And it's Friday

* I am alllllllmost done with the ptr packet. One thing to pick up from my chair today, and I went out early this morning to the Mart of Wal and bought page-dividers for the notebook (one thing I didn't have).

Also, while there, I picked up some peanut butter - one of the "service projects" this year to memorialize MLK, Jr. is to supply a local food bank with peanut butter. The e-mail sent around said they 'rarely' get it, which surprises me slightly - I think of peanut butter as a "cheap easy protein source" and if I'm buying to just do a general donation I usually get either peanut butter, tunafish, or canned chicken, figuring lots of people will go the canned-soup or canned-vegetable route.

Then again: peanut butter is pretty handy. It can be eaten on a lot of things (bread, crackers, celery sticks, even just off a spoon as I often do). Kids like it (as long as there are no allergy issues). It doesn't require refrigeration (I refrigerate mine after opening but that's mostly because my mom always did and it's what I'm used to). You don't have to heat it up and it's fairly portable. And it's a concentrated source of calories. (I know there are some humanitarian groups that use a modified form of peanut butter in disaster or famine relief, to try to build kids who are too thin back up to something approaching health).

Maybe everyone thinks "oh, everyone buys it so I don't need to." I don't know.

I also did take a run through the toy aisles, on the grounds of "maybe you deserve a 'fluster' after completing your packet" but there was nothing. They had ONE Guardians of Harmony figure (Celestia in fighting pose) but I could see there was a factory flaw on the neck or something. They did also have the Library playset from the Halloween episode, and I looked at it but left it on the shelf - no room for something that big, even if it does come with Zecora in her Nightmare Night costume.

I may look tomorrow when I run to Sherman, provided the weather is OK.

* Another finished thing. These are the VERY bright pink (it is one of the limited-edition "Stroll Brights" from KnitPicks, back when neon yarn enjoyed a very brief fad).

They are knit from Knitty's Spring Forward pattern by Linda Welch.

However, I am calling them "pronk socks."

Because they are bright pink - brighter even than Pinkie Pie's mane - and because, well:



Pronking is a real thing. It is that sort of bounce-and-spring locomotion that some antelopes use (I suppose it's fast and probably biomechanically efficient) and also how young sheep and goats play.



These are hard to photograph. Without flash, they're kind of dark, but with flash, the brightness of the pink just takes over:



You can sort of see the lace pattern there. It's a zig-zag lace; one of those patterns that does a frameshift every dozen rows (shifts a half-repeat over). That's what causes the zig-zag; I suspect if you didn't do the frameshift you'd wind up with a spiraling pattern (which I'm now slightly tempted to try - just keep doing rows 1-11 of the pattern which leads to it shifting itself around the leg and I do think it would spiral because of the increases and decreases being slightly offset. And now I really want to try that....hm, maybe I just start another pair of socks; I already have started a pair of "Hermione's Everyday Socks," but I could pull out some unaffiliated sockyarn and give it a try.)

* I'm wearing one of my pairs of new shoes today. I wanted to replace my Klogs but sadly, they don't make (or the store I was in doesn't carry) the mary-jane style I loved so much any more.

(Okay, Zappos has one, but only in black, blue, or red, and I would want brown)

I did buy a pair, though - true clogs (though with a back to them; I find backless shoes don't stay on well). They have VERY thick wedgie soles - not quite 2" thick. At first I hesitated; a podorthist once told me not to wear heels more than about 1 1/2" because I'd hurt my ankles because I pronate. The guy at the shoe place - it's a special, "foot friendly" store and while the clerks aren't podorthists, they are close - reassured me it was probably okay.

So far it has been fine. And I confess, I kind of like feeling taller. I once said that I didn't wear heels because I was "tall enough already," but really, that extra height is kind of nice. (It does give a bit more confidence, which may be why some men wear lifts in their shoes, and perhaps why cowboy boots are worn in some circles).

The shoes are Naples, in the tooled brown leather. (And apparently I could order directly from them? Hm. I may have to consider that seeing as I more or less know what size I need and I really like the mary-jane style shoes, and this brand is sort of hard to find). And these are the most comfortable shoes I've owned - I really loved the pair of mary-jane style ones I have but they've got a bit worn (the toe cap especially) as I've worn them hard for almost two years.

Also, I found out my right foot is "officially" a size 8 (just barely) and my left is a 7 1/2. I guess that's not all that uncommon? I do have to buy 8s though, then, and just deal with them being a little loose on the left. (I'm wondering if damage to my left ankle during my growing-up years may have stunted that foot's growth a little)