still be above freezing).

My thoughts and prayers are with the people in St. Louis and other areas that got hit a lot worse, and also with the O.G. and E. guys who are probably not going to get any down-time at all (or time with their families) for the next several days.

I'm wearing the hoodie I knit out of Circus several years ago - I rarely get to wear it because it's very heavy and is usually too warm. (For long term readers: it was the one I was referring to as the "Sideshow Bob" sweater because the color way is called "Sideshow" - a bright purply pink. I'm charging my camera right now and might take a photo of myself in it later on.)

I've been doing some knitting - mostly working on the "Child's sock [resized for woman] with Miranda Pattern" from Knitting Vintage Socks.

I also baked a cake - I had some buttermilk in the fridge and wanted to use it before it went bad. I have a recipe for a simple cocoa cake that takes buttermilk. But I found out that I used up every last bit of the white sugar I had (and then some) to make the cake - in fact, I had to piece out the last bit of the cup of sugar with some Demerara sugar I keep to put in my tea (I figured it was ok even though the Demerara has a bit of molasses in it as the cake has baking soda as the leavening anyway). I have brown sugar and powdered but no more white sugar - so if the roads are bad for an extended period of time, I may have to either change plans on cooking certain things, or try subbing honey or brown sugar or powdered. (Can you do that? Sub powdered for plain granulated? What would the reduction in amount be?)

Anyway. I'm going to make coconut frosting for it once it cools down. And then I'm going to go back to knitting.