It's my Friday

Yeah, today is my Friday because tomorrow is assessment testing, and I am not on-tap to have to do anything. And extra good: I can leave today any time now, because all the data from the cricket lab have been collected - several of the students in that class are also in my morning class today, and we ran short, so they went in after class and took care of all of it, even cleaned up.

And I'm kind of proud of them for stepping up and doing all of it. I said "I'll be here until 3 today" by which I REALLY meant "if you guys don't do this by 3 I'll have to" but now I don't. (I also posted a note on the class webpage in case anyone was going to drive in here to do it so they won't now). And it looks like we might have gotten interesting results, so maybe it was worth the effort and little bit of cash on my part (And no, I have not heard from the corporate office yet, nor do I expect to)

But now....now I am done for three days. (Honestly: if I could have a three-day weekend every week, I'd be reasonably content to work longer hours during the other four days. One day for running errands, one day for fun, and a full day for Sabbath (though my Sabbath typically also includes some mild fun in the form of reading or knitting or sewing)).

I do need to run to the bank. My plan is to get cash out of savings to fund this trip. (I know, but....I will have some expenses coming up. I don't know if I mentioned it but I "met" (over the phone) the owner of the house to the south of me. He and his wife live in Colorado; it was his childhood home, they rent it out. After a string of bad renters (the last few have been merely noisy but a number of years ago one was being sought by the FBI - the agent actually gave me his card and everything and told me that if I saw them at home, to call him. I never DID see the people after that, so....) they are fixing up the place to try to get better renters. Which includes the shared side of the garage being painted, and he wanted me to go halfsies. It will cost about $165, which seems eminently reasonable and I'm going to hire the painter to do some repairs and work on the REST of my garage - yes, I want to side it eventually but that might not be for a few years yet). Also I have to get the tree-trimmers out this fall and that will get pricey.)

So anyway. I want to keep the more-liquid checking account higher so I can take care of that as needed.

But yeah. I've decided I do "deserve" (FSVO "deserve"*) the big Toblerone trip to Whitesboro so I am going. (Saturday they are having a Peanut Festival, which I'd rather avoid - I don't like crowds and I'm bordering on a peanut allergy now so there's not much I'd be able to eat at that). So Friday will be the day. The yarn shop is even having a "Rhinebeck Consolation Sale" for those of us who never get to go to Rhinebeck...

(*For we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, so we don't really DESERVE anything all that good, arguably. And yes, I've maybe become a bit more Calvinist in the past few years than I once was)

I'm looking at my Ravelry patterns recently acquired for ideas....maybe get a small amount (440 yards of laceweight IS small) of laceweight for The Knoll Shawl (Or maybe I get more and make a wider/longer shawl - it looks like an easily-customized pattern - because I have broad shoulders and require a bigger shawl).

Or the new Knit Simple (this being the US version, the replacement for Family Circle Easy Knitting, which went by the unfortunate acronym FCEK) has a shawl that takes three balls of Kidsilk Haze or comparable. (I can't remember if Quixotic still sells Rowan or not but if they do....I might get some of that).

Or hats: there are two slightly-goofy hat patterns I got copies of:

The Soft Hat which would HAVE to be either blaze-orange or caution yellow, so I'd have to choose colors carefully (I think that was free when I grabbed it! Some designers do that). It takes a dk, so if I can't find what I want at Quixotic, maybe I stop in at Balanced Skein on the way home...

or.... Leatherhead, which mimics the old football helmets from the days of "Concussion? What's a concussion?" It's crocheted and takes 200 yards of a bulky weight....that one might be fun to make, especially if I can find the old "worn leather" color in a yarn.

Yeah, I'm in a better mood now. Part of it is that I am looking at a couple days of relative freedom-to-do-what-I-want but part of it is that classes went more happily today. Turns out one of my Policy and Law students is doing an internship in the very topic our discussion was about, and she had a lot of insight to share with the class. And I got a laugh out of my notoriously-shy intro class; I was talking about how I think "mitosis and meiosis" are "unfortunately named" and went on to say "Well, not 'unfortunately' in the sense that you will giggle at them if you are secretly 12 inside like I am" (which got the laugh, and I'm glad, and if I cover TATA box this year - if the new book has it - I'll have to tell them "This is the unfortunately-named thing I was referring to earlier") but that they are "unfortunately named" because the names have literally no hook to anything we know, and they're similar, so they're incredibly easy to confuse.

(Mitosis comes from the Greek word for "thread," presumably because DNA is threadlike until it condenses down. Meiosis is from the Greek word for "lessening" or "less," I suppose because it reduces the number of chromosomes exactly in half  BUT WITHOUT KNOWING ANCIENT GREEK YOU WOULDN'T KNOW THAT.

I had to look it up. I know a LOT of Latin roots, having been a spelling-bee geek back in the day and from my science background, but much of Greek is, well, Greek to me. (I know a few words of New Testament Greek but they are entirely theologically related....)

I remember when I first started in biology (back around 13 or so) I had a really hard time keeping mitosis and meiosis straight by the names, and I admit, if I were Queen of Everything, I'd rename them to something that made a bit more sense and was not so easily confused...

So anyway now my plans for the rest of the day are:

- get together a quiz and at least part of an exam for early next week
- go to the bank for cash
- maybe do the workout I was too sore to/didn't want to get out of bed for this morning (I did tell myself "you could do this Saturday morning instead" and I still might, but)
- finish piano practice
- relax this evening
- maybe make a shopping list of patterns I might want to seek out yarn for just in case.

I might also go to a few other stores (in Sherman) and see if I can knock out a bit of Christmas shopping, though it's also possible this year will be a "order out of catalogs" year for gifts, too.

I'm thinking of getting a sweatshirt for my mom or sister-in-law, and if I can find a set of Guinness pint glasses (presuming he still partakes, I don't know for sure) get those for my brother. And if I can figure out a good but not horrendously expensive* anthology of poems for kids, get that for my niece along with some small toy. Not sure about my dad but maybe I will 'know it when I see it.'

I might also look at books; most of my family love books (though my dad's eyes are bad enough that he is mostly precluded from reading for fun now.)

(*Folio has a lovely one, but it's like $75, and our spending limit for gifts is $40 or so per person, so....I can't quite justify doing it)

And y'know what? It's NOT too early for me to be thinking of Christmas. It makes me happy. No, I won't be putting my tree up for almost another month, but thinking about gifts for people I love makes me happy, and feels like a more worthwhile use of shopping than just buying for myself is, so I'm gonna do it. And if when I'm out and about I see any decorations out for sale yet, and something attracts me, I'm getting it. This year has been (as I've said of, what, the previous three years?) enough of a tire-fire that turning inward a little and focusing on the sweet, the colorful, the glittery, the bright, and the good has a strong attraction for me.