Well, now, here it is. The last day of classes. In a few minutes, I hear the last four presentations and then I am done - or at least, done until Monday, when I come in, tot up the grades-so-far, give an early exam, and then Tuesday and Wednesday, give my for-real finals.

Not sure what I'm going to do with what constitutes an afternoon of freedom for me. Because I AM now one of those blessed tenured souls I referred to many months ago, and, more importantly, I have nothing pressing - nothing that needs done - until Monday.

Sadly, the nearest "real" yarn shop is over an hour away, and it's in Dallas traffic to boot (And I've never been there, for just that reason). I could go to the Hobby Lobby - they were promising "New Novelty Yarns To Come Soon!" but I'm all novelty-yarned out. There are only so many foo-foo scarves a girl, especially a girl who tends to be as serious as I, can own.

I do want to make the rounds of the garden shops soon, to buy bright colored heat-tolerant plants for my front garden. And maybe a few new and different herbs for the herb garden (I should just give up in that back yard and make the whole thing an herb garden; that is what would make me really happy). And I need a new spool of twiny stuff for my edger (And the Wal-Mart here in town, bang their bones*, sell the particular MODEL of edger I have, but not the particular twiny stuff that has to go in it).

(*Bang {whomevers} bones = supposedly this was Darwin's (as in Charles, as in the guy remembered for Natural Selection and for evolution, although there were others working on the same idea at the same time) response to his wife, Emma (who was also his cousin and who was also a Wedgwood heiress) when she won at backgammon. I take it the "bones" are the small counters used in the backgammon game. Or otherwise, it's a good phrase of frustration that avoids nasty words. Although, nowadays, unfortunately, "bang" and "bones" have other meanings, so perhaps it's no longer so good).

Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, the garden shops. I do need to get out and weed, first, I think. So it comes down to this: do I race out this afternoon and buy my gardeny goodness (thus also avoiding some of the horrific Saturday crowds) and then hope to keep my plants alive until such time as I can get the weeding and planting done? It is almost essential that planting here be done in the evening, it's been so hot and dry. (Saturday evening is out, I have a cookout to go to, so it would have to be Sunday). But then again, avoiding the Saturday crowds is very tempting...especially when one's perambulations involve the Lowe's (sLowe's) and Home Depot (Home Despot) in addition to the privately run and always-crowded nursery place.

and then there's Tarzhay, although I can't think of a thing I need there...