Friday, February 24, 2012

It's the weekend

(Well, almost: several hours of office hours, one of which should be spent writing on a manuscript, and two hours of class, and then I'm done 'til Monday).

I do have to go renew my driver's license today. I was going to do it yesterday (it expires the end of this month and I've been warned about what a WHAARRGGGARBLLL PAIN it is if you let it expire). (And the tag office is supposed to be open today, I checked - I know in some states government offices are closed Fridays). But then I had grading to do, and I got home, and I was in the shower washing my hair when I remembered what I had planned. Oh well. Maybe I can couple getting the license with grabbing lunch out today and going to look at the quilt shop/yarn store.

I also started cleaning my house last night. (I had not done so - well, not other than the minor necessary things like cleaning the kitchen floor - for several weeks). It was BAD. I'm going to try to finish this afternoon because I always twitch a little when my house is a mess - "what if someone comes over unexpectedly? What if I break my ankle and someone has to help me hobble back into the house after I've had a cast put on?" The problem with this semester's schedule in re: cleaning is that there's really only one day a week (Friday) when it's not super-late when I get home, or when I have to be back out later in the day. So practicing piano takes precedence over cleaning.

Tomorrow is Crafty Ladies but I think after that's done (at noon) I am going to make a trip down to Sherman. I realized as I worked on the Big Stupid Rectangle that I may have misjudged the amount of yarn it will take, and I want to get one more skein (I hope Hobby Lobby still has it in stock...). Also, it's been a while since I've been to Target, and there are a few things they sell I want to get. And I can do my grocery shopping down there.

I also want to look for yarn for another toy project. I bought the Plinky and Plunky pattern (I love those sort of anthropomorphized-object stuffies, and also it's a PIANO). Not sure what color to use. I don't think I want to do the traditional black, because that would be kind of plain, and also, the eyes wouldn't show up well. I'm torn between finding a pretty brown (some pianos have a nice rosewood type finish) or going with something kind of wild and garish (I was thinking powder blue with sparkly bits) and then naming the resulting toy Liberace. Because I can. (I don't even know for sure what Liberace's real first name was...I've heard of him being called "Lee" but somehow I don't think that was his actual given name). I suppose the piano bench could be his brother George.

(It's funny how that "I wish my brother George was here" joke is one I only know second-hand - never actually saw any show with Liberace on it where he said it, but do know it from Looney Tunes cartoons. It's actually interesting to contemplate how much mid-century culture and history I learned from those cartoons - a lot of the stuff our history classes never really got to because time ran out ("World War II, people: Germany was bad, Japan was bad, we fought with Britain and Russia...oh, there's the bell!") I wonder if some of the "cultural divides" we see now - where some of the younger generations don't get certain jokes and stuff - is a result of the Looney Tunes cartoons (I mean the original ones, the ones that were shown in theaters in the 40s and 50s) aren't shown much on television any more. It's interesting to think that the cartoons my parents watched when they went to the theater as kids and teens were the same ones I saw on Saturday mornings on tv as a kid - and that we had those things in common, we knew a lot of the same jokes and the same references. I wonder what cartoons are big with kids right now. (I mean, actual kids, not "overgrown kids" like me who like My Little Pony or Adventure Time as adults)


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