Well, yesterday was a good day.

First of all, I got the rewrite of a paper done and mailed off to my co-author. I feel like this is close to ready to submit to a journal. Which is a feeling of relief (at least at first, before I start thinking about what revisions they could ask for or if they are going to reject it out of hand). But at least it's proof of progress.

Then, I did my "what I did in the last year" self-evaluation that we always have to do. This year, for the first time, I didn't feel like throwing up after looking at it when it was done. I think having gotten my dissertation research published in a well-established, probably-has-international-distribution botanical journal helped with that. Also the fact that I have 2 research projects on the front burner, one on the back burner, and several ideas I wish I had time to implement and maybe will over the next few weeks. And the fact that I've decided despite the occasional eye-rolling from students, and despite the occasional horribly-in-the-tank test grades some of them get, I'm a decent teacher.

And we're getting rain today. Rain is actually crucial in my being able to implement one of the research ideas I have. (it involves the restoration site we're working on and soil invertebrates...)

Yesterday afternoon I dropped off the poppy quilt. Luckily the shop owner was there and she was able to help me with thread color selection - I didn't know what to use. I knew I didn't want black, despite the black sashing, nor did I want red. We tried all the yellows and golds and none worked. We tried greys. And then we tried browns. And there was a nice taupe color - sort of a warm mid-brown - that looked amazingly good. So, although I would not have thought it, the thread (the color name, oddly enough, is "Mother Goose") is going to be sort of a midrange greyish brown.

She did tell me it would probably be a month. That's okay; I'm not impatient. I'm glad to see that she has so much work, and that she's still enjoying her work. (She also cut me a deal on the pattern I used - the one I chose was one of her "favorites" to do so she gives a discount on it.)

I also did some other shopping. It was the first time in over a month I'd been in a non-super-wal-mart grocery store. There are certain things, certain items and brands, that are important to me that our wal-mart does not carry. So it was a relief to be able to get those things again. I once again have Nutella - some mornings when I don't want to eat breakfast I can tempt myself into it by putting some Nutella on a piece of toasted whole-wheat bread.

It is a relief to have a stocked refrigerator. I have lunch and dinner possibilities now for all next week. I also found Panko breadcrumbs for the first time ever so I bought some and am going to try doing breaded turkey cutlets with them tonight. (I was going to get chicken breast but it did not look as good as the turkey breast cutlets did).

I also used my raft of 40% off coupons at the Jo-Anns: got a big big spool of neutral colored thread for piecing (40% off). Got a pillow form to replace the one I "stole" from one of my pillows last May to use in a pillow I was giving as a gift (40% off). Bought some fabric to fit in with some fabric I have for a planned quilt (40% off). Bought the newest Knit.1 (40% off; even if I don't make anything it was worth the $3.50 for entertainment value).

But I might make something out of this Knit.1. And not just the Amigurumi animals either. I saw something that made me laugh with delight, and then realize I have yarn in my stash that would work for it.

It's the Pi vest (scroll down - it's the rightmost photo in the second row). Yes. A vest with an intarsia pi on it. I love it so much - it makes me laugh at its sheer geekiness. But I don't know if, having made it, I would actually wear it out of the house. Part of it is I wonder if it's perhaps a bit "young" for me. There's a certain age-range I feel that can get away with that kind of thing - sort of like the "cool/wool" sweater in the same issue - and I fear that, being within spitting distance of 40, I'm outside of it.

But the vest still makes me laugh.

I suppose I could reconfigure it - chart out a lower-case "e" instead. Because, you know, most people would interpret the "e" as being the initial of my first name. But I would know - and maybe other ecologists would get - that "e" is another geeky number like pi. It is, in fact, 2.7182... and is the base of the natural logarithm, and is also one of those numbers that comes up again and again in nature. In fact, in my research and teaching, I have MORE dealing with e than I do with pi. So perhaps an "e" vest rather than a "pi" vest would be the way to go. I don't know.

Then again, I have SO many projects ahead that my ardor for this one will probably cool before I get to it.

(I also like the deep-red chenille "hunting jacket" in the same issue. But I recognize that I would never actually wear it, unless it were to a costume party. And it's a moot point anyway, because the largest size is smaller than what I'd want to make, and although I could upsize it, that's just another thing telling me I shouldn't think of making it.)

I graded the first set of Biostats tests early this morning (most people did very well), so now the rest of the day, I think, will be research-reading. And maybe finishing the Hourglass Pullover while I read.