Friday afternoon I ducked out early (after my classes ended), on the grounds that Saturday morning I was meeting with my research student and that counted as "work obligations" and so I was taking my comp time. (I am getting more adamant about claiming "comp time" during the week if I'm expected to do things outside of the normal 40.2 hours or whatever I'm officially contracted for. We have a couple of all-day Saturday obligations coming up this school year, so - I want there to be a precedent that I don't work a full six days a week.)
I went to Sherman to do the shopping I wanted to do.
Trip to JoAnn Fabrics:
Flannel for two more pairs of sleep/casual at home shorts. (I wear pajamas not just to bed; I very frequently, when I know I'm home for the day, change out of my work clothes and into something pajama-like, and most of the year, shorts are the best bet). I wanted the Wonder Woman fabric - I had seen and considered it last time, but figured it was better to just make one pair of shorts to be sure they worked and I liked them. And then I saw the deer fabric, and it was super cute, and I had a "20% off your entire purchase" coupon, so.... These might be my Labor Day Weekend project, I just have to wash up the fabric first.
I also picked up some yarn I really liked and started a hat with it: "Lion's Pride Woolspun" from Lion Brand. I'd never seen this before but it's a mostly-acrylic (some wool, so it can use the name) yarn, one of those different-color-plied yarns. The one I got is called "Moss Mix":
This is just a simple 4 x 4 rib hat - free pattern from Ravelry called the Chucko Hat (the yarn is a chunky weight, not a worsted).
I also ran to the Ulta and one of the things I bought was a new Pacifica "7 Free" (so: "Less directly toxic to you and perhaps less likely to cause long-term damage") nail polish:
The color is called "Tourmaline" - a very dark purple, though I wonder if it was intended more as a topcoat as it's thinner than many polishes. But: it is closer to Twilight Sparkle color than the Twilight-Sparkle themed nail polish I bought by China Glaze.
And yes. This color is kind of a departure for me, because I go kind of traditional pink-red color families, but I sort of like it.
I doubt I'll ever work up to poison green or even leaf-green colors, but purple I can do.
I also went to the natural-foods store and to the Kroger. But then when I got home, things kinda went south - putting stuff away in the kitchen, I bent down to pick something off the floor, overbalanced, and instead of falling, grabbed the handle on my oven.
It snapped off. The plastic endcaps broke. Granted, they were old (the stove was in the house when I bought it 17 years ago) and I bet the plastic kind of perished. And I"m not exactly tiny. But it meant a lot of agony trying to find a replacement. I don't even know still WHEN the oven was made (I was hoping to find that factoid with the model number) but it's still a good oven and I object to replacing things that still work if they can be repaired. After calling around a bit (nothing is ever simple) I got the local repair shop (which doesn't actually send out repair people any more, but whatever) and the guy said he'd look up the model number and see if parts could be had.
Well, closing time passed, and I figured that meant I waited until Monday to find out - but he called back about a half-hour after their closing: he found a set at a warehouse in Alabama, for $40, and if I wanted he could order them.
Well, $40 is less than the cost of a new stove, so, yes.
Unfortunately, as I said, they don't have dudes you can hire to do the repairs, but it seems like it's taking out a bolt with a star-head screwdriver (SIGH), so if I can find or borrow a bit of that shape, I can use my drill (which I think is better; my hand strength these days is not as great as it used to be and it might make a better repair).
I hope this works. If it doesn't? I can't figure out an adequate kludge. I can't glue the old ones; they are both in several pieces (which is why I think the plastic perished) and I'd have no way to attach the metal bar that is the handle. So I don't know. I guess if the pieces don't fit I see if I can find a repair guy elsewhere and call him (or her, I suppose) out to take a look and figure something out. Failing that.... I tap into my emergency fund and get a new stove. (But not an induction cooktop one because I don't also want to have to buy new cookware, though some of mine might work)
But yeah. That was suboptimal.
Saturday morning was spent going out in the field with my student (and her boyfriend) to find the sites that I sampled back in 2000 with an earlier set of research students. We found one of the sites perfectly; I am not so sure about the others. We were going by the old GPS coordinates and I KNOW that was before some of the "scrambling" was turned off, and they may be less accurate.
But I admit: I got so hot and sweaty wandering around out in the field staring at a GPS unit and going "Maybe a few more meters to the north....no, wait, now we have to go west..." that I kind of gave up and I think I'm going to try typing the coordinates into something like Google Earth and see if it gives me an aerial photo of the point, to give me a better idea of where we were supposed to be. (It is also possible one of the sites was destroyed in the flooding of 2007 or 2015).
After getting home and a rare fast-food lunch (the fries were so salty and so good), I did a few other things....Washed the laundry and made my bed with clean sheets, and I also framed and hung up the most recent "commissioned fanart" I got - a drawing of Mabel Pines reading:
I also find a good place (near that) to hang up the glass "wind chime" that came in a past Doki Doki crate - because it was glass, I figured it was better inside (and in a low traffic place) than outside.
I had also ordered a Merida doll (yes, my fashion doll empire grows). She came today. I can't quite get used to Amazon making (?) the USPS deliver on Sundays, but if it helps keep the USPS afloat? I guess that's fine. I wouldn't want to work Sundays but maybe they have a different delivery crew on?
I had wanted a Merida doll but couldn't find one with ideal jointing (like the Rapunzel doll I have has). This one has jointed arms, so that part is proper, but her legs are that rubbery stuff with the click-click knees in it like the old Barbies. I prefer the knees with actual joints, even though they are visible. (And her ankles aren't joined, and I suspect those funny little slipper shoes she is wearing will fall off easily: I can imagine these showing up a lot in the future in places like resale shops missing their shoes). Her hair, also....there's a lot of something like "product" in it to hold the curls and it's kind of crunchy. Not sure how I feel about that....but at least I have a Merida doll now.
Today, I had church (as usual) and Wesley Center board meeting.
And I realized something, sitting in church: lots of people had offered to pray for my dad during this past 10 days or so. (And he is doing much better now: working on rehab with the plan of going home some time soon). And I also realized: almost none of these people, absent a couple people at church or one or two of my colleagues, had ever even met my dad. But because they knew me and cared about me, they did it.
And I need to remember that. Sometimes I get into this terrible mindset - probably related to memories of being an unpopular and somewhat-bullied kid in school - that "no one really cares that much about me, I am at best a subsidiary friend, the person they call when all their A-list friends are busy" but that's really not true.
I also think of the lady from AAUW this summer who made a comment along the lines of "If someone I knew said something against Erica, well, I'm not a violent person, but I'd want to hurt them" and I openly admit hearing that kind of thing is surprising to me, again given my mental image of myself as an unpopular kid, because I think somewhere in my mind I had linked "unpopular with at least some people" with "somehow lacking in worth" and yeah, some rude people's judgements shouldn't count (and this woman's judgement, I do count: she's someone with lots of life experience and is an ordained minister and is someone I think highly of, so.... the fact that she said that about me struck me)
(And I need to remember that in the coming weeks. Sadly, in one of my class there are a couple of slightly giggly dudebros who sit in the back and seem....amused....at my enthusiasm for the topic of the class. Well, guys, I'm sorry, but part of my job is to be enthusiastic about this stuff, to maybe convince you all it's worth while. But I can see them causing me to suffer a bit of Imposter Syndrome again, and that kind of stinks)
All that said? I could have used another full day this weekend to recoup :(
I do have a shorter day tomorrow and have plans to just leave campus at 3 when my office hours end; tomorrow night is the start the new-day, earlier in the evening (6 pm not 6:30) bell choir. At least I have a dinner ready to go - I made yet another batch of that savory cabbage pancake I like last night and I saved half of it over so I'd have something quick to fix for dinner tomorrow.
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