Fairly quiet weekend, but quiet is good. I did have to run out and replace my (workout) tennis shoes* because the ones I had been using have passed their 6 month/500 mile lifespan. (Actually - I probably put more than 500 miles on these; I average 5 miles a day for 4-5 days a week...so even at the lowest rate, that's 80 miles a month)

(*I know, I know, that's not the right term. They're like running shoes or cross-trainers or something. But we (my family and friends) always called any athletic shoes "tennis shoes" when I was a kid, and old habits die hard. "Sneakers" was another alternative, but that seems to me to connote more the simple canvas Keds that really don't offer the necessary support for the kind of workouts I do.

An Edward Gorey sort of word: "plimsolls." I rather like that, it's kind of Britishy and eccentric, but still, "tennis shoes" is where my mind goes first.)

I also found the second season of "My Name is Earl" on dvd and bought it. It's one of the few shows I enjoy watching over and over again, and I missed a lot of last season's episodes, as my life often takes me away from home on Thursday nights. Despite the sometimes crude humor, I think in many ways it's one of the more intelligent and "deep" shows on television.

I also finished the blue-green Stansfield #27 stitch-pattern scarf. Picture will come either late tomorrow or Tuesday; I didn't think to photograph it on before showering and washing my hair, and NO ONE sees me with wet hair.

I've also been picking away at the Snicket socks; they go slowly. I've kind of sussed out the pattern, though, so I don't have to look at it every row to remind myself of what I'm supposed to do. (I just hope they fit when they are done; they do not have much stretch.)

I also baked a batch of Snickerdoodles, using the recipe in September's Cooking Light. I actually doubled the batch; we are having a departmental lunch on Tuesday and based on the number of people (faculty, staff, grad students, and the occasional hanger-on like faculty spouses) that we tend to feed, and the amount of food some people can Hoover down, I figured I needed 40 cookies to take. And the recipe claimed to make 30. And I wanted a few all to myself.

Well, they didn't puff up the way the picture showed them; they're rather flat and crisp and I am not sure why - the recipe called for butter and that is what I used (I know the type of shortening plays a big role in cookie texture), I chilled the dough (which also sometimes helps). I even tried slightly underbaking a pan of the "for me" cookies and they still got all flat. So I don't know. They're still good; they just don't look a whole lot like the traditional puffy Snickerdoodle. (Next time I may try a cooler oven temperature; they said to use 400 and that seems awfully hot for cookies).

It might be that, as is commonly the case, I make the cookies smaller than the recipe-tester did (I think I wound up with close to 80 cookies). But in the absence of directions on how large to make them, I never know.

I also spent some time getting caught up on some accumulated magazines - the knitting magazines I tend to make time for the day they arrive but things like "Midwest Living" and "Better Homes and Gardens" and the cooking magazines I often put aside until I have time.

The holiday numbers are starting to arrive. I'm already marking cookie recipes I want to try. And I noted a couple of small, inexpensive gift-type items for various people. (I am buying a rather grand and large and extravagant "joint gift" for my brother and sister-in-law, but I still want to give them each some small, cheap, fun thing - $10 or less).

(And seeing the German-style Christmas market in Chicago made me a little sad; I wish I had a chance to go to something like that. But it's too far, and I'm sure once I get to my parents' for Christmas I won't want to do additional traveling. But I might try making a batch of the "kinder" form of Gluhwein [you make it with apple juice rather than wine; I have learned that I cannot drink EITHER red or white, both give me migraines. And no, not from overimbibing - a half glass of even a fairly sweet white wine can give me a headache within a half hour. I suppose I'm allergic to the remnants of the "noble rot" or whatever]. Maybe I even will make it to take over to school closer to the holidays - since it's nonalcoholic, it would not be breaking any campus rules. ["kinder" as in German for "children," not in the sense of being more kind. I realize that when you're reading you don't know if that's a "long" or a "short" i])