Friday evening things

 * When I was home today for lunch I took a quick stash-dive and I did find a skein of cranberry-colored Wool-ease that coordinates well enough with the red stripes in the hat, so I'll use that to make the fingerless mitts for my mom (once I finish my niece's cowl. And I also have the potholders to make for the AAUW gift)

* And AAUW met last night - the November meeting (the gift is needed next month). We were going to play Bunco (not my favorite and I might have skipped were I not recording secretary for the business meeting) but because of a couple people traveling, there weren't enough to make even two tables for Bunco (ideally you have three), so instead we had the business meeting and then addressed the postcards advertising the children's play in April - something the person in charge of the advertising might have had to do herself. I admit I think I enjoyed that more than I do Bunco, which tends to be loud and chaotic and when I'm tired at the end of the day I don't want to play a loud game that requires a certain level of concentration. 

* I took down the Halloween wreath and the doormat; I put a wreath with autumn leaves and my gnomes-holding-pumpkins doormat out. Probably next weekend I will decorate for Christmas (because the following weekend I will be on my way for Thanksgiving) but for a little while I'll have these out. (Or I wait to do Outdoor Christmas stuff - which takes little time to put out - until after Thanksgiving.)

I haven't put away the indoor stuff yet; that's a little more involved, and I also want to live the moon-phase garland up (which could be fall just as much as halloween) for a while yet.

* I've been reading "Dracula" recently. I bought the big Folio Society edition earlier this year. I know I read it in high school (freshman year, I think?) and liked it. Re-reading it I realize it's more complex than I remembered and does that multiple-narrators-and-probably-not-all-of-them-reliable thing like what Willkie Collins did. I admit right now, in one of the Mina-and-Lucy letters sections it's less interesting than what Jonathan Harker is going through, but it's still a good read. 

If I get a little free cash at some point soon I might order their edition of "Frankenstein," which I have never read. (I know it's considerably different to the movie - for example, in the book, not only can the monster speak but he's also fairly voluble.)

* I did get some research done this afternoon, and will run in for a bit tomorrow and do more - I can probably finish up this sampling if I don't faff around. I do also have to do a grocery run (to mart of wal, sad trombone) and a trip out to the field site for next week's lab and also I am filling in for the minister this week so I need to go to the church and practice my message (I do it infrequently enough that I would not be comfortable doing it "cold," and also sometimes i edit it on the fly as I'm practicing). At least this weekend we get that hour back - we go back to Standard Time

* and I know a lot of people dislike Standard Time, and I get it, if you don't have to be anywhere early in the day you want that late afternoon sun (heck, I would want it if there were a way to have it without what's an undesirable trade-off for me). I'm glad today was my last day for a few months of driving in at 7 am in near total darkness - it's hazardous because I go past a couple bus stops for the local schools and often parents don't or can't supervise their kids who are waiting, and some of the kids are careless, or outright malicious (I once had a kid who was playing "chicken" - running out in the street - and I just stopped and glared at them until they got bored with waiting, and then I moved on). And I nearly didn't see  a person in dark clothing walking in the street up by campus. (This is one of those things I had impressed on me as a kid: if you're out in the dark waiting for the bus, stand out of the street - it's possible at all the stops I pass - and if you are walking wear something reflective or at least light colored)