O Canada

I've always been partial to Canada. Yep, the whole country. Sounds silly, does it? Well, so be it. I used to root for the Canadiens when Ken Dryden was their goalie. I loved going to Montreal with my family when we made our field trips to Jarry Park to see my dad's favorite baseball team, the St. Louis Cardinals, play the now defunct Montreal Expos. A good portion of my dissertation focuses on Canadian women writers. I have dear friends in several Canadian provinces. And as if that weren't already an embarrassment of riches, today I got a prize package all the way from British Columbia, full of the most wonderful stuff. Above, you can see the lovely washcloth and soap sack, containing cranberry sage soap. You can see 2 skeins of French blue pima cotton. You can see knitting needles (wood, which I love), and delightful glass bead stitch markers (one is already in use), and postcards of Vancouver Island, and a lovely card from (blogless) Raveler Cluxewe -- a fellow member of clan Fraser in the Outlander swap. This was a prize package, mind you, not the official swap package. Isn't that just great? A nice bunch, these Outlander fans. Now I definitely think I'll make it to Thanksgiving from here (the countdown is on--we're out for break 2 weeks from yesterday at 3:00 p.m. One of my colleagues has already opined that the school year is over.) If I didn't already think that most things Canadian are the bees' knees, I would now. Thank you, Cluxewe! You are amazing.

In other news, tonight I took my advisees out to dinner. They're nice girls and we had fun, but I have to say that I'm annoyed by texting at the dinner table, no matter how cool one's phone may be. Now I'm home, and I am done working until tomorrow.