Things:

Good:

*crock pots! with dinner in!
*fake buttermilk bread (with yogurt & milk)
*fun quilt block swaps & things on craftster
*toothpick city! (remember the origami one from a while back? This is even crazier, and with better pictures...)
*Sherwood Smith is posting Journeymage Wren in chapter installments online. You should still read the first 3 books first, though.
*and a very interesting collection/essay on pretending things in real life. I don't know that I agree with his breakdown of games & pseudo-games, but it's fascinating to think about. Also some of the links & videos are pretty cool. (I want a garden railway now...) (and see also the upcoming 3D mailbox: zombie edition What?)
*I have rediscovered the joys of etudes, although I'm not yet up to tackling third position. Also, after a few days of being tuned, my violin is back to staying pretty close to in tune from day to day. Still need to replace some strings, and find somewhere to re-hair the bows, though.
*have replaced the toilet flap so it doesn't leak slowly (the old one was very dead) and done several other house-related tasks
*going to see The Grand Duke tonight, plus further exciting weekend plans.


Less good:

*the fact that I've been unable to find buttermilk at the grocery store (not sure if I'm looking in the wrong place, or it's not there)
*MUST SAND STAIR RISERS!!! (ugh. the sander screams at me.) I'm also seriously tempted to tape a line part-way up the wide trim on the sides of the stairs and just paint it bi-colored. This is probably a bad idea.
*must not craft or read books, etc, until stairs are sanded & probably painted.
*have long to-do list of house-related cleaning & stuff.

Still not sanded

The stairs remain only marginally sanded since the sander head in the multi-tool I borrowed from my father de-laminated itself & fell off. I have now glued it back together, and we shall see if that works at all when it dries.

Meanwhile, a few pictures:

( snow recap, and a few dolls )