Mid-fall break is approaching (week after next).

I've decided what I'm going to do for it, after going back and forth on various thoughts (the main one being arranging to have new windows installed during that time, but my avoidant nature plus my dislike of spending more than $500 on anything at a time plus the fact that I've been crazy-busy conspired to make it sufficiently late that I could not order AND schedule an install in that time frame. Maybe I'll do it and arrange to have them put in during exam week; hopefully it will not be too cold then).

Anyway, after thinking of that, or of going away somewhere overnight, or doing something totally alien to my nature like camping (I decided I don't enjoy camping enough to spend a rare vacation doing it), I am simply going to do Grand Day Out VII (or whatever it is...I've been doing this since 2001 but with a couple of years off in the middle). I'm going to go to Longview. Because I like Longview. And because it's familiar-yet-different enough. And because it bears the promise of books, yarn, craft supplies, a nice lunch out, and many other things that will make me happy.

And my Grand Day Out will partly be funded by John Wiley and Sons. And by the Macmillan Company. And by W.H. Freeman. Because thanks to textbook reviewing, I have a nice little chunk 'o' change I can enjoy blowing on whatever makes me happy. (yes, yes, I know, I technically said the new dress was bought with those funds but I've decided that as I never spend money on clothes otherwise, that comes from the "previously unused" clothes budget).

So between now and then I need to scan the Ravelry pattern pages, look through my books and magazines, and come up with ideas of things I would want to make if just the right yarn leapt in my path...and come up with a list of books I might want to buy (yes, I know, I can get them off of Amazon, but there's also something fun about buying a book in person). Or start contemplating what would be good to get people for Christmas.

My alternate thought, though I love going to Longview so much that I doubt I would want to displace those plans, is that there's a new yarn shop opened up in a town called Celina in Texas. They claim to be "just minutes from DFW" but I think I could figure out a way of driving there that did not involve either driving through DFW or taking the much-hated-by-me US 35. But again: I am one of those people who craves the familiar, the traditional, so I think Longview has the greatest appeal to me.