Tuesday morning stuff

* Talking about DNA synthesis as a step prior to mitosis in class today, I said, "And at the end of this, the DNA has been doubled!" And then I immediately smiled to myself.

No, no one else got it, that I could see. And I did not use the Royal Canterlot Voice. But any day I can sneak a Pony reference into class is a good day for me. (This is not the class with the gigglers in it; I'd be more leery of doing something like that in that class)

* I guess I must be living right. My appointment with the tax lady is this afternoon. I had been worried about making it so early as one of the places I do business is notoriously slow at sending the year-end statement. Well, it came in the mail YESTERDAY so now I think I have everything she will need.

I think this is one of the best investments I've made recently in my own well-being, to outsource the doing of my taxes. For one thing: someone who knows their stuff is doing it, not me. So the possibility of something being screwed up is almost nil, and if the IRS has questions, the tax place will deal with them for me.  For another: I don't have to drag the paperwork along on Spring Break and spend a day or two fighting a Schedule D, or worse, the Schedule K-1 forms. (Long story short: I inherited a bunch of stocks and stuff from a grandparent, and while I will appreciate all of the accounts come retirement, right now it's mostly a headache because I have to do taxes on it but I am not "allowed" (that is, I don't allow myself) to touch the money.)

My dad does this now too. (How I wish he had when my brother and I were kids; there was more than one spring break we spent tiptoeing around, having to be "quiet" because our dad was doing taxes. And I remember at least one year when the planned spring break trip was cancelled because he couldn't get them done earlier. And I remember the annual purchase of the JK Lasser "Tax Guide to College Professors." (And I remember now laughing and cringing when I watched "A New Leaf" and saw Walter Matthau's newly-domesticated Henry Graham reading this, so he could help Henrietta with her taxes....)

* I dragged out a long-stalled pair of socks and worked on them - the Copper Penny socks from the Knitting Socks from Handpainted Yarn book. (it's a Nancy Bush pattern, but is far less complex and involved than some of hers). I'm now on the foot of the second sock, which pleases me - I want these done. I may not finish them this week but could take them with me over break....they would surely get finished then.

One of the things I love about my hobbies, that is not true of every hobby out there - you can leave a project for months or even years, and if you had decent notes on where you stopped, you can go right back to it and finish it. So if you stall out on something, you put it away....I think the most recent quilt top (which I still have to post here but will have to wait because it seems like Celestia is withholding the sun from us in a fit of pique over the time change) took me so long because it was so many of the "same" fabrics, and such pale colors, and I just would get bored with it....until I reached the point of being "close enough to done" and I was able to finish it.

* I also got yarn for a Nessie amigurumi (this one is crocheted; I already have a knitted one) that I plan to take with me. A nice, "swampy" green (Lion Brand Heartland in the color called Everglades. And now I see they have a colorway called "Cuyahoga Valley.". I almost feel like I need some of this for a sweater, seeing as I grew up within a short drive of there and actually did a lot of hiking there. (I miss being near there. It was such an interesting and diverse place).

I have reached the point of vastly preferring acrylic (or other synthetic) yarn for stuffies. I have  a few - including my knitted Nessie - that I made of wool, and periodically, I have to check them on their shelves for damage. I am not sure WHAT it is but something gnaws on wool that's not closed up in some kind of a container (possibly carpet beetles. I thought I had got rid of them but maybe you can't ever). So with acrylic, nothing will eat it, and it will last longer. Not as nice to knit with but it's actually better for crocheting because it tends to hold its shape better, and for most crocheted amigurumi, you want them to hold their shape, all the shaping is in the crocheting rather than the stuffing.