Yes, I'm done

I still can't quite believe it. All the grades have been handed in, the research tasks have been done, the manuscript review is done and in the mail. I even got all the leaves raked up out of my yard.

And this afternoon, I cleaned house. (I can't say I CLEANED ALL THE THINGS because I didn't; my room is still kind of a mess but that's ok; some of the mess is piled up folded laundry that awaits my decision in a day or two of what I want to pack. I'm trying to pack light (hah, we'll see if that works) so I might have more time for bringing back presents in my suitcase.)

But the house is MOSTLY clean, including the kitchen floor, which ALWAYS bugs me, because it's a white tiled floor, and honestly, I think I could scrub it every day and it would never look "clean enough" to me.

And I finished the first of the Ty-Dy socks, and started another silly Japanese-style amigurumi. I may take pictures, at least of the sock, tomorrow and post them.

And I found all the patterns I want to take up with me to work on, including the one for the Miss Marple shawl, and I located the four skeins of Silk Garden Sockyarn for the shawl. And picked out a bunch of critter patterns (and not-critters that are like critters: the Mochimochi book has a pattern for a softie television, and I'm taking that pattern with me).

I'm really ready for this break.

And now, I'm grateful I didn't plan my travel to be running out tonight - which would be my usual MO. Because I might wind up stuck in St. Louis; I have no idea how bad it is in Illinois but a friend who has a daughter living near Milwaukee said she called and said everyone was snowed in and they were telling people not to go out on the roads, and the minister of the church I belong to is stuck in Minneapolis - he had flown to Alaska to attend a funeral, and he got caught in the storm coming back. (Fortunately, his wife is also an ordained minister, and she was able to put together a sermon for today on <24 hours notice).

But it looks like by the day I travel, it should have moved out, and even be safe for (sigh) buses. (Yeah, I'm not terribly happy about being bused from St. Louis to Bloomington, but at least it's (a) during the day (I still remember the agony of that overnight bus trip where I didn't really sleep at all because (a) it was loud and (b) there was no way to sit comfortably, as they were more like city buses than long-distance buses) and (b) the buses they are using are apparently the more-plush tour-bus type buses (at least, that's what my mother says she has seen arriving at the train station near them. And also, by the time I come back, the track work will be done, so I won't have to mess with it on the return trip).