Friday morning stuff

* I got the exams graded (and even grades posted, despite my internet access at home briefly tanking JUST as I was logging on to do it) last night. I THINK I will do the papers tomorrow morning early, because....

* Tomorrow is the first two episodes of Season Six of MLP - so it will be after 11 that I can get over to the office (No, I don't have dvr. No, I don't feel like I can afford requesting one, and I don't think I'd use it that much). I admit I'm slightly apprehensive given the previews I've seen and am really hoping that "Princess Flurry Hearts" is not the "Cousin Oliver" of the show. (Also, there's a distinct "YOU HAD ONE JOB" sense to the previews....something, presumably her baby magic, is causing a major blizzard)

* Supposedly Star Hopper is "out for delivery" today (another tiny disappointment: she was supposed to arrive yesterday. Hoping the box comes today)

* I need to get off here (I just finished my Sunday School lesson - that's not paid work, so it's not breakin' the rules to do it today!) and fix some lunch and maybe figure something out fun to do, since tomorrow will be a mostly-work-day.

* A nice story for Holy Week, from Christ and Pop Culture: Mr. Rogers, Officer Clemmons, and foot-washing. I had remarked before about the episode (which I probably saw in re-runs of the show as a kid, but because I grew up in a family where it was more assumed that "people are people" and you decide if you like someone or not based on how they act and not how they look, the idea of a white man and a black man putting both their feet in a pool of water would not have made an impression on me.)

As an adult, it does, both knowing what was going on in the world when the original episode was filmed (1968, a year before I was born) and also knowing of the concept of foot-washing as a Biblical practice....and what Mr. Rogers does at the end of the bit looks very close to it.

Mr. Rogers never really preached things like that with words, but he didn't need to.

I dunno. It's hard to reconcile seeing all the angry people on the news and all the people who do angry things with the fact that I was taught to treat people with kindness and grace* and to love my neighbors. (I talked about cognitive dissonance in re: the furlough days thing the other day, but the whole thing about the anger and "othering" that seems to be increasing vs. my own struggling hard to keep treating people with grace when I'm worried and concerned myself is another source of cognitive dissonance)

(*That does not extent to making myself so vulnerable as to become a victim, and I believe as much as ever that anyone who commits evil against another should be brought to justice)

* The invoice for the page-charges for my article came yesterday (the admin in charge of that - who actually used to teach in my department - said "We'll find a way" to pay for it when I took it over there. It's less than $400 but still.) So hopefully that means the article will be out very soon.

* Decided I'm going to do salmon loaf for Easter dinner. Not quite traditional but salmon is kind of a "springtime" thing, or at least I think of it as such. This has the virtue of being almost entirely off the shelf, and therefore cheap. (I have a little hoard of cans of salmon I bought when Target was closing out the brand I like that I need to start using). Not sure if I'll fix a special dessert of some kind or not.

I also need to do my cauliflower and potato mash this weekend, so I could have the leftovers of that as a veggie, and maybe I run down to the Green Spray and get a bag of spinach (theirs is better than wal-mart's, anyway) and do stir-fried spinach as a second vegetable.

(I know peas are traditional with salmon as well, but I'm not that much a fan of peas, would rather have the spinach)

* I want to do something fun craftwise this weekend. Not sure whether I try to finish the current quilt top I'm sewing, or start the tiny Baymax I found a crochet pattern for (made of sockyarn it's supposed to be only a couple inches tall - I have some off white sock yarn that will work, and if it only takes one 50 g skein, I want to make a second Baymax for someone I know who has been weathering a lot of personal and family medical issues, and sent it to that person). Or maybe I start the Cheerilee I've had yarn and pattern on hand for for over a year.

*Surprising how much the scrambling around to do a little housecleaning before piano last night leads to improved mood today. I am happier in a clean space. My house is never unhygienic but stuff tends to pile up on flat surfaces and stuff gets moved from where it's "supposed" to be.