Well, so, I fell off the "buy no unnecessary items during Lent" thing.

I probably will be better these coming weeks; it looks as though the Pig of Busy-ness has finally passed through the Python of My Life.

I did take a trip yesterday, to McKinney, to do some shopping. I bought a few small items, lots of fancy soaps and bath soaks and the like (I don't know what it means psychologically that a lot of my "luxury" purchases revolve around bathing. I'm not sure I want to know what it means psychologically). My big single purchase (well, outside of the trip to the quilt shop) was a cast-iron Scottie dog doorstop, which is now sitting on the hearth of my (non-functional) fireplace. It looks very nice there. It's probably not old, but since it was $35, that seemed reasonable to me. It's quite large and heavy and will come in handy if I ever need to prop any doors open.

I think I've said before that I need things like the McKinney trip occasionally. I get so depressed by the sheer cold practical functionalism, the lowest-price-for-the-lowest-common-denominator that seems to have become the majority of the shopping experience in the U.S. (I hate Wal-Mart and only shop there because it's pretty much the only game in town, where I live).

Bought a bunch of the new "Paris Flea Market" line of fabric and a pattern to make out of it. I think this afternoon, now that I've finished my grading and typed up BOTH forms a and b of my upcoming exam, I'm going to dig out the Snowman quilt that I've not worked on for a long time and work on it.

The Oscars are tonight; I do not plan to watch. I haven't seen one of the movies that's up for an award (I'd like to see "Lost in Translation;" I've heard really good things about it and I generally enjoy Bill Murray. But now it will mean renting it when it comes out). I'm really not a big movie fan, and am usually too cheap to shell out $7 or whatever it is now for a first-run movie.