this sparks joy

 A week or more ago, I spent some "silly money" -I bought an expensive thing I didn't strictly need, which maybe isn't prudent in a time of rising food prices and the possibility of high inflation coming.

 

but it was something I had wanted since I heard it was being made, and anyway....sometimes things that make you happy are good.

 

It's a gigantic (like, 30" tall) plushie of Discord from My Little Pony - officially licensed and all (no fakies!) made by Symbiote Studios. I admit I was leery of ordering having been burned by ANOTHER site selling plushies earlier this year, where I had to do a chargeback on my card after they charged it, never sent the thing, and did not respond to multiple e-mails and FB contacts with them.

But Symbiote is solid, it looks like - acknowledged my order right away, a couple days later said it had shipped. It got hung up a couple days in Dallas, but that's USPS' fault, not Symbiote's

Well, it finally came today, as I was grading exams. I took a break to get up and grab the package off my porch (I was at home)

At first I wondered if if was smaller than I was told because the bag was fairly small, but when I opened it, he was all pretzeled up in there:

 He expands to be BIG. He's made out of minky - not the plushest I've seen, but certainly nice quality - and he has wires inside for posing/to hold him upright. (He's still pretty noodly though)

 He is very cuddly because he's basically a big noodle as I said, and is fairly softly stuffed (also, I look at this photo of me and cringe a bit, I look like my dad in the face more and more every day , it seems. It might be partly the angle making my face look fatter than it actually is)

 And yes, he is nice to hug

 

I had thought while he was still in transit "maybe I should knit a little sweater for him" but it might be hard to make one with sleeves big enough for his lion paw and eagle claw without it being too large (and it would have to be a cardigan, a pullover wouldn't go over his head.

Or maybe I just knit him a scarf as winter gets closer. I think he'd look good in a scarf.

He's also fun to pose - he's big enough he can sit at my piano:

He's large enough that he can sit on the bench and still reach the keys!