Ten for Thursday

1. It looks like the monarch butterfly migration has begun; they're all over the butterfly-plant garden in the back of my classroom building.

2. They have turned on the heat in my classroom building. Of this, I do not approve.

3. Without realizing it I celebrated Taco Day the other day (Tuesday), because I had some leftover ground bison meat I had cooked up with taco seasoning - I made flour tortillas and had bison soft tacos for dinner.

4. I'm still reading Vere Hodgson's diary about her experiences in the London Blitz. I remain amazed at how people managed to bear up under that - and with a fair amount of cheerfulness and sort of whistling-past-the-graveyard humor.

5. I'm still thinking about Mid-Fall Break. I have to admit the temptation to go to Longview and go yarn-and-book shopping is verra strong. Even though I tell myself that (a) I already have more than enough of both and (b) I should save my money.

6. Maybe I should PM my friend who lives in Shreveport and see if she's up for a meet up. If no, that might suggest a Longview trip is less desirable.

7. Whatever I was so very allergic to has apparently stopped flowering; I feel a lot better PHYSICALLY but also emotionally. (I find the worst and most annoying allergy symptom for me is the sort of low-level "meh" feeling - not having much energy and also being kind of low-level sad all the time). Also my hip bursitis seems to have calmed down again and I can walk and sit without pain.

8. Still thinking of doing a pot of beans and batch of bread this weekend. I might go home early on Friday and do it then, and then plan in on coming in Saturday and working. There's something very cheering about knowing you have good, nutritious leftovers in the fridge and don't have to think too much about cooking during busy weekdays.

9. I started on - but haven't got very far - on crocheting the Friends Forever Fawn pattern up in a pale-yellow yarn, with the goal of making my own cuddly Fluttershy. I think the only mods I will have to do to the pattern are to add a mane and replace the tail with a horse-type tail. And do the face differently (I got the right colors of felt for her eyes on my last trip to JoAnn's). And add a pair of wings, which I think I can probably bodge up from scratch if I think about it a little bit. Years ago I used to design crochet stuff totally from scratch but now with Ravelry et al., I worry about keeping track of what I did in case someone wants the pattern.

10. I also confess I bought a skein of the same acrylic yarn in grey, to eventually do a second pegasus pony out of - to make my own Derpy Hooves (Warning: that site may have a video ad that starts playing shortly after the page loads). Derpy is a background character on MLP, it started as a joke one of the animators did but enough of the adult fans liked Derpy (well, on the show she's apparently called Ditzy Doo) that she may become a more common character. (I think the Derpy Hooves character is the kind of character I would have liked and wanted a toy of as a child - for one thing, I would have felt a little sorry for her, seeing as she is, well, derpy. And also, being a subsidiary character, I would be free to make up my own backstory for her, where she came from, all of that. I always liked the subsidiary characters on some cartoons I watched for that very reason - some flexibility for my imagination there). Incidentally, March 1st is apparently "Derpy Day" where you are supposed to eat muffins (her only on-screen line was "Muffins!" at a party) and make googly eyes at a mirror.