news we need

Horsey McHorseface won a horsey mchorserace.

Yes, it's silly. But it makes me happy. (And my own mini-Horsey McHorseface is cheering. And, hm, maybe my OC Horsey McHorseface has to be from the Equestrian equivalent of Australia - Horsetralia? And maybe Ocker Strine - another made-up pony I came up with but never attempted to draw or crochet - is either an older brother or a cousin or something.)

Other than that: I'm plugging away at the chapter on pollution. I'm learning a bit more about how civil courts in the US operate, and the idea of being able to sue a corporation for violating your right to "quiet enjoyment" of land you own. (But the little guy doesn't always win, that seems to be clear. And also, there have been cases of developments being put up places where perhaps they shouldn't - like near a feedlot - and then the new development suing the existing feedlot out of business, which doesn't seem quite right, and I guess "possession" in the sense of being-there-first isn't always 9/10 of the law).

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And concerning Charlotte's suggestion: it's a good idea, but the frames are all too shallow/narrow for the big Gen 1 Ponies to be able to stand on. Yes, they might work for the blindbag sized ones, but I already have ways of displaying those.

For now, the top-of-bookshelf arrangement works, but I do eventually want to invest in proper "collector" shelves and move stuff around in my bedroom to make space for them.

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Tomorrow I am taking the day off. Apparently there are no WWKIP events near me, so I will just knit in private (as usual) and do what I want here at home.

I pulled out a long-stalled project - last year I stared the Scottish Thistle Shawl and got partway on it before putting it aside. (I am knitting it of old Lorna's Laces - Purple Iris is the color - and I'm HOPING the breaks I found in the yarn are just remnants of the old carpet-beetle infestation I had for a while and not that this is a weak batch of yarn that's going to break all over the place. I will have to block VERY carefully when it's done.

I also want to start some new socks. I have actually been wearing socks pretty much every day with slacks over to work - no, it's not too hot, and I discovered that the current pair of Birkenstocks give me blisters if I wear them sockless. So wearing socks more regularly cheers me into wanting to make more. I have  a ball of a Biscotte & Cie. self-striping yarn called "Apple's Heart" (yes, a name that makes me think of Ponies makes me want to buy it more - this is a pretty one, though, white and red stripes, with a pale yellow-green stripe with black flecks (seeds!). I'm thinking of doing a VERY wide rib, like maybe a 7 x 1 rib on it, after doing the top ribbing. I don't know.

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Confession: I'm really loving not teaching this summer. I hope it's not hard going back to "regular work" where I have to be somewhere at a certain time when fall (well, really, the tag-end of August) comes. Then again: maybe this tells me it's time to be done with taking on the extra work of regular summer classes and just budget a little tighter and take the summer to work on research and update my teaching stuff and maybe take on a research student or two.