Friday afternoon things

* Slowly approaching "escape velocity." I have the Mary-Quant-inspired dress pattern and the nightshirt pattern (and stitch fabric) already tucked in my suitcase (and my mom's birthday card - I ordered a gift for her, to be sent to her, but I bought a separate card).

I have to think about other projects. Am tempted to just bring some new things to start but I also feel like I should be disciplined and finish the couple pairs of socks I have going, and try to finish Harvest.

* Mowed the lawn this afternoon - supposed to storm all weekend. I do have the son of a friend from church lined up to do it once or twice while I am gone (I will pay him of course). It was VERY humid - dewpoint in the upper 60s. I forget that I have asthma because it is normally so well controlled UNTIL I have to mow the lawn on a humid day and then I am gasping for air. I'm okay now, though, and in a few minutes will wash my hair. (I also set the mower - I use a reel-type mower, so no gas, just my own muscle power - to a lower cut so AJ won't need to come quite so soon).

* I got a fair amount done on the paper. I think it will be just a Note because I am now doubting slightly some of the identifications we did 18 years ago (as in: was it REALLY Lespedeza violacea or could we have confused Lespedeza cuneata - the invasive one that's out there now - with it). I'm still gonna try even though it might get rejected. I'm telling myself I can still count a "try" on my productivity for next year, and who knows, it might be good enough.

I have a hard time with this sort of thing. I do not like working on something and having it come to nothing, and I hate submitting what feels like less than my best possible work because I imagine reviewers/editors thinking "why on EARTH did she think something like THAT was publishable" but then I know lots and lots of people submit stuff that gets rejected (and maybe this is another one of those situations where women academics joke about "God grant me the confidence of a mediocre man" because I have seen some people...not just men...who were Not Great but who had a very high degree of confidence, and I kinda wish I had that kind of confidence.

* I'll have to try to decide whether to take it and work on it. I have all the stuff on a flash drive and I *could* work on it if I get bored.

*  I think I want to work on Ocellus this weekend. Really there's not that much more to do on her, just the various fiddly bits. If she turns out super cute she might be one of my "comfort critters" for when I travel. She is SMOL compared to most of the Ponies I have made, but then, she's canonically smaller.

* Reading away on "The Three Musketeers." I'm getting more into it now, and even though it's a truly huge hardback, I might drag it with me on vacation to read on it. It is funny how some of the basic tropes seep into our culture, but the main storyline (the idea that the King's Musketeers and the Cardinal's are kind of at loggerheads, and they fight....and even kill each other) has been lost. I suppose "court intrigue" is the thing. (And yeah. It surprised me how coldly and baldly they talked about D'Artagnan killing a man, though I guess in his defense, the guy did attack the Musketeers but....I tend to forget how violent life used to (? maybe still is in some quarters) be. I've talked about how I could probably ONLY ever kill someone if I felt my life was directly threatened, and I'm not even sure I could then....if I could disable the person enough that I could safely get away, that would be enough for me (Knee to the groin, not sure how effective that is, but that's what we women were always told in college. Or go for the eyes....)

* I should photograph the incredibly cute tiny treadle sewing machine I got out of a blindbox. I gambled and bought the last few "Modern Girl" blindboxes that Superbuzzy had....I really, really wanted the sewing machine. (I got four boxes. One was shoes, hats, a hat box, and something like a photograph album; another was an old-style (1920s) phone with a phone stand and a purse, another was a small dressing table and some cosmetics, and the very last one was the sewing machine). It's a bit smaller than dollhouse sized (usually 1:12 scale) but it's super cute. (No, Wilbur does not sew, and I think it's a bit small for him, but I might put the phone in his house.)

I guess the "story" behind these was that they were things a Japanese teen/early 20s woman would have had in the 1920s....it's kind of cool to see, from a historical/cultural perspective.

If I ever get more time (and make more space in my house!) I'd like to get into dollhouses again; I had a very detailed roughly-1920s era one when I was a teen and I loved researching what the right accessories and furniture would be. And yes, in a way...it's kind of an imaginary-friends thing (I *always* had inhabitants in my dollhouses, either actual dolls or small teddy bears or toy mice) but also a "this is a thing I have complete control over" and I admit as a tween and teen I took a weird comfort from setting up the house and trying to make sure that the family that lived there was "comfortable" - that there were nice linens on the beds, and they had little books, and a tiny checkers board with beads as the "men" so they wouldn't be bored....sort of a care-taking thing, I guess.

Another thing I did recently: I got to thinking of a book I got out from the (Hudson, this was when I was a kid) public library a lot to look at - called Colleen Moore's Doll House. This is a thing at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, I guess (It may be stored away now and not out on display). It was a Fairy Castle and because Moore was essentially Hollywood royalty in the 1920s, there was nothing held back in the construction of the house (but also, as I remember, it was taken on tour to raise money for a children's charity, too). It had tiny pipes that ran distilled water (to avoid corrosion) and had tiny grain-of-wheat light bulbs....and jewelled furniture, and fascinating fairy-tale themed things. And it was all very beautiful and nice to look at. (But she never had dolls made of the Prince and Princess who lived there....preferring for each person to imagine them).

And I hunted around, and found a used copy for not too much money....it came the other day. And it's as lovely as I remember, and there are some things I had forgotten about the castle.

(Someday I want to see it. I mean, if it's still possible to).

One thing I find I do as an adult is seek out things I loved as a kid (so: this book, and a couple of others I've bought used, perhaps even ex-library) but also things I wanted but didn't have (some of the re-issued Strawberry Shortcake dolls, especially the vintage-style Orange Blossom, and the My Little Ponies that I thought I was too old for when I was a tween....)

There are few enough consolations of adulthood, I think. And anyway, this book was a lot cheaper than shoes or a purse or even a couple of fancy cocktails....

* Edited to add, about 9 pm: I also forgot to note that my laptop now has a NEW BATTERY to replace the old one that failed (I don't know whether it just got old - the laptop is about five years old now - or if I let it drain out to nothing one too many times, or what, but Tuesday it started telling me "something's wrong with the battery" and even though it claimed a full charge, the laptop would shut off immediately I unplugged it from the power cord).

Called a new-ish local repair place and asked. The young man I spoke to said "We're not busy, if you have a moment, bring the laptop in and I can look at it, to be honest, you could probably order a battery off of Amazon..." but I felt like (a) I want to support a local business and (b) I want someone who knows what they are doing to change out the battery.

So he looked at it, snapped a cell-phone photo of the model number of the battery, told me he'd call.

Turns out he called minutes after I left the shop - I didn't notice the message until the next morning but no harm, no foul. For about $40, I could have a new battery with 1 1/2 times the hours-of-charge of the old one. So I called him back, said "Yeah, I'd like that, go ahead and order it." He said it should be in on Friday.

It was. He called midmorning today to say it was in, I ran down there at lunch. Five minutes and it was fixed, he had me power up to be sure everything was copacetic. Nice guy, good service. The place is called Computer Techs though I doubt anyone in my town reads this blog - I'd recommend them. They seem to do most of their business in cell phone repair. (I'm sure if I had a smart phone I'd be getting the screen replaced on the regular; I tend to be clumsy about things like that and drop them. And you can bet I clutched my laptop HARD on the way out of the house, out of the car, and back into the house....I had a mental image of it slipping and smashing on the sidewalk. But I got it back in safely and am happy to be able to operate on battery alone again)