Yesterday afternoon and evening, I graded:

23 ecology lab reports
20-odd (odd because a few people skipped handing in and I'm not sure how many) biostatistics homeworks
35 general bio exams (oy.)

I finished all of these around 7 pm or so, give or take a few breaks here and there.

So I pulled out the Rosy Fingered Dawn shawl I started several weeks ago and worked a bit more on it. In the process, I got out the new set of bamboo dpns I bought on my last trip to JoAnn's (gotta reward the stores, I say, for carrying good products. And besides, I knew I could use them). Soon it will be time to switch to a circular needle, which will make in-progress shots a bit more tricky.



I'm almost done with Chart A of the pattern. (I have two rounds to go). As in the Hiawatha Shawl, another Hazel Carter pattern I knit, she names and attaches meaning to all the patterns. This is the Fingers of Dawn and the Dewdrops. (This shawl has a Greek Mythology theme, with panels representing the four winds and other personifications of climatological phenomena)

Lace knitting is good for calming and ironing out the mind. Oh, true, I wouldn't recommend it when you're extremely tired or extremely agitated, but when you've had a busy day but still have some alertness left and want to relax, it's a good thing.

I will have to remind myself to be like the tortoise on this one; slow and steady wins the race. (Or even slow but not so steady; it's mainly fighting the "but I will never finish this" feeling that is the problem)

***

I doubt I'm going clothes shopping this weekend. There are two good reasons for this:

1. It's supposed to rain like stink here. We got a preview of it yesterday afternoon. One of those downpours we get that can dump a couple inches of rain in an hour. It's extremely unpleasant to drive in, and is hazardous to be out on the interstate in, so it's best to avoid any unnecessary driving.

(I did go out to the afternoon meeting in it. Disappointing, really, because we didn't quite have a quorum and couldn't officially DO anything.)

2. I have another textbook chapter to evaluate (so if and when I do eventually go clothes-shopping, I will have more money to spend.). The person I worked with earlier this summer e-mailed me and said that my work on the first chapter was helpful and wanted to know if I had time to do another chapter. While it would be NICE to have that time as free time, it's really hard to pass up a shot at what is essentially consultant-scale wages for a few hours' work.

But the real reason is, as I said, it's work I enjoy. I feel like I'm maybe rooting out a few bits of error or obscurantism in potential textbooks. I am pretty good at being critical of writing (especially writing that is not my own). And I tell myself, maybe it makes the textbooks a little more readable for the students, so maybe they get their money's worth a little bit more. (Though textbooks are outrageously expensive these days. And yes, don't point out that my "consulting fees" may add to the price; based on an unfortunate stats book I had back as a beginning grad student, the publishers NEED someone willing to go over these things with a fine-toothed comb)

And besides, the editor complimented me very much in her remarks. ("was very complimentary"? I can never remember right off the top of my head the correct spelling for a compliment, versus that of a thing given free.) So it's kind of hard for me to say no to something that someone thinks I'm good at.