We’re having an interesting day, weather-wise:

Look what my friend Chelsea made for me!! I’d posted on FB about @hankgreen.bsky.social’s “no effort is wasted” video and what I wrote really connected with Chelsea and now I have this awesome cross-stitch!! (I was planning to embroider the phrase on something and maybe still will!)

Saw Hank Green talking about his new game so I decided to try it and it’s fun! I think maybe I was supposed to select the shared word first every time?

Just have to share the joy I felt upon discovering that I could fit my book club book (we’re reading “Enshittification”) in the giant pockets of my Studio Tunic for my 2+ mile walk to the park where we met this afternoon. Felt so silly proud in my homemade tunic with a book in the pocket!

Made myself practice. (Please clap?)

I finished the green Wardie today!! Now it just needs to dry post-blocking so I can sew the buttons on. Just in time for it to actually warm up outside, ha! (It’ll get plenty of wear next school year.)

I’m not entirely sure what people would or wouldn’t expect…like, IS it surprising to learn that I was once a competitive marathon runner? (Grainy photo from my first marathon, age 19.)

A very happy (and handsome!) Hocus, basking in the sunshine.

Today it’s >60F in our offices in the WSAP. It’s a “heating issue that will take time to fix.” I’m just straight-up working with my coat on this morning. At least I wore my handwarmers that are easier to type in! Here’s hoping my classrooms are warmer, at least!

Wrapped in a blanket because after a day in a freezing cold office, I can’t warm up, but hey, I managed an almost-clean recording of this little Bourée by Krieger that I’m learning, so that’s neat!

And now it’s 64F. Thank goodness for my “office blanket” (actually a worsted weight wool shawl) and wool mitts!

Went to put on my linen dress this morning and discovered this under the left armhole. Advice? I’m a very curious and interested total newbie when it comes to mending. I do have some of this fabric leftover, which I hope helps? But anyway, advise me, wise people!

Between getting the full rainbow set of @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social books and Orbán losing, it’s been a pretty good 43rd birthday today!

Just got the announcement about kiddo’s 8th grade semi-formal dance, and y’all, they’ll have a sensory-sensitive room with quiet crafts and OMG, I’m both happy for and jealous of my kid.

So this photo is basically a Tom Bihn ad, but I was just really tickled by how nicely my frozen burrito fit in the bottom pocket of my Synik 22. (Extra long on-campus day = need dinner as well as lunch!)

My walk from parking lot to office now includes a section where I get to walk atop a narrow wall to avoid the giant lake that is forming at the campus end of the pedestrian bridge over Elmwood. Fun! At least it wasn’t actively pouring at the time.

My kid’s sign for today’s No Kings is the same sign she made for the first protest we went to during this administration, about a year ago. Sad that it’s such an evergreen and necessary reminder.

Lunchtime high of 70F yesterday, then spending 10 minutes chipping our car out of its icy shell while getting blasted in the face with blowing snow in -7F windchills this morning. Oh, March.

I took a class at SewGreen (local fiber arts thrift store/community space) this morning and learned how to sew a little zippered pouch! It was fun!

The wider world is a disaster, but exciting new book + a lap full of Focus (the cat) is making my tiny corner of it feel pretty great right now.

It’s a nothing-but-Wardie sort of conference! And I realized that ALL of my colorful Wardies (the magenta one I have on today AND the turquoise one I finished not so long ago AND this green one I’m knitting) actually go well with this skirt!!

On my second Greyhound bus of the day (this one’s nicer than the first), on my way to CCCC ‘26, knitting a Wardie cardigan while wearing a Wardie cardigan.

I love your colors!! My sweater and hair ties today match your pants :)

Left my hair down today; pretty sure it’s the first time I’ve taught with my hair down in a full year! (I’m finally through the most awkward part of the grow-out, so I’m happy to have the option, though I still plan to lean mostly on braids for containment.)

Turns out that tiny hats don’t take very long to knit!

Because I’m a ridiculous person who needs to keep their hands busy, Sven is getting a Melt The ICE hat of his own.

Cold day = snuggly sisters.

I don’t know why this piece feels so good to play but it just soothes me, and maybe it can soothe you too? It’s the Adagio by Shteibelt that my piano teacher taught me and I just think it’s so beautiful. And I needed the soothing today.

We gave kiddo the Procreate Dreams app for her birthday and this is the first animation she created: a birthday cake whose candles burn out. It delights me so much!! (She showed me all the things she did to create it and I understood almost none of it!)

This little piece came home with a note from her art teacher imploring her to keep taking art classes when she moves up into high school next year, saying that she’s “astoundingly talented”She’s really amazing at blending colors…her stuff just glows somehow, and I don’t know how she does it!