Wednesday morning things

* I have a blanket policy on my "big" paper that it is **20%** off for every day that it's late. It's right there in the assignment. (I do that on the grounds that "they knew the due date of this thing on the first day of classes, and I've reminded them of it enough times to at least nauseate myself")

But guess what I had waiting for me in my inbox this morning!

A paper, with 'I apologize for the lateness" as the only message. (Well: I don't apologize for deducting the loss-of-points-for-lateness)

The other papers - eh, meh, my decision to not grade them 'til today means I got a couple of the late ones and I can do them all now. I tell students sometimes that if they feel like gambling on late work, they can gamble that I won't grade the thing the very day it's due, but if they get it to me WAY late (like, more than 2 days) there's a nearly 100% chance I will already have graded the thing and they will either get no credit or be severely marked down (depending on the policy for that given assignment). Maybe that's capricious, I don't know, but I do tend to be a LITTLE flexible on things like labs because I get that people derp sometimes, and also, I don't usually FEEL like grading the labs on Wednesday afternoon (when I typically collect them).

* I started a new quilt last night (but just barely: I was going to work up a couple sample blocks but the bobbin thread ran out and I didn't feel like refilling it just then (and it was close enough to dinner time).

The pattern is called Donut Holes. I am doing the "layer cake" option, which has huge blocks (19" finished size - some of them are four-patches made by sewing together four of the 10" layer cake squares, some are "donuts" where you sew wide strips of another fabric around a single square). I don't *love* the color combo on the sample quilt on that pattern (the black is, I think, too contrasty) but I'm using a print that's in the same intensity range as the other prints, so I think mine will look better to me.

It should work up quickly, which is kind of what I need after the multiple months it took me to complete the "birb" quilt. (Which I need to piece together the backing for, and get down to the quilt shop).

* I looked over the book the "birb" quilt came from ("Modern One-Block Quilts") and I see a couple of others I want to make as well - there's one called "Wiggle" that could be a charm quilt (as in: every fabric different) and I have been wanting to do another pink with acid green and brown quilt, and I think I have a piece of deep-pink mottled fabric that would work as the sashing. And then there's another one called something like "scattered candy" that LOOKS random but is actually an orderly arrangement of blocks, and I could totally see using some of the either butterfly-themed fabric, or some little floral prints as the focus fabrics on that. And maybe a brown sashing, like soil, so it will look like a garden. (I don't know. I just *like* the combination of brown and pink)

Maybe that really is a summer goal that is a non-work goal: work down my stash and just make a bunch of the tops I've dreamed of making from time to time. If I put in an hour a day on it I could get a lot done.

(And maybe if I do get that "one time stipend" that's being rumored? Maybe I put that aside  to pay for having a bunch of them longarmed - having a twin-bed sized quilt done is in the vicinity of $100 so if it's what I think it might be, that would be seven quilt tops).

And also maybe do more handquilting. As I said, the "Knickerbocker Glory" quilt in the frame is close enough to done that I can SEE it being done, and I'm already thinking of "next quilts" - either the plus-sign top, of maybe the quilt made of Japanese-inspired lawn fabrics (which I think HAS to be hand quilted, because it's delicate).....

* I suspect I may disapprove of how they chose to write the character of Abby out on NCIS (I am trying not to spoil things; I think most people who watch the show know she's leaving). However, someone on the NCIS fans group on Ravelry suggested a close watching of the "preview" suggested another possibility with a different character leaving in that way and....I'm not so happy about that either.

I mean, yeah, Abby is leaving, but I would like to see it done in a way where she could occasionally do guest appearances (like Ducky being kind of semi-retired).

Though, I don't know. This might be my last season of watching this; it seems a lot of the plots have got very 'didactic' recently (reminding us of homeless veterans, or veterans with health issues, etc.) and while I get that maybe some people need that reminding, I....and I know this sounds churlish but....I kind of like my entertainment as ENTERTAINMENT and not a reminder of how fouled up the world can be.

But yeah, there was a big "NOOOOOOO" out of me at the end of last night's episode, and I know I wasn't the only one.

* I did get the body of Heartthrob nearly finished. And definitely I am going to make a stuffed, G4-ized version of Waterfire (my favorite G3 pony): at the Mart of Wal yesterday, I ducked down the craft aisle (because I had to get somewhere else in the store and the other aisles were full of people) and I spotted one of the "party yarns" (I forget what it's called but it's that one with a thin strand of same-color tinsel wrapping the yarn) in an orangish red....and Waterfire has orange hair with tinsel in it - so that's going to be her mane and tail. And I do have a turquoise in my stash that might work (it's a little lighter, but I think it will be fine). So I guess Waterfire is my next pony stuffie. (And I do still want to make a G4-ized Surprise).