It was quiet

I once said that adult birthdays are a bit of a cheat, and I stand by that. The pattern that gets set up in childhood (someone bakes you a cake, maybe you get a party and balloons and a new toy, or you get to go out to a restaurant for dinner) don't really continue into adulthood. Though I would argue with its greater level of responsibility, and, or at least I think, greater number of disappointments that must be cheerfully swallowed, perhaps adults NEED balloons on their birthdays more than children do.

Though mine really wasn't so much of a cheat. True, there was no restaurant meal, and I actually wound up finishing off some leftovers. But I had lots of cards - someone on the Completely Pointless and Arbitrary Group arranged for lots of the members to send me a birthday card, so I had all kinds of sweet/funny/cute/random cards. (I got one with Pinkie Pie on it and lots of glitter. And someone else drew me a chibi-style Fluttershy on a handmade card. And I got one declaring "Now that you're 12...." because we frequently joke about "being 12," given some of the humor on there. And cards with kitties on them. And cards with pretty landscapes.) So that was nice, and I might have another card or two dribbling in over the next few days.

I also got a red three quart enameled Dutch oven, like I asked for. (It wasn't too much of a surprise; I pretty much guessed when a box from a restaurant-supply company showed up on my doorstep a week or so ago). And I got some yarn from a friend. And I got a stuffed toy jacaklope from a blogreader. And my mom sent me a box of "goodies" - some unsalted pistachio nuts, and some chocolate dipped walnuts, and some dried fruit, and a bar of hazelnut chocolate, and she also somehow managed to find a sodium-free dry chicken bouillon (I did not know such a thing existed). And I had ordered myself a dvd copy of the fairly-recent version of Sense and Sensibility to watch when I'm done with the novel, and that came.

OH and I almost forgot: a couple of my Rav friends bought patterns for me. That's a thing now, you can buy a pattern .pdf for someone and have it sent to them. One of the ones that I got was the Sea Pony pattern (that's the designer's Etsy shop). I know the Sea Ponies (which were in what, generation 3? of My Little Ponies) get some hate from the current fans (they were kind of insipid characters, I guess; mainly they are known for singing "Shoo-bee-doo, shoop, shoo-be-doo"). But I think the pattern is sort of cute. And after I received it, I realized, the perfect Sea Pony to make: grey, with a yellow mane and yellow, slightly unfocused eyes. And she shall be named "Bubbles."

As the pattern author states: their shape makes them strangely comforting to hold. Which is something I need some days. 

(Though really, first, I need to do the Vinyl Scratch ami pony I've been contemplating for some months)

I'll maybe take photos of the birthday stuff this afternoon.

I did work a bit on the back of the CPH. I'm getting close (like, maybe another repeat of the pattern or two) to the point where I have to start working the armholes. So now I have the problem - do I figure out something new for invigilating the exam Monday? Or do I count on being able to do the necessary concentration on the bind-offs for the armholes? (I probably could just go and start one of the fronts; I think I have a second circular needle in the size needed, and at any rate, the deep ribbing is done on a smaller needle).

I'm also still working on the Appaloosa socks. I had finished the first and started the second, got the ribbing all done on the second and went to start the stitch pattern, and realized "this isn't working" and then realized that I had done the ribbing as k2,p2 (which is standard for me on "plain" socks) instead of the k3,p1 I had done on the first sock to make the pattern flow seamlessly from it.

I briefly thought of the so-called "running horse" rule for dealing with mistakes: that if someone couldn't detect it as a mistake if you were wearing the item on a running horse, you didn't really need to fix it. But then I decided that it would bother ME even if no one else noticed, so I ripped it all out and started over. I'm about half done with the "replacement" ribbing.