long weekend stuff

* Started reading a book on rangeland hydrology. One of the classes that they were "looking for" someone to teach with the position I applied for was Range Management, which I can't do (my experience is all too far east, and too much wild-lands oriented). But I feel like I want to learn a little bit, at least for my soils class.

This is a book inherited from the guy I replaced - last fall he brought in a bunch of books he was getting rid of and I pulled quite a few I wanted and could use. I notice this one is a uni library book but does not have a "withdrawn" stamp and I wonder if maybe it fell through the cracks and never got returned when he last had it out. I suppose when I'm done with reading it I could take it over there and explain; if it was truly a "missing book" they may be glad to have it back. But as it's about 30 years old, it's probably one that would have been weeded long ago. (Rangeland management stuff doesn't change as fast as many scientific disciplines, so the material in it should still be fairly valid).

* Read a bunch of articles including an interesting one about the idea of using damaged wristwatches as a discussion starter for restoration ecology (it's more complex than that but) and it got me thinking: I believe I have three broken wristwatches around here (one with a shattered crystal, one whose second hand fell off, and another that just quit working and has a back you can't open to change the battery. Yeah, not always so good at throwing stuff away. But I think I'll hang on to them for a bit longer just in case I want to try this some time. It would require getting MORE broken watches or else getting some cheap ones and destroying them. I bet if I wanted to do the exercise, I could put out a call various places and get what I need, though...)

* Big finished thing: Did the last bit of quilting on the long-time quilt in the frame. I made the binding and am slowly doing the handsewing part of it. I see a few places where I pricked my fingers and bled on the quilt and also a few places where it got a bit grubby from being dragged around. I am contemplating if it would be safe to run it on the super-gentle wash cycle (I have done that with machine quilted quilts, no problem) and then dry it....all of the fabrics have been pre-washed but I worry about the quilting getting broken. Maybe I will wash it in the tub and then squeeze it out mostly and machine-dry it, I don't know.

Next quilt is in the frame. Hopefully I can be more disciplined and get this one done faster.

* I also started a new sweater because I needed something super-simple for while reading or for while I invigilate some assessment tests next week. I had bought some Cascade "Greenland" from Webs back when they were closing it out - after I bought the "Knits of a Feather" book. I wanted to make the sweater they called "Raven," which is a very simple ribbed pullover (it's actually a man's sweater, but I find I often make the man-designed sweaters and either make a smaller size, or use a different color....). I wound up with a brown yarn (black is not the best color on me, and anyway, they were out of black). I HAD been thinking that I'd call it my "LBJ" sweater (for "Little Brown Job," a colloquial term some birders use for sparrows and the like that are brownish and small and hard to quickly identify to species). But it's more of a red brown and so maybe it's more of a Carolina Wren than an LBJ.

* I am also thinking it is getting to be Make Another Pony Time so I dug out the yarn and fabric for Maud Pie. I think she will be the next. And after her, maybe Trixie.

As I said, someday I need to take a photo of my entire hand-made Pony Horde because there is an enormous number of them. Not even including the purchased Applejack or Smuglestia or Twilie-of-the-pokey-wings*

(*Really. I bought one of the seated Aurora plushies of Twilight but the problem with these is the wings are some kind of stiff foam, so if you tuck one up under your arm, the wing tips poke into your skin. Not badly but enough for me to find it annoying)

Apparently Aurora is eventually doing a Coco Pommel and even though I found her a slightly bland character on the show, I admit her design is kind of cute, so I might be tempted....though I admit I'd be more tempted to buy a Sugar Belle plushie. Or a Bulk Biceps. But I bet they don't make either of those.